Raw Wildflower Honey, OMG Yum!!! (long post)

My Step Sis and her hubby have honey bees, well, they let a bee guy keep his bees on their property. He has been there for years and years, so when the land was sold to them they said of course he could continue to use it.
He gives them a big case of honey every year from the final harvest, I guess you call it, I don't know much (anything at all) about how bee keeping works.
As a Christmas present this year I got a big jar of that honey, so did my Brother.
I have never tasted raw honey before, never tasted wildflower honey in any form before. Clover honey, that's all I know, in squeeze bear form. One taste of the raw wildflower, I am spoiled forever!
My bro, not so thrilled because it is raw, I got his jar. YAY!!!
I have been trying and trying to capture just how pretty the jars are in a pic, who knew how hard it is to photograph honey! The lighter is there to show scale of the jars.
best I could do is this

It isn't clear, but isn't as dark as the pic. It's a lovely medium amber color, but it is cloudy, I was told this is because some pollen and other bee goodness is still in there. (that is what freaked my brother out, raw bee bits!!!!)
I am going on about this because it is discovering a new taste from an old favorite!

Mmmmmmm, honey! I love trying honey from different places. It's so different everywhere, depending upon the flowers of the region. When I visited my cousin in Alaska, I fell in love with the raw Alaska fireweed honey. I've read that eating raw honey helps people with allergies, because it exposes you to minute amounts of the pollens and allergens of the region. I'm so envious! Now you need to make some buttermilk biscuits to go with it!

mmmmm sounds awesome! I bet it wouldbe amazing on some hot biscuits!

OMGosh, I love honey! I am so jealous!

I'm jealous too! I LOVE honey!! Yum!!

Originally Posted by Pookie-poo

Mmmmmmm, honey! I love trying honey from different places. It's so different everywhere, depending upon the flowers of the region. When I visited my cousin in Alaska, I fell in love with the raw Alaska fireweed honey. I've read that eating raw honey helps people with allergies, because it exposes you to minute amounts of the pollens and allergens of the region. I'm so envious! Now you need to make some buttermilk biscuits to go with it!

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Oh yes I do! And some nice fried chicken to go with that, and some greens. Well, what is chicken and biscuts without greens? That would be chicken and greens without cornbread! Then of course you have to make some mac and cheese to go with that, black eyed peas, and well, can I blame the bees for not being on my diet till the new year?
Pookie, we have so many wild flowers here in WI I could not even begin to name them. The honey tastes of the flowers, a little bit of a bitter bite at first, then an almost butter taste, then the sweet. It is so different from anythng store bought.

My first paying job, when I was fourteen, was for a beekeeper in Colorado. He had hives scattered all over the county, and also went to pick up wild hives when they invaded buildings or other human property.

A basic rule of thumb, he said, is that if the honey looks clear, it's been filtered and likely as not adulterated with added sugar water. I don't know that is true, however.

But you're right about one thing. Wild honey tastes amazing!

Sounds delish!!

Wild raw honey is AMAZING! ...as is orange blossom honey. Raw honey flavors are SO influenced by the "source" it is truly a delight (if you like honey to begin with) to "explore" the HUGE variety of honeys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My husband is a beekeeper here in Missouri and has been one all his life,and his parents before him.That is the only way we believe honey should be is raw,and that's the way we sell it as well.When you extract it,there's going to be a certain amount of wax pieces that get into the honey from the frames.We do not heat ours at all,but once it's in the extractor and ready to go to the rising tank,it gets filtered thru a fine plastic mesh strainer,and from there it gets bottled.It will eventually candy,but that's mother natures way.All you need to do should that happen is put the jar,with the cap off,in the microwave and nuke it a few seconds at a time,til it becomes liquid again.Be careful not to heat it too much.You don't want it to boil.When you get it fresh,you can store it in the freezer and it will keep forever.It may eventually candy,but can be reheated.Just don't store it in the fridge.

Originally Posted by lizzie

My husband is a beekeeper here in Missouri and has been one all his life,and his parents before him.That is the only way we believe honey should be is raw,and that's the way we sell it as well.When you extract it,there's going to be a certain amount of wax pieces that get into the honey from the frames.We do not heat ours at all,but once it's in the extractor and ready to go to the rising tank,it gets filtered thru a fine plastic mesh strainer,and from there it gets bottled.It will eventually candy,but that's mother natures way.All you need to do should that happen is put the jar,with the cap off,in the microwave and nuke it a few seconds at a time,til it becomes liquid again.Be careful not to heat it too much.You don't want it to boil.When you get it fresh,you can store it in the freezer and it will keep forever.It may eventually candy,but can be reheated.Just don't store it in the fridge.

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AH, so I can freeze one of the jars with no effect on the texture or flavor, or health benefits of the honey?
As much I love and use a lot of honey, ( I rarely use sugar, just in coffee and cerial) I know that one of the jars is going to go crystal, unless I make a really, really big pot of tea, lol.
About the nuking I have to laugh, I have melted more than a few honey bears from the store, it heats to a boil very fast! Poor bears, they loose their charm when they now look like something out of "Night of the Living Dead"

Oooh I love honey! There is such an endless variety out there, and I love discovering new ones. They're really different depending on the locality, and the flavours can be amazing. One thing I really enjoyed when I was in New Zealand last was visiting a big honey farm. They had a tasting bar where you could try about 10 different honeys (what flowers the bees fed on before producing the honey). The flavours were incredible, there were a few I didn't like, and ones that were so good. I always buy honey from the Farmers Market now, it's so much better than generic clover type ones.

It took me awhile to learn how to be so careful with plastic containers in the microwave.The old fashioned way is to put the container in a pot of simmering water,but I have no patience for such things,and yes,they sure do look like the creature from the green latrine That is one of the reasons why we use glass jars.No problems at all.I like to sample honeys from other beekeepers and other areas of the country.If you ever get the chance,you need to try tupelo honey...it is amazing,but also pricey.I have found that even here in MO,the flavors are so different from county to county.I buy a lot of honey online from different beekeepers just to see what the competition is doing,and some people think we are nuts to be so interested.It's amazing what you can learn!It's a very interesting occupation indeed.