Honey bees in the Barnet locality are among the many beneficiaries of the numerous parks, open spaces and the fields and woods in the Green Belt land that encircles much of the town.

Such is the wide range of flowers, hedgerow plants and trees that the honey produced locally is varied in colour and flavour and the variation adds to the challenge when judging entries at the annual show of the Barnet and District Beekeepers Association.

Senior judge Fiona Dickson (left) of the British Beekeepers Association – seen above with the honey show secretary Linda Perry – said one downside of having bees that can forage over such a wide range of flowers is that it can sometimes produce honey on the verge of crystallisation.

Holding up jars to the light illustrates the difference between a honey that is clear and another showing signs of incipient granulation – when the content of glucose is greater than the content of fructose.

Ms Dickson said the overall winning entry, from the medium liquid honey category, was easily the clearest, had good taste, was well presented, and showed no signs of crystallisation.

“Judging in Barnet is different from some localities because there is such a great variation in the types of flowers and trees, and this produces interesting, varied honey.

“Honey from some flowers – like oil seed rape – is susceptible to incipient granulation.”

The show entry which was most captivated Ms Dickson was in the baked cakes and biscuits category.

First prize went to Jacqueline Young for her honey biscuits which were decorated with pollen. “The presentation of the biscuits was striking, very original, and a clear winner.”

Entries at this year’s show were up on last year when support was restricted because of the Covid.19 epidemic and unseasonal summer weather.

Another bonus for the beekeepers was weeks on end of warm sunny weather.

“We are very encouraged by the turn out this year,” said Linda Perry.