The Magic of Manuka

If you had asked me what Manuka was a year ago I’d have had no idea. To be honest, even after joining the local beekeeping association it was only mentioned when the Trading Standards Officer paid us a visit to discuss honey labeling.  A quick look around the local supermarket and I was blown away - £6+ for a simple jar of honey ... but what is the magic of this stuff?

Manuka Flower

My simple research has shown that traditionally New Zealand's active Manuka honey is used as a natural product both internally and topically on the skin. Apitherapy, the name given to treatment with natural honey, has been used by many different cultures throughout history. Such uses are now being reconsidered by a modern world in light of new research into the properties and uses of active manuka honey.

Manuka honey comes from New Zealand where beekeepers set up their hives in wild uncultivated areas in which Manuka bushes grow. The bees gather nectar from the flowers of the Manuka bush, which is indigenous only to New Zealand. The honey making process is enriched by the pollution free environment of New Zealand, and certain harvests of Manuka Honey have attracted the gaze of the medical and scientific community. Some of the Manuka Honey produced has been found to have some very special properties indeed. The honey is supposed to have strong anti-bacterial, but also fungicidal, skin regenerating , soothing to skin nerves, anti-inflammatory, anti rheumatic, itchiness relieving and anti-allergic characteristics. So good stuff then !

So what triggered my interest in Manuka at the end of my first season as a beekeeper? Well, a good friend of mine that has emigrated to New Zealand emailed me recently after reading the blog to tell me he is now keen to have a go at keeping bees as he has a paddock with several acres of Manuka ! To say I was a little jealous is an understatement. So I decided to find out if I could grow it here ..

I’ve found that Manuka can grow in many parts of the world apart from New Zealand.  Anywhere with a temperate to Mediterranean climate & acid to neutral soil & it will thrive. Manuka is the Maori name for the shrub Leptospermum scoparium, a beautiful evergreen ericaceous shrub also commonly known as the tea tree. The plant looks a bit like heather but the flowers are small and pink, and grows up to 8ft high, but generally shrubby-like. Manuka Bush With the average temperature in the UK having risen by 1°C since 1900, and expected to increase 5°C further by 2080, the type of foods we can produce in the UK suddenly look quite different. The growing season for plants has lengthened by about a month since 1900, soil and sea temperatures are slightly higher, and fewer frosts mean that species that never used to survive the winter are now able to do so. The main area of cultivation in the UK at present is an estate in Cornwall who appear to be charging £30 a jar for their Manuka honey which appears to only have 3% of Manuka in the blend to be marketed – I should add that this is as reported on many of the forums and is unsubstantiated.    Interestingly A Maori group from New Zealand last year was trying to stop the Cornish estate from marketing ‘Manuka Honey’. The Maori wanted to claim some of their profits, or get them stopped from growing the Manuka bush in the UK so that they could not make Manuka honey.  The owner of the business  in the UK was shown on New Zealand television in an interview, where he said:  “OK – we’ll give you back your New Zealand manuka bushes if you’ll give us back our European honey bee.”  And then he grinned.   Because the European honey bee is an IMPORT to New Zealand, and without it, New Zealand cannot make any honey at all, let alone the ‘Therapeutic Manuka Honey’. So next year I shall try and plant a small bed of Manuka just out of principle to see what happens in the following years ..