Honey Blog

If you heard the show today, Thursday, June 10, third hour, you heard the world's first live radio honey tasting. These are the two honeys that were experienced by Dennis and two volunteers from the audience. I added commentary. 

Honey Journal #31. Honey from Portugual and the island of Madeira

Names:  (1) Mel Estrella. You can buy it in fine food stores in Lisbon, Portugal or on the Internet here. (2) Mel de Abelhas  You can buy it:  In fine food stores on the island of Madeira.

Country:  Portugal

Color:  (1) Black strap Molasses  (2) Golden brown

Flavor:  (1) Deep earthy almost primitive flavor. Dark chocolate (I mean 80% cocoa) with hints of pepper and oak. Has a slightly medicinal aftertaste that lingers longer than one would like (2) Rich, creamy sweet butter with notes of golden raisins.

Consistency:  (1) Thin. (2) Medium thick. Drops leisurely from the spoon.

Fragrance:  (1) Intense black dirt and wild flower scent (2) Box of Del Monte golden raisins.

Notes:

Here we have two honeys from Portugal : one from the western coastal mountains of European continent, specifically from Serra da Estrela Natural Park, and the other from the fabled island of Madeira, two hundred miles southwest of Lisbon. The people in these two places speak the same language, Portuguese; but the bees do not.  Or, at least, you wouldn't think so based on how different these two honeys taste.

 

 

Name:  Sekota Sunrise (This honey really doesn't have a name. I just made that up. Read on...)

You can buy it:  You can't buy it unless you're planning a trip to Ethiopia and even then it's doubtful.

Country:  Ethiopia

Color:  Lemon Curd

Flavor:  Sweet and smoky with a zest of citrus.  

Consistency:  Thick

Fragrance:  Barbecued chicken

Notes:

A couple of months ago I received this email. 

"Hey Allen,
I think you are the guy who collects honey.  I just got back from Northern Ethiopia.  A town called Sekota.  I brought back some honey.  If you don't have any from that area, would you like some?  I have already ran it through a stainer to remove all the major chunks but there is still some of the wax.  Not sure how to remove that.  I think it has a good flavor.  A little smoky, but I still like it. Reply back if you are interested.
David"

Of course I was interested. Fascinated would be more accurate. And David was true to his word and sent the honey. It came in a plain, unmarked Ball canning jar. I have to admit I hesitated for a moment. Unprocessed, untreated honey from Ethiopia. Hmmm. Is that really safe? Then, again honey has been used since ancient times to treat wounds. It's a natural antibiotic. Anyway, if there was risk, I couldn't resist. I reached for my spoon.

David was accurate in his description of the honey on both counts -- it's smoky and has good flavor.  Why is it smoky? I'm sure the reason is that the people who harvested it smoked the bees out of the hive. This is commonly done in Africa where beekeeper equipment and safety gear are not readily available. Bees hate the smoke and beat a hasty retreat when exposed to it. I first encountered this smoky hue when I reviewed some honey from Zambia early in the Honey Journal. But there's smoky and there's smoky and this is smoky. It crowds out all the other flavors except the natural sweetness of the honey and a pleasant zest of citrus. So, you've got sweet and smoky -- smoked honey. And, yeah, it's really good. Probably would be great as a chicken marinade. You get barbecue chicken without having to barbecue.

David was in Africa to bring Ethiopians a new way to cook using the sun and not firewood. Ethiopians spend a lot of time gathering fuel for their fires. This is especially true for children. If they're looking for fuel, they're not going to school. Solar cooking, using reflective panels, is a way to heat food without fuel, thus saving time for Ethiopians to pursue more productive tasks. It's a simple, inexpensive way to improve lives. (Click here for a sweet YouTube video of the project.)

Dennis and I deeply admire those who dedicate themselves to private charities. We've developed great affection for the people who work at CURE International, a charity that sets up orthopedic hospitals in the Third World.  Dennis is also involved with Rock of Africa, a group that provides mosquito nets and other essential items in sub-Saharan Africa. You watch these people in action -- doctors who could be working for top dollar in the finest hospitals in the USA -- and stand in awe. When they talk about their work they do so with such passion that they just about glow. 

