This is the million dollar question and I'm going to give you the best ways based on my experience depending on what is most important to you.
Best Quality Local Honey
If you are looking to find the best quality local raw honey check out these options below:
Option 1: Find A Local Beekeeper
Pro: Often the freshest most "direct from the beekeeper" quality honey.
Con: Can be a lot of information to sift through and will involve making phone calls or writing emails since most small beekeepers don't have ecommerce websites. Small beekeepers can be unresponsive so you may have to be persistent.
Search google or Facebook for Your City, County or State & "Beekeeping Association" Most beekeeping groups will have some sort of member directory. You can then use this directory to cold call (or cold email) some local beekeepers in search of sweet local golden honey. Sometimes this will involve sifting through many pages on sites that aren't necessarily the easiest to navigate.
When emailing local beekeepers be prepared to bee ignored. Most local beekeepers are hobbyists who have full time jobs and families and may just not get around to responding. If you find yourself frustrated already and you haven't even begun I would recommend one of the other options:
Option 2: Find A Local Honey Company
Pro: Support small business and shop in person or order online from a local company.
Con: Not all local honey companies sell local honey. I know that seems like an odd distinction but you will find that many local companies will bring in honey from other beekeepers possibly in other states to be able to keep up with demand.
Search Google for your city, county or state and "Honey Farm"
This will help you find the local honey companies but not all of them will be winners either.
Option 3: Buy High Quality Raw Honey Online
Pro: The convenience of shopping online and having delivered to your door while enjoying a high quality raw honey
Con: Most likely won't be local and may require some trial and error to find the best quality raw honey.
This is the simplest option to find high quality honey. And we already have a list of companies you should try. These are not affiliate links or paid recommendations.
These are genuine we-think-you-should-try-them companies.
Our Top Picks!
We are proud supporters of the buy local movement and producers of delicious, pure raw honey from Northern Utah. Honeyville is an ideal place to gather honey. Because of Utah’s desert climate, the moisture content of our honey is very low, making it more sugar dense. It is deliciously sweet.
Our bees roam the vast, high-mountain forage lands of Idaho, Montana and Western Wyoming to produce a sunny-colored Clover Honey with a delicate, mildly sweet flavor. Our Honey comes to you as if “Mother Nature Bottled it Herself”, retaining all the delicate vitamins, pollen, propolis and live enzymes with no artificial colors, flavors or filler ingredients like fructose, agave, or corn syrup. Our Honey has no chemicals, additives, antibiotics, pesticides, herbicides, or pollutants and has not been cooked, pasteurized, altered, or modified in any way.
After working in the food and agricultural industry for nearly 20 years, owners and creators Dustin and Grace, have learned a thing or two about taste. The pair of foodies discovered each other in 2004, and soon realized they had found love at first bite. After being blessed with two beautiful children, their heart melting munchkins solidified their mission: create wholesome meals that not only taste great, but are also healthy for their family and the environment.
TJO Bees is based out of southwest North Dakota with bee yards in Grant and Morton county.
Our honey comes from the sweet clover, alfalfa, and wildflowers that are predominant in southwest North Dakota. It is always bottled pure, raw, and unfiltered. In early spring we provide almond pollination
We are just another Texas family wanting to make a difference. Well, ok, we have a few more kids than the average perhaps! But we want our kids to grow up knowing that our actions matter, that helping others is ALWAYS the best way, and that they can actually make a difference in this world.