Local Honey!

Anyone else into local honey?

My DH came home yesterday with 2 things of it from a place he found while he was at work.  One is a blueberry and I forget what the other is; but its the one the lady said is best for allergy sufferers.  I need to do more research on it; but DD has had a miserable spring for allergies.  And I'm not enjoying it either. 

But man this honey tastes sooo different than what I buy in the store!!  It's more mild, yet sweeter.    It's very very good.  I think I may be hooked!!

My mom is a beekeeper.

She doesn't have a specific grove that they pollinate, so we classify it as "wildflower" honey.

It tastes much better because the kind you buy in the store isn't actually honey. It's Karo-style corn syrup with artificial flavors and colors, with just a drop of real honey to fit the FDA "standards."

Real honey is delicious!! It has a much lighter flavor than store "honey." And depending on what plants the bees pollinated that year, or what time of year it was harvested, it can taste totally different. Spring honey is incredibly light, and it's usually quite light colored. I've seen spring honey that was extremely light yellow, almost clear. It gets darker and more intense in flavor as the year goes on; you can harvest at least twice, maybe more depending on how the year has been for your bees.

Anyway. All that's to say that if you like it, you should seek out local honey wherever you can. It usually isn't hard to find and can be more expensive than the store-bought kind, but it's totally worth it.

ETA: Yes, it can really help those with seasonal allergies. You're essentially ingesting a pollen byproduct, and it can really help your body learn to recognize that pollen isn't an alien intruder. :nod:

I haven't had honey in a long time, but I do enjoy it, so I might have to pick some up!

Dana picked up some locally made maple syrup over the weekend at a farmers market and he has just been in his glory.
 

I buy nothing but local honey here - there is a producer just down the road, and all hte markets are full of it, dso there is a big choice of types. I love chestnut honey, also elderflower, and use it in all sorts of ways, added to cakes and sauces as well as on toast. Delicious!

When I was a kid I would always go to the local beekeeper with my dad. My dad loves honey and puts bee pollen in his coffee and refuses to buy either at a store. Apart from the honey tasting much better, I loved going there and actually seeing how things worked and what was involved. Hearing all those bees buzzing really gets you in the mood for some honey. I can hardly stand the honey I get at the grocery store now. It tastes so sugary and fake, like tasting the sugar water they call "maple syrup" after you've grown up tapping the maple trees in your back yard.

My neighbor sells honey. Her husband is a beekeeper .he has them out of town somewhere. I love fresh raw honey

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I'm sitting here drinking some tea with local raw honey in it! I LOVE IT!

Since I've been living alone, I've always bought raw honey. I take it for my allergies and give it to the dogs for theirs. You can also use it on wounds, it's sticky but you wrap it and it works great. Also great for burns. 

speakhandsforme said:

My mom is a beekeeper.

She doesn't have a specific grove that they pollinate, so we classify it as "wildflower" honey.
It tastes much better because the kind you buy in the store isn't actually honey. It's Karo-style corn syrup with artificial flavors and colors, with just a drop of real honey to fit the FDA "standards."

Real honey is delicious!! It has a much lighter flavor than store "honey." And depending on what plants the bees pollinated that year, or what time of year it was harvested, it can taste totally different. Spring honey is incredibly light, and it's usually quite light colored. I've seen spring honey that was extremely light yellow, almost clear. It gets darker and more intense in flavor as the year goes on; you can harvest at least twice, maybe more depending on how the year has been for your bees.
Anyway. All that's to say that if you like it, you should seek out local honey wherever you can. It usually isn't hard to find and can be more expensive than the store-bought kind, but it's totally worth it.
ETA: Yes, it can really help those with seasonal allergies. You're essentially ingesting a pollen byproduct, and it can really help your body learn to recognize that pollen isn't an alien intruder.

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Ooh thanks for sharing that!!  The honey is very light in color.  I do think I'm going to have a hard time going back!  Esp for drizzling it on toast like I did this morning.  Esp toast with peanut butter! YUM!   Or in my honey lemon tea!!

Kailie said:

I haven't had honey in a long time, but I do enjoy it, so I might have to pick some up!

Dana picked up some locally made maple syrup over the weekend at a farmers market and he has just been in his glory.

 

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Oh yes that is good!  I haven't had any in AGES!!  I'm originally from Upstate NY and my family had a camp up in the Adirondaks when I was a kid.  Nothing like fresh maple syrup or maple syrup candy!!

jennyranson said:

I buy nothing but local honey here - there is a producer just down the road, and all hte markets are full of it, dso there is a big choice of types. I love chestnut honey, also elderflower, and use it in all sorts of ways, added to cakes and sauces as well as on toast. Delicious!