What is it about the human brain that derives so much satisfaction from doing this sort of selfless work? Volunteers don't profit in any monetary way -- just the opposite. Ethiopia is hardly a preferred vacation spot. So, how do you explain it -- altruism. I don't have a great answer, but I will say this: there's a spark of the divine in the equation somewhere. Of that I am sure.  

So, thanks for the smoky honey, David, and thanks for the good work.

I enjoy your comments. Send them to allen@dennisprager.com

 

Name:  Hudson's Sweeties Pure Honey

You can buy it:  In Southern New Jersey or you can call 856-468-1367 and order some.

Country:  New Jersey, USA

Color:  Maple Syrup

Flavor:  A sweet, buttery malt taste with hints of dark chocolate. Very clean, fresh follow through.

Consistency:  Thick, but with an easy flow.

Fragrance:  Light wildflower scent

Notes:  I really liked this honey. Susie, my wife, went crazy for it. It has an unusual taste and it took me longer than usual to lock in to what that taste was, but I liked it instantly.

This honey also provoked a strong food association -- pancakes.  I asked Susie if she would whip up her wonderful cottage cheese variety and she graciously obliged.  Honey met pancakes and bliss was achieved.   This honey comes in a cute Buddha bear container, so you can squeeze it over pancakes as if it were syrup.  Of course, you can also just hold it over your mouth and squeeze, something I've been doing a lot of lately.

Prager listener Helen O'Connor has been buying this honey, she writes, for "a couple of decades"  from a local family of beekeepers.  The bees work the wild flowers of the fabled New Jersey Pine Barrens. One doesn't tend to associate New Jersey with vast forest, lakes and streams, but that would be a mistake. Southern New Jersey and the Pine Barrens are an enormous area of unspoiled wilderness, the largest, in fact, east of the Mississippi.  You can see this by looking at this Google Map . You can find out more about the Pine Barrens here.

John McPhee, the Pultizer Prize winning essayist and non-fiction writer, made the Pine Barrens the subject of one of his early books.  My beloved late brother, Mark, the inspiration behind the Honey Journal was a big fan of McPhee's and read everything he wrote.  Usually, whatever Mark read, I read, but somehow McPhee escaped that pattern. Now as result of getting a Buddha honey bear from a Southern New Jersey listener, I'm inspired to read McPhee.  Life is one long chain of associations, often unexpected ones.

Let me give you a good example.  Last year, Dennis, his wife, Sue, and I drove from the Democratic convention in Denver to the Republican convention in Minneapolis.  It was a out of our way, but we drove through North Dakota because it was one state that Dennis hadn't been to.  When we crossed the border, we pulled over next to the Welcome to North Dakota sign. Dennis got down on his knees and kissed the ground -- a great moment. I have pictures and video.  That night we stopped in Jamestown, North Dakota. There wasn't any plan to do so. It just happened.

Jamestown, it turned out,  is famous (sort of) for two things: it has the world's largest buffalo statue and is the birthplace of Louis L'Amour, who along with Agatha Christie, is probably the most widely read writer of fiction in the twentieth century.  L'Amour's specialty was Westerns.  Being an English literature snob,  I had never read one.  But now after this random stop in Jamestown and a visit to the Louis L'Amour house, I became interested.  So far I've read four of his books from the Sackett series and I think they're terrific -- and timeless.

If you're having a tough time getting your teenage son,  grandson or nephew to read anything beside comic books, give them a Louis L'Amour novel.  Not only are they fast-paced and full of great values, they're very well written.  Academics may turn up their noses at L'Amour,  but you don't sell millions of books if you don't write well.

A final note on Jamestown and L'Amour:  while we were there, the wind blew like a hurricane, almost non stop.   I couldn't help wondering what it would be like to live there in the winter.  L'Amour didn't wonder.  He knew.  He left Jamestown as soon as he could and spent most of his life, living and writing his great American novels from his home in Bel Air, California.

This unusual honey is not easy to come by since it's not available on the Internet. But it's worth a phone call. Your mood will improve when you taste what's in the Honey Buddha. And who knows what associations it will inspire in you.


I enjoy your comments. Send them to allen@dennisprager.com

 

Name:  Ours Brun Rosemary Honey

You can buy it:  In Chicago at the fabulous gourmet food shop Fox and Obel. Or on the Internet here. 

