Oh honey why are you so yummy?

Penny Say: Oh honey wonderful honey

The Good – It is so very yummy

- Honey is loaded with carbohydrates (good unless you are diabetic I suppose) and also contains anti-oxidants, B vitamins, and other yummy minerals.

- If you have a sore throat nothing else in my cupboard sooths it faster than a spoon of honey in my tea. Solid honey tablets are also available for those that prefer the non sticky variety. Plus when you are sick you are likely not getting a lot to eat, honey provides around 60 calories per Tablespoon giving you a little boost just when you need it.

- Dark honey (like buckwheat honey) is a source of antioxidants (thought to decrease risk of cancer, decreases relative amount of free radicals in the body, and diminish the less pretty effects of aging like wrinkles).

- Honey has been shown to improve calcium absorption so add some to your next smoothie and help ward off osteoporosis.

- Honey also provides food for the good bacteria in your GI tract (bifidobacteria , you know the ones you get from yogurt that help keep you regular and ward off yeast infections). SO Honey is a prebiotic (makes bifidobacteria, Honey helps bifidobacteria be happy and grow, which helps you be regular and that makes everyone a little more comfortable.

The Bad - Baby Botulism

Not good for Babies under one year old. Honey often contain small amounts of the bacterium Clostridium botulinum, this is a hard to kill bacterium found in soil. Microorganisms do not grow in honey because of its low water content (this is why we can store it at room temperature for a long time with out mold and nasties building micro-apartments in our good honey). BUT dormant spores of the Clostridium botulinum bacterium are often in the honey. These dormant spores of bacteria can be dangerous to infants as the can transform into toxin-producing bacteria in the infant's immature intestinal tract, leading to illness and even death.

See link for a paper discussing botulism - link

The Nitty Gritty Details

All honey facts can be found at the national honey board’s web site

http://www.honey.com/consumers/

Here is a quick summary of honey facts that can help you out when choosing the right honey for you.

· Comb Honey - Comb honey is honey that comes as it was produced — in the honey bees' wax comb. The comb, as well as the honey, is edible!

· Cut Comb - Cut comb honey is liquid honey that has added chunks of the honey comb in the jar. Also known as liquid-cut comb combination.

· Liquid Honey - Free of visible crystals, liquid honey is extracted from the honey comb by centrifugal force, gravity or straining. Because liquid honey mixes easily into a variety of foods, it's especially convenient for cooking and baking. Most of the honey produced in the United States is sold in the liquid form.

· Naturally Crystallized Honey - Naturally crystallized honey is honey that part of the natural glucose content has spontaneously crystallized from solution as the monohydrate.

· Whipped (or Cremed) Honey - While all honey will crystallize in time, whipped honey (also known as cremed honey or sugared honey) is brought to market in a crystallized state. The crystallization is controlled so that, at room temperature, the honey can be spread like butter. In many countries around the world, whipped honey is preferred to the liquid form.

Honey products do not meet the compositional criteria for honey, but are products consisting in whole or in part of honey.

· Dried Honey - Dried honey is honey that has been dehydrated and mixed with other ingredients to keep it free-flowing.

· Flavored/Fruited Honey - Flavored/Fruited honey is honey that has either fruit, coloring or flavoring added.

· Honey stix - Honey stix consist of liquid honey in a straw. Sometimes flavors are added.

· Infused Honey - Infused honey is honey that has had flavors of herbs, spices, peels, etc. added to it by steeping

A note on the bee’s themselves – honey bees are scary to me, and I admit to running screaming from them on several occasions. However, they do make really good honey for me to eat so I forgive them for having a stinger.

Bees are really great pollinators - Pollination is important in horticulture because most plant fruits will not develop if the ovules are not fertilized.

A single bee colony can produce more than 100 pounds of honey.

It takes one colony of honey bees (around 30,000 bees) to pollinate an acre of fruit trees.

Also it is the young females that seem to do all the important work – (gathering nectar) It takes 556 worker girlie bees to gather a pound of honey.

Mites are a big threat to the honey bee population and may be responsible for the recent down turn in bee populations.

There is a friendly solution that may work out increase the pollination by increasing the The Blue Orchard Bee Population. Give them somewhere to live (that is clean and safe buy purchasing a kit from a website like this one https://id408.van.ca.siteprotect.com/beediverse/catalog/masonbees.php

OR http://www.masonbeehomes.com/bee_houses.php

The Blue Orchard bee is also known as The Mason Bee, Osmia lignaria,) is a solitary bee that is an effective pollinator that can not sting us. But does it make honey? Sadly no honey for you – from the blue friendly bee – but they will increase your fruiting yield in your orchard.

Until we can stop the mites from getting the Honey Bees we support honey producers who fight against mites by using the cleanest equipment, lower populations and extra space per colony, taking the extra time and care for their bees making sure they are not stressed out, also those who try to use mite resistant variety of honey bees available from specialized Bee Breeders.

I vote to support the local honey producers, and I will try not to swat and scream at the precious little Bee’s that buzz my way.