Honey

Hunter + Gatherer’s Honey

I watched a TV special series on The History of Food, offered on the Curiosity Channel, that featured the Hadzabe. This is an indigenous ethnic group, according to Wikipedia, from north-central Tanzania, living around Lake Eyasi in the central Rift Valley and in the neighboring Serengeti Plateau. They are descendants, again according to Wikipedia, of Tanzania’s aboriginal hunter-gatherer population, and are viewed as an example of how our early ancestors probably ate.

• As an aside, this is also a group that has a whistle-based relationship with a type of bird, called the Honeyguide, that leads them to bee hives
• After the humans are done with their collection of honey, the bird gets to eat the wax and larvae

The Hadzabe diet consisted of mainly in-season, high fiber foods (tubers, veggies or berries), with the occasional meat, and the occasional raw honey. The only point I want to make here, is that honey has been a special diet delight for (probably) the length of time we have been human, or even before.

Present Day Honey Use

Honey is a necessary item in my pantry, it has a very long shelf life, it is a natural sweetener with more nutrients than sugar, and also has uses as a first aid “ointment” and cough suppressant. All good things in my book. I have three everyday uses for honey in my kitchen, in priority order:

• I mix 1t honey into my hot Earl Gray tea, along with 1/2 lemon juiced as my morning start
• I use honey in wet rubs for meat and tempeh
• Some of my cooking sauces or marinades call for a bit of honey
• Many recipes call for alt sweeteners, I may use honey

When I do use honey, I am always aware that bees work damn hard to make the food; they travel up to 55k miles, visit 2M+ flowers to make 1# of honey! I am also aware honey has more calories than sugar.

Nutrition:

Raw Honey 1T = 64c, 17k, .1p, 0f 1s
Honey Granules 1T = 47.7c, 14.3k, 0p, 0f, 0s
Creamed Honey 1T = 60c, 17k, 0p, 0f, 0s
Nutrition from Nutritionix

Creating Honey

Watch the video above and you will learn that honey is made from regurgitated flower nectar that is processed and regurgitated multiple times. But do not let that gross you out, it is an amazing and wonderful sticky liquid.

During the initial pollen collection, and multiple regurgitation processes, the nectar is mixed with the various bee’s natural enzymes that change the pH and chemical composition of the eventual honey. They do this so that the honey survives long term storage; remember honey is food for the bees during winter, so it needs to store well.

NationalHoneyBoard: Honey starts as flower nectar collected by bees, which gets broken down into simple sugars stored inside the honeycomb. The design of the honeycomb and constant fanning of the bees’ wings causes evaporation, creating sweet liquid honey. Honey’s color and flavor varies based on the nectar collected by the bees. For example, honey made from orange blossom nectar might be light in color, whereas honey from avocado or wildflowers might have a dark amber color.

Honey Forms

• Raw Honey Comb: Raw honey with a part of the honeycomb is the least processed honey (it may also contain particulates from the hive).
• Raw Honey: Honey that is directly extracted from the comb and generally will have been strained (had particulates removed), but not always.
• Pasteurized Honey: Honey after it has been heated + strained to get rid of bacterial or fungal contaminations, as well as particulates.
• Creamed Honey: Creamed, whipped, or spun honey are created by blending 1:9 finely granulated honey with liquid honey that goes into cool storage to promote granulation. This will produce crystal structures resulting in a creamy butter-like texture.
• Granulated Honey: This is a dried honey product that comes in small, little rounded granules.
• Unifloral: Honey created from bees that drink nectar from a single species of flowers.
• Multifloral: Honey created from bees that drink nectar from many species of flowers.

Honey Varietals

The color, flavor and even aroma of honey differs, based on the flowers the bees are visiting. With hundreds of unique types of honey I am only going to mention the ones I personally know about. The cost per ounce is approximate, but comparisons between them will give you an idea of which are the most expensive.