Country:  France    

Color:  Caramel

Flavor:  Pleasant mix of cashews and golden raisins -- sweet, but not cloying.

Consistency:  Medium thick, but will separate of over time, the thinner honey rising to the top and the thicker honey falling to the bottom.

Fragrance:  Light floral bouquet.

Notes: 

Somehow it figures that a honey from France would have a subtle and sophisticated flavor.  This one is very light on the pallet, making no attempt to overwhelm you.  Even though my preference leans toward stronger honeys, there is definitely a place for this one in my collection. 

I searched for some hint of rosemary, the herb from which this honey is harvested, but I couldn't detect any. There is not necessarily a one-to-one taste relationship between the flower and the honey. Tupelo Honey, maybe my favorite,  tastes nothing like the berries from a tupelo tree, I'm sure.  On the other hand, I've found that honey harvested from orange trees has an obvious orange flavor.  Perhaps the pollen from fruit and berries carry more of the taste of the fruit than the pollen of herbs or flowers. I'll have to conduct my own personal survey. 

It's almost exactly two years since I started The Honey Journal.  I've been surprised and delighted with the response it's generated.  I've achieved a certain modest level of notoriety as the executive producer of the Dennis Prager Show, in no small part due to Dennis's idiosyncratic description of me as a misanthropic curmudgeon, which really just means I don't laugh at the things he finds hilarious. What he finds hilarious would surprise you, but that's another story. 

But if I'm known as the producer of the show, I'm just as much recognized as Mr. Honey.  When I meet listeners of the show, they are just as likely to ask me about honey as they are about politics or Dennis.

The most gratifying response I get is when someone tells me that because of the Honey Journal or hearing me talk about honey on the show, they've tried the real thing -- the unprocessed, unheated, untreated, straight from the hive honey (like this French honey).  Many have really been pleasantly surprised about the difference in taste between generic, filtered honey (probably imported from China) and raw honey.

Listeners have also  been very generous in sending me their local honeys.  I've received them from around the country and  the world. One listener airmailed me some honey from Russia which I didn't review because it almost killed me (slight exaggeration). But I was very touched that he took the time and trouble to send it to me.  It wasn't his fault that it tasted like manure.

Some listeners and readers have seriously suggested that I open a Honey Store. I like the idea, but can't quite get my head around the business model. For now think I think I'll stick to my reviews.  

 

Honey Journal #26

Name:  WC Kester Apiaries Meadowfoam Honey

You can buy it:  At the Farmers Market in Salem, Oregon or on the Internet here.

Country:  Oregon, USA

Color:  Maple Syrup

Flavor:  Sweet vanilla with a hint of clove at the finish

Consistency:  Medium thick

Fragrance:  Box of raisins

Notes:

I'm in Oregon a lot because my parents and brother and sister live there.  And, of course, I'm always on the lookout for honey. My mother makes a trip to the Farmers Market in Salem every week and when I was there a few weeks ago,  I went with her. That's where I found this delicious nectar.

Meadowfoam is a very hardy herb that grows in dry soil, mostly on the West Coast, though especially in Oregon.  It produces a fragrant flower that creates a cloud-like canopy, a foam, if you will, of white.  During the spring and summer flowering,  the bees find it to be a very tasty treat.  

WC Kester Apiaries has a long history in the bee and honey business, going back to 1941. In addition to harvesting their own honey, they ship their bees all over Oregon, California and Washington to help pollinate the cherry and almond crops. Like everyone else in that line of work, they've been struggling with the sudden decimation of their bee colonies (Colony Collapse Disorder or CCD), but, according their own reports, they seem to be holding their own.

There have been some promising developments  on the CCD front, but as I've written before, it's doubtful scientists will find a magic cure to this problem. The over "farming" of bees -- shipping them long distances multiple times a year -- has stressed their immune systems to the breaking point .  Better bee management rather than a new anti-biotic or anti-fungal treatment is going to be the long term solution.

People often ask me how I eat my honey. Mostly, I take it straight, that is, scoop it out of the jar with a tea spoon. I like it to retain the nectar in my mouth for a little while to savor the flavor. But I use honey in other ways, too.  When I was staying at my parents, I used this honey to sweeten the plain yogurt I put on top of my oat meal. I have to say,  it made my breakfast.

