Tupelo Honey Festival

May 21, 2005

Wewahitchka's 13th Annual Tupelo Honey Festival located on Lake Alice.  Come help celebrate nature's sweetest harvest.

For more than a century Wewahitchka area residents have been gathering Tupelo (quite possibly the world's finest honey) in the Apalachicola River basin. Each spring the northern Gulf County community of Wewahitchka holds a Tupelo Festival. Volunteers hand out "sweet on you" stickers and Tupelo samples to festival attendees. The agricultural extension office and 4-H club provide pamphlets and everyone has a delightful down-home time beneath the canopy of oak trees at Lake Alice Park in "Wewa."  Arts, crafts, food and entertainment from 9:30 am to 3:30 pm central time. Free. 850- 639-2338.

Generations of Wewahitchka (the name mean's watery eyes) area residents and other Forgotten Coast families have been involved in the gathering of Tupelo for more than a century and their unique occupation and product were the subject of an award-winning movie entitled "Ulee's Gold."  It's one of the shortest "harvesting" seasons known to mankind.   For only about a 14-day period in late April and/or early May, Florida's Forgotten Coast beekeepers traipse the swampy edges of the Apalachicola River basin in quest of a highly coveted golden nectar known as Tupelo Honey.  Tupelo is produced from the Tupelo gum tree that blossoms in the spring of the year.

The Forgotten Coast is the only region of the country in which the sweet, non-granulating nectar is commercially harvested.
One trip to the harvesting "fields" will tell you why. Bees are placed on elevated platforms along the river's edge. Expensive labor and equipment are necessary in order to access these locations. The coveted "white Tupelo" season is preceded by the blooming of such "bakery grade" honey plants as willow, ti-ti, black gum and black tupelo. Bee colony strength and stores are built up during this period.
But then the hives must be purged of all other types of honey at the beginning of the "white tupelo" gathering period. Apiarists also must insure that the hive doors are shut to any other type of honey deposits during this prime harvesting period so that the results are "Certified Tupelo."  Real Tupelo is light amber in color and light golden with a greenish cast. The flavor is distinctive and delicious and will not granulate. "You're as Sweet as Tupelo Honey," a popular Van Morrison musical hit of yesteryear, was a tribute to the appeal of the popular taste treat.

Tupelo is also a big "hit" among some diabetic patients, who have been permitted by their physicians to consume the all - natural nectar. The average Tupelo analysis is 44.03% levulose and 29.98% dextrose.

Because the gathering of "pure" Tupelo is both labor intensive and a fine science, it can not be gathered in massive quantities. Therefore it carries a slightly higher price tag than other types of Mother Nature's "natural sweetener." But that doesn't bother honey connoisseurs around the world. They recognize that Tupelo not only tastes good - it's good for you.