Honey: sweet but not so basic

[mountainpete]

Hi,

Yes, this is a topic about honey. That lowly product that comes from that certain bee orifice which is usually only seen as a spat on the windscreen.

Strangely, I've taken an interest in honey this past few months. No, I don't want to be a bee keeper or cover my house in yellow and black paint, but I started to explore some the different worldwide flavors of honey from around the world. It's pretty darn amazing!

If you go back to expeditions of old, honey was often a staple because it simply doesn't go bad. If you had tea, honey, flour and clean water you could survive comfortably. I think it's about time that it gets a more prominent place in contemporary travel.

I had a chance to get my hands on Desert Blossom honey - a dark, rich honey from Arizona and another dark, smokey honey from Australia (don't have the name anymore). I've enjoyed them both and they are readily available here from an importer at the local farmers market. Orange blossom and Raspberry blossom were good too, but I like the darker honeys better.

The flavours are so rich compared to the normal store-bought honey. It's like the difference between Guinness and Bud light.

There is nothing like some warm Damper Bread or similar drizzled with a dark honey.

Am I alone?

Pete

 

[BruceNP]

Hi,

Yes, this is a topic about honey. That lowly product that comes from that certain bee orifice which is usually only seen as a spat on the windscreen.

Strangely, I've taken an interest in honey this past few months. No, I don't want to be a bee keeper or cover my house in yellow and black paint, but I started to explore some the different worldwide flavors of honey from around the world. It's pretty darn amazing!

If you go back to expeditions of old, honey was often a staple because it simply doesn't go bad. If you had tea, honey, flour and clean water you could survive comfortably. I think it's about time that it gets a more prominent place in contemporary travel.

I had a chance to get my hands on Desert Blossom honey - a dark, rich honey from Arizona and another dark, smokey honey from Australia (don't have the name anymore). I've enjoyed them both and they are readily available here from an importer at the local farmers market. Orange blossom and Raspberry blossom were good too, but I like the darker honeys better.

The flavours are so rich compared to the normal store-bought honey. It's like the difference between Guinness and Bud light.

There is nothing like some warm Damper Bread or similar drizzled with a dark honey.

Am I alone?

Pete

Nope, I use honey as a staple and as one of my main sweeteners. As you travel around, particularly up in the Oregon/Washington area, you should find some places selling Mead too. (basically just Water, Honey and Yeast), but with some other subtle flavorings added in. It could be a varietal honey, or spiced with cinnamon, flowers or fruits.

Honey is good in your morning coffee, great in a cup of tea, makes really good bread ... I use it as a staple adding a touch of sweetness when I'm making a BBQ sauce. Virtually unlimited, doesn't require refrigeration (it may crystalize, but put it in a pan of warm water for a few minutes and its fine).

Love it.

 

[Haggis]

When we were kids we use to go on bee hunts with my Grandpa and Grandma. My grandmother would follow a honey bee or a flight of 'em back to the honey tree (Pooh's theme song is starting in my head.. Winnie the Pooh, Winnie the Pooh, chubby litlle cubby...) and when she found it the call would come for us to go on a honey harvest. It was usually my dads job to smoke 'em out then fall the tree so as to be able to hull the bole to get to the honey. The rest of us would harvest the comb than take it back to process. My Dad raises bee's from time to time and though the honey is great that honey from those bee trees always seemed better. Maybe that's just nostalgia. But man that honey was the best right from the hive, especially if the clover was in bloom at the farm. I've got alot of fond memories of the funny antics that happened on those hunts on my Grandparent's farm. I sure do miss those old folks.

 

[greybrick]

If travelling in the Alberta Peace country, stop in at Falher, 'Honey Capitol of Canada',...some interesting products available there such as granulated honey and large quantities of beeswax to keep the hut warm.

.

 

[vdeal]

First time poster here. I too am a fan of honey and always thought that it also came from a certain bee orifice but I have found that I was wrong. Here is how honey is actually made (yes I copied this from the web but have seen this info in several places now):

Honeybees use nectar to make honey. Nectar is almost 80% water with some complex sugars. In fact, if you have ever pulled a honeysuckle blossom out of its stem, nectar is the clear liquid that drops from the end of the blossom. In North America, bees get nectar from flowers like clovers, dandelions, berry bushes and fruit tree blossoms. They use their long, tubelike tongues like straws to suck the nectar out of the flowers and they store it in their "honey stomachs". Bees actually have two stomachs, their honey stomach which they use like a nectar backpack and their regular stomach. The honey stomach holds almost 70 mg of nectar and when full, it weighs almost as much as the bee does. Honeybees must visit between 100 and 1500 flowers in order to fill their honeystomachs.

