Honey FAQ What is the difference between the Maine Wildflower and Georgia honeys? Maine Wildflower Honey Our bee colonies in Maine are placed throughout the mid-coast region, , hidden mostly on local, small farm fields where there is open, untended land. The meadows and hedgerows of Maine provide a variety of wildflowers with good honey flows: white clover, vetch, milkweed, loosestrife and goldenrod. These all combine to make a very rich, hearty wildflower honey. Its unique character will vary from year to year, depending on the weather, but it is always complex and delicious. It is described by friends as: containing higher notes, light, citrus, fruity, more complex. Fancy Georgia Honey Our Georgia bee colonies are located east of the Okefenokee swamp near the Satilla River. The honey we collect comes from the May blooms of the Gallberry, Ilex glabra, a holly and the famous Tupelo Gum, nyssa aquatica. Because the two bloom at the same time, in nearly the same place, it is nigh on impossible to separate them. Exceptionally light and delicious, Gallberry-Tupelo honey is rightly prized among beekeepers and honey gourmands. It is described as containing darker, lower notes, like caramel or butterscotch, deep flowery flavor. Why is raw unfiltered honey better? The simple reason is that it tastes better. Most commercial honey packers blend, heat and filter their honey to increase shelf life and consistency. Unfortunately the flavonoids, enzymes, fragrant volatiles, and particles of pollen and propolis. that make honey exciting and delicious get destroyed or removed in this process. Many of our customers believe that the natural enzymes, antioxidants, vitamins and trace elements in raw honey are righteously beneficial to health and I certainly can't disagree. But we recommend that you consult the studies yourself to learn more. My interest in honey has always been in it's evocative and delicious flavors and that means processing it as little and as carefully as possible, which preserves the delicate healthy bits; it just goes to figure that healthy, complete honey should taste great. What is crystallized honey? We ship our bottled honey in it's golden, clear, liquid, original state. All honey will eventually crystallize, first turning cloudy then forming granular crystals of sugar. Depending on the kind of honey and the conditions of bottling, crystallized honey may be smooth and creamy or gritty and crunchy. Many prefer it this way and in Europe it is the predominant way honey is sold, as a creamy spread. Raw honey will crystallize in the container more rapidly than commercially bottled honey. To return it to a clear liquid heat it carefully in a double boiler or in a glass jar in very hot water. Please don't boil it. Heating honey too much will darken it and degrade it's flavor, but it is possible to gently melt it and retain it's goodness. In our 60 pound pails the honey is crystallized, about the consistancy of home made ice cream. Our bulk customers scoop it as needed from the pail and melt it a little at a time for the table or use it as a spread. For cooking, meadmaking or baking, crystallized honey works very well. Should honey be refrigerated? No. You do not need to refrigerate your honey, because the bees have made sure there is no air or water in it for bacteria to grow in. (In fact, refrigerating your honey will cause it to crystallize more quickly) .Instead, you may keep it on a kitchen table or windowsill, near a good light source, for everyone to admire. It’s rich, golden summer glow provides a sensual comfort on cold winter days and you can BeeHere Now - stop and smell the flowers! What is mead? Mead is wine made from fermented honey. Thought to be the first fermented, alcoholic beverage in human history, mead was drunk throughout the ancient world and given credit for all sorts of magic effects. It is not hard to make mead, though it is a little harder to make good mead, and it does take a while. With care and a little practice it is possible to make very fancy dry sparkling mead, like a champagne with a floral exotic flavor. There are fruit meads, spiced meads, medicinal meads and so on. For a great primer and simple recipes I recommend http://www.talisman.com/mead/meadfaq.html. Anybody who has made beer or wine at home can make a great mead and experience an exhilarating draught of human history. Can one bake with honey? Can you always substitute honey for white sugar? Yes. For muffins, cakes, pies, and cookies, we recommend half of the total sweetener by volume be measured in honey, and then the other half sugar. Generally, the more honey is used, the more challenging it is for your baked products to rise. But the trade-off is that they will stay fresh and moist much longer with honey. Honey also slightly increases acidity, so we recommend adding 1/4 tsp. baking soda for every cup of honey. Please visit our cooking link for more ideas and recipes! Is your honey Certified Organic? No. Honeybees travel more than two miles from the hive searching for food sources. Even in the sparcely populated parts of the country we live in, there's no controlling where they might find nectar and bring it back. We run around 1000 