• Langnese Forest Honey ($1.67/ounce) is my favorite German brand and type of honey. This particular honey is considered a European delicacy; is is dark in color and has a strong, slightly sweet flavor. It is made from nectar taken from “dew” aphids, rather than directly from flowers themselves.
• Lovers Lane Farms ($0.66/ounce) is my go-to everyday honey that is unfiltered, and is a Northern California wild flowers varietal.
• Manuka ($3.96/ounce) is an expensive unifloral honey created from pollen made from the Manuka tree in New Zealand. This honey is uniquely medicinal, it contains methylgloxal which kills bacteria and passes easily into our skin, and the bacterias that may be in a wound. I have bought it once (way too expensive for me), tasted fine but probably would only buy again as part of a first aid kit.
• Acacia ($1.02/.ounce) is lower in sucrose and higher in fructose, a lightly flavored honey.
• Orange blossom ($0.69/ounce) has a slight citrusy taste and color. I like this honey as an iced tea or lemonade sweetener.
• Eucalyptus ($0.50/ounce) is a dark colored, very fragrant, herbal tasting honey. Some swear by its healing properties, others focus on its Eucalyptus toxic nature (1). I have tasted this honey and although I like the smell I did not really like the taste. Have used it when I have a rough throat, in tea, and it seems to help .

To find out what kind of honey is located near you, here is a honey Locator by map and zip code. (It is truly amazing what you can find out on the internet.)

Honey FAQs

• Is honey vegetarian?
  • It is like milk, so if you drink milk or eat milk products you can eat honey
• Is honey vegan?
  • Honey is not vegan for two reasons: 1) it is a exploitation of the bees efforts, and 2) is made, in part, from their own bodies (1)
  • As an aside, all figs have dead fig wasps inside, so figs are not vegan either
• Is honey oxalate free?
  • Yes, ok to consume on an oxalate free diet (32)
• Is honey purine free?
  • Honey is ok on a purine free diet (4)
• How is honey a first aid ointment?
  • Honey has antibacterial and bioactive properties that can be used to heal wounds. Many Vets and Doctors will use any honey, but the Manuka honey is preferred (5), although some medical folks also use Eucalyptus honey (6)
• Honey good for colds?
  • Honey is good for soothing throat irritations (7)
• Can Honey be infused?
  • Yes, there are infused honey’s such as vanilla infused honey, and hot chili honey

How to Choose Honey

I like honey as close to raw as I can get, but prefer it strained. It is probably healthier to choose unfiltered honey. Unfortunately, we cannot rely on a label that says “raw”. To really know it is raw, you almost have to find a local beekeeper vendor. To find One see BeeCulture web magazine and click on your area for a list.

As a rule-of-thumb, the cleaner, smoother looking the honey the more likely it has been processed. If there are specs in it or it appears uneven, the more likely it is raw. In terms of flavor, I find the darker the color the more flavorful the honey; it also has the most nutrients, antioxidants, and other goodies.

Raw Honey Concerns

Raw honey means the honey has not been processed, filtered, or artificially heated, which preserves natural antioxidants, minerals, and enzymes. But there are cautions.

People can have allergic reactions to honey and what it contains or was made from. If you are allergic to bees, know that unprocessed raw honey can sometimes contain hints of bee venom, hints of pollen, and body part, which may cause a reaction. Additionally, do not give raw honey to small children as they are susceptible to what honey may contain, there are reports of infants getting botulism (8, 9).

Honey is good food stuff.

–Patty

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NEWS: The Oregonian reported this year year that founder of Bob’s Red Mill Natural Foods turned 81 and back in 2010 transferred his business to employees. This was news to me, and it is great.

Honey Cooking TIPS: 1) Honey can be critical to browning meat, so add to a meat glaze and for baking. This also means it browns faster than sugar recipes. Some people suggest turning down oven heat by 25F. 2) It can help retain moisture in rich cakes. 3) It is viscous, so can help with binding. 4) It can also add some yellow-to-amber coloring. 5) Honey attracts water, so lesson liquid in the recipes not made specifically for honey. 6) Do not add honey to cold liquid, add to room temp or warmer liquid so it mixes.

Delivery/Pickup Stores: Target, Costco, Amazon, Aldi, Kroger, Chewy (pets), Wegmans, Whole foods, Albertsons, Sprouts, among others. I have used Amazon and just ordered from Costco using Instacart. The Instacart worked great, but of course cost more.

Food Delivery Services: These are the ones I have used and can say they deliver Grubhub, Instacart, and Door Dash. I am adding more money to the delivery tips, as a way to help folks that are courageous (or needy) enough to deliver during a pandemic.