The honeybees return to the hive and pass the nectar onto other worker bees. These bees suck the nectar from the honeybee's stomach through their mouths. These "house bees" "chew" the nectar for about half an hour. During this time, enzymes are breaking the complex sugars in the nectar into simple sugars so that it is both more digestible for the bees and less likely to be attacked by bacteria while it is stored within the hive. The bees then spread the nectar throughout the honeycombs where water evaporates from it, making it a thicker syrup. The bees make the nectar dry even faster by fanning it with their wings. Once the honey is gooey enough, the bees seal off the cell of the honeycomb with a plug of wax. The honey is stored until it is eaten. In one year, a colony of bees eats between 120 and 200 pounds of honey.


So, now we all know. Makes the product seem even more magical. Here in WV we have the regular clover honey but a regional speciality is a very dark, almost black buckwheat honey. I once used this to make a fabulous buckwheat porter. Good memories there.

 

[TheGillz]

This may be wives tale because I haven't tried it but may soon as my alergies seem to be getting worse, but I hear that if you eat alot of local (to you) honey, you will get an immunity to the pollen alergies that can plague us as you are basically ingesting the products of those local flora and it helps you not bee (hehe) so alergic...can this be confermed scientifically?

 

[7wt]

This may be wives tale because I haven't tried it but may soon as my alergies seem to be getting worse, but I hear that if you eat alot of local (to you) honey, you will get an immunity to the pollen alergies that can plague us as you are basically ingesting the products of those local flora and it helps you not bee (hehe) so alergic...can this be confermed scientifically?

Interesting. What's the worst that could happen?

 

[calamaridog]

I've never tried a type of honey I didn't like.

 

[Connie]

Originally posted by TheGillz
This may be wives tale because I haven't tried it but may soon as my alergies seem to be getting worse, but I hear that if you eat alot of local (to you) honey, you will get an immunity to the pollen alergies that can plague us as you are basically ingesting the products of those local flora and it helps you not bee (hehe) so alergic...can this be confermed scientifically?

I do think it helps. I always buy alfalfa honey (because that's what my specific allergy is to), and the most local that I can get and I have a lot fewer allergy problems than I used to. My allergy was not nearly as bad as many people have so the result may have been more dramatic than is typical.

Certainly not scientific proof, but like 7wt says, "What's the worst that could happen?"

 

[kcowyo]

Neat-o honey factoid -

I was told years ago in a wilderness survival training class that one of the very best things you can carry in a survival pack is a film canister filled with raw honey. It keeps forever and in a survival situation, it can be heated with water for a drink that can help stave off hypothermia. The nutrients and whatever else is in honey can keep the body going in dire times.

So bring some honey when you're out & about.


:campfire:

 

[Lost Canadian]

Next to dark chocolate, bread and honey with a tall glass of milk is my favorite way to satisfy a sweet tooth. Family friends of ours own a honey farm and meadery. I hear their mead is good, not a fan of mead personally, but the honey sure is good.
Munro honey

 

[RHINO]

what a good and less talked about topic, i also am a fan of honey, use it for alot of things.

mountain pete, try mesquite honey, if you cant find it lemme know and i'll send ya some.

 

[DaktariEd]

Interesting. What's the worst that could happen?

Well, in theory, you could have an anaphylactic reaction to it and die. :yikes:
But that really is worst-case...if you are severely allergic.

But I love honey also...especially local varieties as some have pointed out.

 

[calamaridog]

I hear their mead is good, not a fan of mead personally, but the honey sure is good.

Try the mead as a marinade for chicken. Something like this:

1 cup mead
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
sea salt
cracked pepper
rosemary

Marinate chicken pieces overnight then grill:campfire:

 

[spressomon]

Long before energy bars existed we would take along, on our bike rides, a mixture of honey and peanut butter...spread between a halved bagel: Great!

Honey is also a natural aid for indigestion. Try a tablespoon of raw honey next time you eat too much spicy food!