colonies of bees and, especially in Maine, they are surely gathering clover from peoples lawns and squash from farmer's fields and certifying that kind of an area as organic is just plain impossible. I've been an organic gardener and supporter of MOFGA (the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association--a great bunch of folks) since I bought my first farm in Maine seventeen years ago and have always been very conscious of how important for the future of agriculture the organic movement is. My first priority though is keeping my bees alive. With the threats posed by introduced pests and diseases, I will use non-organic treatments, carefully, when necessary, to keep them healthy. ALL beekeepers in America that are maintaining viable populations of bees (as opposed to letting them die and replacing them every year, and from where?) are using some treatment, unless they are able to stay isolated by great distances from other bees. Honey is one garden product that defies the easy use of the organic label, but I assure you of the quality and purity of our honey. Do you get stung? This is by far the question I get more than any other. Well of course I do. I get stung less and less the longer I do this and it affects me less and less too. My understanding of the mechanisms of bee venom is this: the venom is quite strong for it's tiny quantity and it magnifies it's effects by having a very high rate of change. Your body feels it's pain increasing at a rapid rate and extrapolates from this that it is in great danger and mounts an epinephrine system response of fight or flight. It is this response that causes the greatest discomfort, not the venom itself. The increased metabolic rate, the hormones coursing through the body demanding action, the sense of panic and anger, these are why people hate bee stings. My body no longer falls for this trick....I feel the topical pain of the sting but unless I get some large number of stings all at once (say twenty or more) my body rarely mounts any reaction. As I tell people that come out with me, it's all in your mind. They rarely find this any comfort. There certainly is some reason why beekeepers get stung a lot less than a newcomer would doing the same thing. It's much like the way that it's always the visitor that gets kicked in a cow barn. There is a way of moving that bees (or cows) don't interpret as threatening and beekeepers are taught how to do that by very effective operant conditioning (move the wrong way; get stung). Bees are also sensitive to fear or unease and will react aggressively to them. The sound of an aroused bee yard and the smell of their alarm chemical are things that any mammal, let alone man, will react to even when safe in a suit. It is very hard not to run the first time it happens but, well, you get used to it. Is Honey really healthy for you? We refrain from making unsupported claims regarding the health benefits of raw honey. We are not nutrition experts, and therefore humbly suggest that if you want to know more on this subject, please consult available studies directly. A web search provides a fair amouht of informaton (See links below) Nevertheless, in quick summery from readily available material, honey is mostly carbohydrate, contains small amounts of vitamins and minerals, and has a surprisingly high level of antioxidants. Anti-oxidants are thought to improve tissue regeneration, and to slow down the aging process. Raw, unfiltered honey has the advantage of containing small particles of pollen and propolis, which have their own nutritional elements to add: pollen is mostly protein and contains many vitamins (especially B), while propolis is a well known source of natural anti-biotic and anti-bacteria. Excerpt from: http://www.NHB.org : “As a carbohydrate, honey supplies energy at (on average) 68 calories per tablespoon, providing fuel to working muscles. A study at the University of Memphis Exercise and Sports Nutrition Laboratory found honey to be one of the most effective forms of carbohydrate gels to ingest just prior to exercise. According to Dr. Richard Kreider, the study's lead investigator, "honey appears to be a carbohydrate source that is relatively mild on its effects upon blood sugar compared to other carbohydrate sources." Excerpt from:http://www.newswise.com/articles/2002/8/HONEY.ACS.html) BOSTON, Aug. 19 -- Don't like spinach? Try honey. It contains about the same level of plaque-fighting antioxidants as the leafy green stuff. And according to research presented at the national meeting of the American Chemical Society, the world's largest scientific society, the range of antioxidants in honey is comparable to that in apples, bananas, oranges and strawberries." Other studies have shown that raw, unfiltered honey has a positive effect in the healing of gastric ulcers, which is thought to be due in part to the anti-oxidant properties, and in part to the anti-biotic, healing properties of propolis. Raw, unfiltered honey has also been shown to be effective in accelerating healing skin conditions of all sorts, including sore throats, burns, excema, and even surgical wounds. Thus it’s current popularity in natural skin and hair care products.