Southall Farm’s Wildflower Honey Named a Good Food Award Winner

Southall, one of Tennessee’s most innovative and sustainable farms, will unveil its extensive grounds along with a luxury inn, spa, and cottages in 2021, but its apiary and its 4 million bees are already being recognized as a key player in the larger agricultural and native biome.

The Good Food Foundation, known for its dedication to the elevation and continued reform of American food culture, has named Southall Farm’s Wildflower Honey a winner of the 2020 Good Food Awards in the honey category. Dedicated to the ethical production of clean, healthy food, the Good Food Awards showcase honeys most distinctive in clarity and depth of flavor, produced by beekeepers practicing good animal husbandry and social responsibility.

“We’re a little different in that we don’t harvest until July, so we capture the flavor profiles of a full season’s worth of nectars. Our great spring weather last year delivered an incredible bloom – the black locust, tulip poplar and basswood all just exploded. The team at Southall has planted hundreds of native trees and shrubs, while maintaining plenty of wildflowers for the bees. It’s just a perfect scenario for making amazing honey.”

Southall’s award-winning Wildflower Honey offers a mild sweetness, followed by a fruity middle and a sweet finish, complements of the late basswood nectar. Each of the colonies makes 30 to 60 pounds of honey per season – to capture a well-defined single bloom’s flavor, but due to risks from storms and other factors that could potentially leave the bees starving for honey to feed on, a July harvest allows for them to wind down while building plenty of stock to survive the winter.

The Good Food Foundation is committed to fostering land stewardship and cultivating social good. From a blind tasting of 2,035 entries, 324 outstanding food and drink crafters rose to the top, after evaluation to confirm they meet Good Food Awards standards regarding supply chain transparency and environmentally sound agricultural practices. Of the 16 finalists in the honey category from states ranging from Hawaii to Massachusetts, Southall’s wildflower honey was the only finalist and winner from Tennessee. The highest scoring entries underwent a rigorous vetting process to verify they were not only exceptionally tasty but met the sustainability and social responsibility criteria required to become a Good Food Award winner.

Southall’s award-winning honey is available seasonally for purchase at The Farm Stand, a specially curated retail space located on-property at Southall in Franklin, Tenn.