Please Note: Honey should not be given to children less than one year of age. More Details
What is raw honey?
Here is the official definition.
RAW HONEY: honey as it exists in the beehive or as obtained by extraction, settling, or straining without adding heat.
My opinion is that, raw honey has not been heated above the natural temperature of the hive nor has it been filtered. So the honey retains all it's natural nutritional value. When honey is heated above the hive temperature in order to easily get it into bottles, the innumerable health benefits contained in it are destroyed. Most processed honey today has been heated and filtered, robbing it of its nutritional value and resulting in a product little more than a simple sweetener.
Honey differs in color and flavor depending on what blossoms the honey bees visit in search of nectar. Honey color ranges from almost colorless to dark amber brown and its flavor varies from delectably mild to richly bold. As a general rule, lighter-colored honey is more mild in taste and dark-colored honey is stronger.
What is the difference between raw, liquid, & crystallized.
Honey comes in a variety of forms including crystallized, liquid, whipped and comb. Liquid honey is extracted from the comb in the hive by centrifugal force, gravity, straining or other means. Whipped honey (also known as creamed honey) is finely crystallized so that it remains creamy and spreadable. Comb honey is honey that comes as it was produced—in the honey bees’ wax comb.
Raw honey is almost always crystallized or solid. Some honey can crystallize within a couple of weeks and some may take several months. This is usually due to the ambient temperature and sugar content of the individual honey. As a rule, most of our raw honey will start to crystallize within 3 - 6 weeks after taking it from the hive. Cooked honey loses its crystal structure and remains liquid. It is impossible for man to make or duplicate raw honey.
How is Honey made??
Honeybees use nectar to make honey. Nectar is almost 80% water with some complex sugars. In fact, if you have ever pulled a honeysuckle blossom out of its stem, nectar is the clear liquid that drops from the end of the blossom. In North America, bees get nectar from flowers like clovers, dandelions, berry bushes and fruit tree blossoms. They use their long, tube-like tongues like straws to suck the nectar out of the flowers and they store it in their "honey stomachs". Bees actually have two stomachs, their honey stomach which they use like a nectar backpack and their regular stomach. The honey stomach holds almost 70 mg of nectar and when full, it weighs almost as much as the bee does. Honeybees must visit between 100 and 1500 flowers in order to fill their honey stomachs.
The honeybees return to the hive and pass the nectar onto other worker bees. These bees suck the nectar from the honeybee's stomach through their mouths. These "house bees" "chew" the nectar for about half an hour. During this time, enzymes are breaking the complex sugars in the nectar into simple sugars so that it is both more digestible for the bees and less likely to be attacked by bacteria while it is stored within the hive. The bees then spread the nectar throughout the honeycombs where water evaporates from it, making it a thicker syrup. The bees make the nectar dry even faster by fanning it with their wings. Once the honey is gooey enough, the bees seal off the cell of the honeycomb with a plug of wax. The honey is stored until it is eaten. In one year, a colony of bees eats between 120 and 200 pounds of honey.
How to store it.
Store honey at room temperature—your kitchen counter or pantry shelf is ideal. Storing honey in the refrigerator accelerates the honey’s crystallization. Crystallization is the natural process in which the liquid in honey becomes solid. If your honey crystallizes, simply place the honey jar in warm water and stir until the crystals dissolve.
Health benefits
Honey has been fueling athletes for centuries.
Honey provides a quick source of energy.
Honey is composed primarily of carbohydrates and water, and also includes small amounts of a wide array of vitamins and minerals. Research has shown that honey contains small amounts of a wide array of vitamins, minerals, amino acids and antioxidants. Of recent interest is the antioxidant content of honey. Honey contains a variety of flavonoids and phenolic acids which act as antioxidants, scavenging and eliminating free radicals. It has been hypothesized that consuming more antioxidant-rich foods may help protect against cellular damage and possibly prevent the development of chronic diseases. The amount and type of these antioxidant compounds in honey depends largely upon the floral source/variety.