If you're looking for an everyday honey that you might use to sweeten coffee, tea, cereal or even cook with this bee creation from the foaming flowers of Oregon is certainly worth a try.

 

 

Honey Journal #24

Name: Fowler’s Texas Cream Honey

You can buy it:  On the Internet here

Country:  Texas, USA

Color:  Light sandstone

Flavor:  A swirl of carmel taffy and chocolat with a sweet Texas grapefruit kick.

Consistency:  Buttery

Fragrance:  Citrus and Chocolate



Notes: 

This honey was sent to me by a listener from Texas who, I’m proud to report, has become a honey aficionado while reading this journal.  This is his favorite honey and it’s not hard to see why. Although the taste isn’t conventional, it is compelling. I keep finding myself going to back to this honey for just one more taste.  Don’t expect this jar to be around long, if you decide to sample it.

The honey is harvested by the Fowler Family in La Vernia, Texas, population, 931, outside of San Antonio who rightly take great pride in their small business and have put up an excellent web site.  

We have a great station in San Antonio,  930AM KLUP I noticed checking the KLUP web site  that they have an iPhone app, so that you can listen to Dennis and the other hosts on their station on your iPhone.  Theoretically, this should mean that you can listen to Dennis on your iPhone from anywhere in the world.  KLUP replays the show in the evening.  If someone tests this app and it works, please let me know at allen@dennisprager.com. I don’t have an iPhone or I’d do it myself.  

Another aside: The Texas grapefruit reference reminds me of my late, beloved Uncle Ben, my mother’s brother.  Ben was one of those guys you just wanted to hang around with: charming, unflappable, a pied piper without try to being one.  I was crazy about him. His personality was personified in his picture perfect golf swing. We’d go out to the course together and he’d send the ball flying down the middle of fairway for 200 plus yards, hole after hole.  He made the game, like everything he did, look easy.

It wasn’t always so, however. As a young man just out of the army, he failed at business after business.  A friend suggested that he come to El Paso, Texas where, this friend assured him, there was a lot of opportunity. This was El Paso in the early 50’s, not exactly a booming metropolis, but he had nothing to do lose so he went. And he liked it. He came back to Chicago and told his wife, my Aunt Dolly, that they were moving to southwest Texas. Dolly, who came from a prominent Chicago family, said there was no way she was going to some God-forsaken place where there was no culture, no deli and 110 in the shade, if there was any shade.
 
Ben’s mind was made up. El Paso was the future: Chicago was the past. If she stayed, they were finished. She went. Ben quickly got a job selling pants for a company very few people had heard about it outside the western states; that company was Levi Strauss.

Ben was a good salesman and made a nice living. He used a good chunk of the money he made to buy stock in his employer. He believed in the company and the product. They treated him well. Then, in the early sixties, something unexpected happened. Levi jeans became the uniform of every college kid and then high school kid in the country. In those days, there was no competition, no competing brands. You didn’t buy jeans, you bought Levis. You’re only decision was whether you bought button fly or zipper.

By this point, Ben was the number one salesperson for the company and had amassed a lot of shares of the company stock. He and Dolly became prominent citizens in El Paso, a town that had started growing by leaps and bounds, but not before Ben had purchased a nice chunk of local real estate.

This is a very long introduction to my Texas grapefruit story. Ben would visit us in Chicago every couple of years. And when he came he would bring a box of grapefruit with him – Texas ruby reds. He would brag that they were the sweetest you could find anywhere, much sweeter than those tasteless yellow ones from Florida (his description).

So, when I tasted that grapefruit kick in this honey, it reminded me of my Uncle Ben, may he rest in peace. Texas grapefruit always does.

 

Honey Journal #23

Name: Big Island Bees Organic Hawaiian Honey: Wilelaiki Blossom

You can buy it:  At Whole Foods or on the Internet here.

Country:  Hawaii, USA

Purchased:  December, 2008

Color:  Lemon curd

Flavor:  Distinct taste of brown sugar with a malt finish.

Consistency:  Thick and grainy

Fragrance:  Lemony

Notes:  I have written about more honey from Hawaii than from any other place.  I’m beginning to form the opinion that it’s the center of the honey universe.  The reason may be that they take their honey very seriously there.  A lot of people are involved in trade; they take great care and pride in their bees; and they focus on mono floral honeys.

