I noticed a listing on our marketplace for farmers honey the other day and it made me think......As a child I wasn't a big fan of honey, but maybe that was because it was the store bought stuff in a bear jar that you squeezed out of his head (odd things scared me as a child). Anyway, as I came to adulthood I thought I would test my childhood theory that honey didn't taste good. And as you may have already guessed, I was wrong as a child (more often then I would like to admit). But I do believe that it was in part because when I was a kid, we didn't get to have "real" honey. The processed store bought honey tastes nothing like the real out of the bee keeper's farm honey. I am using the term "real honey" here because using the term organic can be tricky. I understand in some circumstances people need the pasteurized honey from the store and I completely support that. But if your body is OK with non pasteurized raw honey, it is amazing. There are lots of studies to support how good this type of honey is for you, I know for me, it helped my hay fever more then some allergy medications do. And for us people that have to watch our sugars, Honey's glycemic index is lower than sugar (still now low enough, but I take what I can get).
I remember seeing a picture of a hotel in Thailand that had a whole honeycomb propped up high over a long tray and as the pure honey dripped to the tray, patrons at the restaurant could scoop some honey for their ice cream. How cool is that!
Raw honey will also taste and look different depending on where you get it from and what farming area it came from. I know a farmer who plated a different crop near his bee hives every year and each year his honey had a slightly different taste and different hue of amber to it (my favorite year was the time he planted lavender near the hive). Again... How cool is that!
One important thing I learned is that sometimes when you get honey straight from the beekeeper it can have a thick creamy cloudy look to it. I thought there was something wrong with it, but not to worry the farmer told me, it hasn't gone bad. This is a natural process. The crystals may be large or small, a grainy, sandy type or smooth and creamy type. What makes it crystallize is due to the type of flower the honey bee visited when she gathered the blossom's nectar. The floral source determines whether the honey will turn into a solid form more quickly or not. Some honeys while raw will stay in a liquid form for quite a while. Other honeys will turn to a solid form with in a few weeks. This is due to how stable the sugar crystal is in the nectar. Remember the sugar crystals we made as children in grade school, we evaporated sugar water with a string dropped in it for the crystals to form on. This is similar to what is happening to the honey.
This is not honey turned bad, or anything that is affecting the taste or quality of the honey. You may find you like it in this state!! It spreads on toast or bread without dripping off. It won't run off the spoon as you take it from the jar to your hot drink. To turn it back to a liquid, pourable state, use gentle warming of the jar in hot (not boiling) water. Also honey doesn't need to be stored in the refrigerator, this can speed up the crystal formation sometimes.
So in conclusion, check out the farmers raw honey listing here.. and also as a child, I was wrong... a lot.. sorry mom.
Trademyflowers.com
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