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Pollination Fast Facts
edition (2007), page 321: "Honey bees make honey
from nectar, a plant product. Nectar is a mixture of
water, sugars, plant pigments, and related materials that
serve to attract bees to flowers...The change from
nectar to honey involves the removal of water and the
addition of two enzymes that change the major sugars in
the nectar...The National Honey Board approved a
definition of honey. "Honey is the substance made
when the nectar and sweet deposits from plants are
gathered, modified and stored in the honeycomb by
honey bees. The definition of honey stipulates a pure
product that does not allow for the addition of any
other substance. This includes, but is not limited to,
water or other sweeteners." More formal and legally
binding descriptions of honey are available, and honey
continues to be more closely defined...an international
standard definition for honey was being prepared.
Once this has been completed, honey everywhere will
be able to be defined without argument."
about the oldest sweetener in the world. There
are cave paintings of people robbing bees of
their honey. Eva Crane's A Book of Honey has
some beautiful reproductions of some of these
drawings. People paid taxes in honey and
beeswax during the Middle Ages and often
tithed or even willed their honey, wax, or hives
to their church.
Today, honey is a minor commodity on the
world market, produced in nearly every country
for local and international consumption. The
US is one of the major honey producers in the
world, along with Argentina, Canada, China,
and Mexico. The US Department of
Agriculture keeps statistics on the amount of
honey the US produces each year, to look at
them click HERE.
moisture; more than that and it will
ferment. The flavor and color are due
to the plants that the bees gathered the
nectar from. The color and flavor of a
type of honey can vary from region to
region and even year to year for the
same region, very much like wine. In
A Book of Honey, Eva Crane notes
that no two honeys are the same,
depending on not only the plant nectar
but the soil, weather, and other factors.
Most wildflower honey sold in stores
is a blend of various honeys from
sources all over the world. The goal
there is to have a consistent flavor in
a safe, long-lasting product. The
brand of honey you buy in California
will taste just like the same brand of
honey you buy in Florida or Maine.
Specialty honey (like orange blossom,
tupelo, or sourwood, as examples) is
harder to produce, involving more
intense work in the apiary. The
beekeeper has to keep a close eye on
the plant he/she wants their bees to
collect nectar from. When the bloom
hits, the beekeeper must put clean,
empty supers on the hives for the bees
to put the nectar into. When the bloom
is done and the honey is ripe and
capped, the beekeeper takes the
supers back off and extracts the honey
to process for sale. The amount of
work involved is why specialty honey
costs more than wildflower honey.
Dark honey has a stronger flavor than
light honey - most beekeepers like
dark honey as do honey connoisseurs.
mean it is bad, you just have to warm it up a bit
to turn it back into a liquid. Put the jar into a
pan of warm (not boiling!) water for a while. If
you overheat honey you spoil the flavor. Honey
burns very easily, this is why when you cook
with honey you use a lower temperature and
must expect a darker gold color for your bread
or cake or whatever. A window that gets the
morning sunshine is a great place to keep a jar
of honey. In some places the afternoon sun is
too warm to leave honey in the window without
altering the flavor, so check your window
before leaving your honey in it, just to be safe.
You must keep honey in a container with a fairly
tight lid. Honey is "hygroscopic," meaning that
it will absorb moisture from the air around it. If
the moisture content rises above 18.6% the
honey will start to ferment. If you live in the
desert, your honey may lose moisture, getting
very thick or even forming a film over its
surface.
well deserved. It is naturally antibacterial,
contains trace minerals and vitamins, and the
pollen in natural raw honey is said to help with
allergy symptoms. HOney is loaded with
B-complex vitamins and anti-oxidants. There is a
lot of research going on right now about honey and
its properties, says Dr. Calhoun, health and
nutrition expert from Clemson SC. Some things
that have been discovered about honey are:
honey increases calcium absorbtion
can help prevent anemia
helps with arthritis
fights colds and allergies
helps with insomnia
helps wounds heal faster
helps with many eye problems
doesn't spike blood sugar like refined sugar does
Some sites to look at some of the research going on
is:
www.newstarget.com
www.manukahoney.co.uk/researcharticles.html
bio.waikato.ac.nz/honey/contents.shtml
Canadian On-line pharmacy
Health benefits of raw honey
Medical News Today
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etc. the WebWitch