Half the comb

Grace Anyango's hives hang in the mango trees at the edge of her plot. She takes half the comb and leaves the rest.

This is not sentiment. A hive stripped bare in a poor year absconds — the colony simply leaves and does not come back. Half a harvest from a hive that stays is more honey over five years than a full harvest from a hive that goes.

The honey is never heated and never filtered beyond a cloth, which is why it crystallises in the jar and why the colour changes from one season to the next depending on what was flowering. We do not correct for that. There is nothing to correct.