All About Honey
I received a message from the National Honey Board today I thought other Fresh Loafers would enjoy seeing. There is a wealth of information about substituting from other sweeteners and a recipe section for a wide variety of baked products. I found it interesting, hope you do too. Everything you wanted to know about natures natural organic sweetener.
If you have only purchased honey in the grocery, slap yourself and check out the locator link on the first page. The flavor is derived from the type of flower the bees pollinate and it varies widely. There are lots of small honey sources from local bee keepers that offer excellent pure honey, not cut with other products from China. The flavor difference is remarkable. Trust me on this, find a local source of pure honey and be amazed.
Eric
I love to use honey if adding sweetner to my bread, does great things. Thanks for the link.
weavershouse
Eric,
I started using both honey and mollasis as sweeteners a year or so. I became extremely interested in honey and honey bees and studied a lot over the past 6-8 months and in mid April after taking a class and becoming a "certified" beekeeper in NC with my wife we bought equipment and bees for two hives and installed two packages of bees. I have either had bad luck, or the source of my bees might be a bit questionable, but I have already lost one bive (the queen never started laying) and the hive was overtaken by small hive beatles. The second hive appeared to be growing and doing well until about a two weeks ago when during an inspection I observed that a "new" queen had just emerged - that is, my original queen had been superceeded. What are the chance of having TWO queen issues but I did.
We love having bees but it is a hobby that cost a bit to get into and requires some work and a lot of knowledge to know what is happening and more precisely how you can control what is happening or going to happen. I know the payback on honey bees is definitely not as good as solar enery panels - the government is not offering any tax incentives to honey beekeepers. Based on the importance of polination they probably should - no joking matter. We as a nation and a world would really be up the creek if prople were not caring for bees - most of the wild one are gone forever. They say at least a third of the crops we eat require bee polinators or we would not have them anymore.
I will get off the soap box but if people were as well organized and efficient as bees we would be a better place for it. They are truly amazing and a wonder to watch and work with. Definitely not this summer, but may be next summer I will get some honey in return for my investment - the bees get all the honey this year to make it through the winter.
Take care and thanks for bring up one of my favorite subjects and foods.
Ben
Ben,
Helping nature along isn't as easy as it looks with bees. Even long time bee keepers have problems with the hives and invaders of all sizes. Hope you have better luck.
Eric
is considered a natural allergy preventative. To my surprise, there is no local honey here in Southern Maryland. The honey bees are steadily on the decline due to poisonous sprays used in the fields.
anna
Anna, i don't know where these places are in MD but the locator shows the following.
Eric
MD
Thank you so much for this information,Eric! I have had a question about honey for a while. It is a good place to ask!
Sincerely,
Akiko