My friend who came to visit me this weekend was just in France for a wedding, and Paris for a short holiday. As birthday and housewarming presents she brought me many things, which were all wonderful, but my eyes lit up when I opened one package and found a jar of honey from Paris. Sunflower honey (has a slightly nutty flavor). She had found a store in Paris entirely devoted to honey. That would be my dream store.I LOVE honey. Clover honey from the supermarket is fine, but look around for others. My favorites are the darker ones - Wildflower honey, buckwheat honey. These can be found in the United States - from farms are the best. I once bought Tupelo honey because of the song from Van Morrison, but it was very similar to clover honey. For my old job I used to travel internationally and when possible I would buy honey in whatever country I was in. (I did that several times before finally checking with the US Customs Service to see if it's ok, and surprisingly it is.) My favorite was/is from Brazil: honey from the cashew flower. (Did you know there's a cashew fruit? They make juice from it and mostly keep it in country. It's very nice.) When I was in San Francisco there was a special honey I saw which was $50 for a jar and I was SOOOO tempted to buy it, but resisted somehow.
To best taste the flavor, I tend to put it in steamed milk. You would think I'd like it on various body parts, but really I only like it on fingers and lips - might be the salt that gets mixed in otherwise, which really doesn't do it for me. My favorite term of endearment from a boyfriend was MHMB (my honey my baby) - 10,000 points if you guess which song that's from.
How do bees make honey? (I must admit, after seeing the animated Bee Movie, I feel a little guilty eating honey, but not so much that I'll stop.)
Of course, since bees are part of the environment, there's a crisis. Species and populations are disappearing at an alarming rate - which of course doesn't only affect honey production, but also pollination. I just found a really cool site that Haagen-Dazs has created to call attention to the issue and help the bees. It's interactive and interesting and cute - TAKE A LOOK.
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21 comments:
I love honey in tea. Even though I haven't had honey in months I still have a honey bear in my desk at work. Something about it makes me happy.
Wow I never knew so much about honey in my life. Thanks, NoR!
My grandmother takes it in her black coffee, never sugar and no cream just honey. I remember getting to squirt the bear in her cup for her when I was little. It always earned me a sip of her moring joe! Yep I was drinking my own small cup of coffee by the time I was 5. *lol*
-OG
Greek honey is my favourite. But yes, the differences in flavour are delightful.
Puss
"Hello my honey! Hello my baby! Hello my ragtime gal!"
I'm not even close, am I?
Honey bears are happiness.
OG-my pleasure! And I never knew so much about drinks... I drank my mom's tea, but never coffee.
Puss- oh now I'm goign to have to hunt down greek honey...
Well, Squirrel, you've gotten me back for 'the ink is black, the page is white...'
michigan j frog of course! lol
there's a honey maker in the area who makes some great honey. he does it as a hobby though so most of his stuff goes to family and friends, once in a while i get lucky and get a jar, comb and all. there's nothing like pure, unadulterated by processing, honey. (mine tends to go on biscuits, a holdover from my days in the south.)
oh dear, i see squirrel thought the same thing! lol
oh well.
unh, unh! i know! you're a georgia satellites fan aren't you?
Heather, you win 5,000 points. Right song, but I know it with George Thorogood singing it. Ding ding ding!!!
Um, I think.
Oh, and obviously I didnt' play the part of 'keep your hands to yourself'.
I actually haven't tried that ice cream, and now I have to!!!
Mmmmm honey vodka....
lol, good old george!
when i was pregnant with cheeks j used to sing his songs to her and i. he's got a ~very~ sexy voice when he's not screwing around with the lyrics in a weird al kinda way. i think we had more sex during the time i was pregnant than we had in the year before! (either his singing voice or we knew the 'damage' had already been done)
Mmmmm...honey. Honey seems like a really cool item to collect as you travel too.
I have heard about the problems with the bees too and that is actually pretty alarming. More than we usually think about depends upon them
heather - surprised you didnt name cheeks George then...
Laura, it really is a good thing to collect... And it's usable!
WNG - I'm off and running to the store now. OK, maybe later. I fear I will love it though...
I am allergic as hell of bees...I HATE them things and will turn a blind eye to anything bad that might come of their disappearance....you might even say I would put a hit out them.
lol, everyone would have thought it was a caroline keen tribute instead of a george thorogood tribute. how she would have hated that. lol
I'm a big honey lover too. Did you know that if you buy honey that is local, it will be full of enzymes to protect you from things in your area. Pretty cool, huh? I think that's part of why I don't get sick very often. I consume a lot of honey.
Evile-not all that you don't like should cease to exist!!!
Heather, aw, she coulda been Georgia! Sweet Georgia...
Churlita, I had heard that. I need to start eating more local honey and less international honey, unless I plan on travelling more!
One thing of interest is that different types of honey have properties that improve your health in different ways. The darker honeys like buckwheat honey have strong antioxidant properties.
Some research has shown that certain types of honey are good for wound healing.
Some researchers from Penn State have recently shown that Buckwheat honey is better then the OTC children’s cough medicines for children’s cough. There is a web site that talks about this, and gives lots of research to help people understand how honey effects health. Check out http://www.honeydontcough.com/
Thanks for you blogs,
-Daddy Doctor
Hey Jeff, thanks for visiting! Interesting site... cool.
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