Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Bee Bonanza

So many good reasons to support bees, but in the end, it's all about the honey.
Do you know where your honey comes from?  More and more of the product you think is coming from local bees is adulterated.  It may be cut with honey from China, or with corn syrup.  A young girl selling her father's honey at a local farmer's market reluctantly told me about the honey I had been buying-- thinking it came from a town near us-- which fits this bill exactly.    The company's website advertises pure honey (OK, if it is cut with honey from China and Argentina it would still be pure honey).  Raw and unfiltered?  How come it never gets cloudy?...
Today we got some honey the bees shared with us.
The only way to REALLY know where the honey comes from, is to remove it from the hive yourself, or know your beekeeper personally.   Another way is to buy honey in the comb, where the bees seal it.  This site has other tips on how to test honey's origins.  It notes that a “pure honey” label merely promises that there is real pure honey inside, and need not say how much, or whether the honey is cut with water, corn syrup, or other sweeteners.
 Here's an interesting article from Science Daily which reports a test to determine pollen sources and locate a honey source.