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Oh see now I want to go try all different types!!

rad65 said:

When I was a kid I would always go to the local beekeeper with my dad. My dad loves honey and puts bee pollen in his coffee and refuses to buy either at a store. Apart from the honey tasting much better, I loved going there and actually seeing how things worked and what was involved. Hearing all those bees buzzing really gets you in the mood for some honey. I can hardly stand the honey I get at the grocery store now. It tastes so sugary and fake, like tasting the sugar water they call "maple syrup" after you've grown up tapping the maple trees in your back yard.

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My cousin has made her own syrup....lots of work to it from what my Grandpa said!

nerdrock said:

I'm sitting here drinking some tea with local raw honey in it! I LOVE IT!

Since I've been living alone, I've always bought raw honey. I take it for my allergies and give it to the dogs for theirs. You can also use it on wounds, it's sticky but you wrap it and it works great. Also great for burns. 

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I think I'll be doing tea with it tomorrow.  Trying to kick a dry sore throat!

We only buy local honey; it seems to have a better taste than the stuff we buy in stores. We have a farmers market in the area on Wednesdays and during the summer, I'll walk over there during my lunch break to buy local produce, honey, eggs, etc. There's a local beekeeper who's really an expert on bees and on the bee colony collapse. He was taking his bees to Florida to pollinate the crops there for many years; during the beginning of the colony collapse, he lost over half his bees. The amount of knowledge that man has is truly amazing.

I don't really care for the taste of honey (maybe it's too sweet?), but I do love to use it in cooking and especially in baking.

As for maple syrup, when we go to Connecticut, I always bring back two or three quarts of Grade B maple syrup. Grade B is better for baking because the maple taste doesn't "bake out" as it does when using Grade A. And we can't get Grade B around here; all we can find is Grade A. My MIL even switched over to Grade B, now too, so I buy a quart for her as well.

Have they figured out what has caused the collapse of the honey bees?
 

Used to buy it.........friend of mine was a beekeeper and he sold the stuff out of his garage right along with tires and car parts. I had to revert to store stuff when he retired and health concerns forced him to give up the bees as well. Sure miss that stuff, far superior to store bought

I love trying different honey. You get a lot of delicious variety in New Zealand, quite expensive but delicious. Here in Canada I like to buy from the Farmers Market, but I don't often go.

We buy local honey too.

This local lady makes it and has all sorts of flavors. Most recently I have liked the cherry honey! Something about it it just GOOD on a sore throat!! Also have banana honey and all sorts of flavors. But the cherry honey is the best (I guess cherry-honey ricola cough drops) knew what they were talking about.
 

zohdee said:

Have they figured out what has caused the collapse of the honey bees?

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Pesticides . Specifically imidacloprid, the pesticide used in Advantage. Apparently it's used on corn a lot (probably why it's not working on fleas so well anymore, too). Too bad the bees aren't becoming immune like the fleas are. . .

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/04/120405224653.htm

Nebula said:

We buy local honey too.

This local lady makes it and has all sorts of flavors. Most recently I have liked the cherry honey! Something about it it just GOOD on a sore throat!! Also have banana honey and all sorts of flavors. But the cherry honey is the best (I guess cherry-honey ricola cough drops) knew what they were talking about.
 

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Ooo I'd like to try that!  I've had an awful cold this week so I've been putting the blueberry honey DH got into my tea and sipping that all day. 

I think those sound like flavored honey. Which is super yummy but isn't the same as the different "varieties" of honey. Like, orange flavored honey is not the same as orange blossom honey. The flavored ones have flavoring added. The other kind naturally taste different (supposedly) because of what kind of flowers the bees pollinated. I say "supposedly" because I can't taste the difference :lol3:. I guess it's just too subtle for my tastebuds! :tongue2:

We've basically had to give up on local honey here because the bee population has been nearly decimated, supposedly by a virus, but we usually buy some when we're in Hungary. The only maple syrup you can get is imported from Canada or the U.S. and only available in a few stores. Germans just haven't gotten into maple syrup.

Willowy said:

Pesticides

. Specifically imidacloprid, the pesticide used in Advantage. Apparently it's used on corn a lot (probably why it's not working on fleas so well anymore, too). Too bad the bees aren't becoming immune like the fleas are. . .
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/04/120405224653.htm

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Bees just don't make honey...they pollinate.  I barely saw any honey bees last year.  I grow peppers and rely on those friends.

My first "real" job was a helper to a beekeeper.  Fascinating job, and bee stings don't bother me at all, now!
 

mrblanche said:

My first "real" job was a helper to a beekeeper.  Fascinating job, and bee stings don't bother me at all, now!
 

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Stupid question here...but do the bees get to know you?  I would love to get involved in beekeeping.  Once bees sting you they die, correct?  They have a barbed stinger and when pulled out the bee dies.