Drahim honey: beekeeping in the Drahim starostwo and five varieties under a protected name

Drahim honey comes from four municipalities of the Drawsko Lakeland and can be sold in five varieties: buckwheat, rapeseed, heather, linden and multifloral. Beekeeping in the Drahim starostwo is described by sources from the 16th century, and the name has been protected in the EU since 2011.

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Drahim honey (miód drahimski) is a regional beekeeping product from the Drawsko Lakeland. The name comes from Drahim, the former name of today's Stare Drawsko, where a castle of the starostas stood from the end of the 14th century. The product was placed on the Polish list of traditional products in 2006, and in 2011 it was registered as a Protected Geographical Indication.

The beekeepers of the Drahim starostwo

According to Wikipedia, as early as the 16th century beekeeping in the Drawa Forest developed intensively in the Polish starostwo of Drahim. The starostwo was established in 1366 by Casimir III the Great, and the starostas of Drahim sat in Drahim Castle in Stare Drawsko from 1407 to 1668. Today the castle is a Gothic ruin.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, describing the product, cites data from historical sources: in the starostwo and its surroundings there were eleven beekeepers, and each of them gave half a log of honey a year to Drahim. More than nine hundred bee colonies gathered nectar in the Drawa Forest. The ministry notes that beekeeping was for centuries one of the traditional occupations of the local population.

Where the nectar comes from: heathland, lindens and fields

Wikipedia lists the factors that favoured beekeeping: large heathlands, numerous avenues of lime trees, crops of rapeseed and buckwheat, and in time also the black locust brought from North America. The ministry describes the area as lying within the Drawa Landscape Park, with heathlands, avenues of old lindens, locust groves and crops of rapeseed and buckwheat.

According to a study of traditional products of the voivodeship, cited by Wikipedia, the honey is characterised by a high content of reducing sugars and of leading pollen, and by the presence of pollen from relict and endemic plants.

Five varieties and four municipalities

Five varieties of honey can be sold under the name Drahim honey:

buckwheat,
rapeseed,
heather,
linden,
multifloral.

According to Wikipedia and the traditional products portal, they come from apiaries in the municipalities of Czaplinek, Wierzchowo, Barwice and Borne Sulinowo and the Borne Sulinowo Forest District. Producers use a uniform design of labels and packaging, and the producers' group is the Association of Producers of Drahim Honey (Stowarzyszenie Producentów Miody Drahimskie), based in Czaplinek.

The ministry points out that Drahim is the original name of the village of Stare Drawsko, and local beekeeping has a tradition of several centuries. According to Wikipedia the product is characteristic of Drawsko and Szczecinek counties.

Dates of registration and awards

Drahim honey was entered on the list of traditional products on 1 June 2006, as Wikipedia and the ministry agree. Wikipedia dates its registration as a Protected Geographical Indication by the European Commission to 14 June 2011, and the traditional products portal gives June 2011.

In 2003 the honey took first place in the Poznań competition Our Culinary Heritage - Tastes of the Regions (Nasze Kulinarne Dziedzictwo - Smaki Regionów) in the category of products of animal origin. Wikipedia assigns the Pearl award in this competition to the year 2008, and the traditional products portal to 2007, so the two publications differ by a year.