This one from the Wilelaiki flower, the Hawaiian name for the Christmas Berry Tree, with its unusual lemon curd color grabbed my attention the moment I saw it. I wasn’t expecting the brown sugar taste, but the surprise could not have been more pleasant. The reason for this is easily explained -- I love brown sugar. As I kid, I would seek out my mom’s supply and scoop out a teaspoon whenever I thought the coast was clear.

I have to believe, without having any data to support it, that this honey is healthier than brown sugar.  For one thing, it’s not refined.  Try mixing it in your oatmeal.  Or forget about the oatmeal and just take it straight, always my preferred method.
 

Honey Journal  #22

Name: Oregon Growers and Shippers, Blackberry Honey. Raw and Unfiltered.

You can buy it:  Roth's Food Markets in Oregon or on the Internet here.

Country:  Oregon, USA

Purchased:  March, 2009

Color:  Oak

Flavor:  Warm cotton candy with slight hints of blackberry    

Consistency:  Atomic  and very grainy.

Fragrance:  Very faint chocolate milk, but I'm reaching.

Notes: 

This the kind of honey that you'd find in Granny's kitchen.  The scene goes something like this:  you come into town for a visit. At breakfast, while Granny is off at her water aerobics class at the Y, you make yourself breakfast. You look for something to put on your toasting English muffin. You find this honey on the pantry shelf behind the Cream of Rice.  You carve a teaspoon out of the jar and spread it over a top of the muffin. The honey melts into the Smart Balance and you're very happy. When Granny comes home, you find out that she bought the honey in 1964 and forgot that she still had it. Doesn't matter.  Like Granny, it hasn't aged. 

Since it's a monofloral honey, obviously raw and unfiltered, I really wanted to find those blackberries. I did, but not in the obvious, "wow" sort of way I was hoping.  When I thought about it I realized that blackberries really aren't really a "taste me!" kind of berry. They're pretty subtle in the best of circumstances, often leaning to the tart. They make great pies and jams but they need the help of a lot of sugar and, in the case of the pie, a great crust.

I picked up this honey in Salem, Oregon where my parents live.  I was there to celebrate my dad's birthday. My parents live in a lovely ranch house on a bend in the Willamette River which this time of year, flooded with the winter rains and mountain runoff, is fast moving and about an eighth of a mile wide.  Right now, from their patio window I can see ducks landing in the water. The current is so swift that when they land against the current, they are immediately swept down river. It's funny to see: the ducks flying in hell bent for leather and just as fast carried backwards by the river. Nature stages these vaudeville sketches (wart hogs bouncing over the plains of the Masai Mara would be another example) all the time. You just have to be in the right place at the right time to appreciate them.

My mother is a certified master gardener, so in the summer her small garden is a bouquet of flowers and vegetables, but now, in the early spring, is pretty drab, except for the jonquils which have popped up sunny yellow. The cotton, oak and fruit trees are still naked. There is no suggestion that in six weeks they'll all be covered in young green leaves.
 
There are advantages to this: the view of the river and the wild life is unobstructed. I was up early this morning and out in the backyard.  It was like Times Square at rush hour. Everybody was moving - finches at the feeder, squirrels jumping from branch to branch, robins digging up worms, woodpeckers drilling for bugs, ducks bobbing in the river, geese foraging in the grass. And everybody was talking, especially the geese, who honk, like a Lima, Peru cab driver, at the slightest excuse.

Back to our honey: It's so dense that it would probably last the normal honey user a year and easily longer. That's a good thing. Every honey collection needs a honey like this one -- earthy, dependable, solid and, let us not forget, sweet.
 

Name: Honey of Nosy Komba

You can buy it:  In the village of Nosy Komba, Madagascar

Country:  Madagascar

Purchased:  February, 2009

Color:  Dark amber

Flavor:  Dark chocolate with hints of coconut and traces of malt. Think: Dark Chocolate Mounds Bar.   

Consistency:  Medium

Fragrance:  Faint chocolate.  

Notes: I bought this honey on our recent Prager listener cruise which began in Mombassa, Kenya and ended in the Seychelle Islands. I look for honey wherever I go, but finding it is a lot harder than you might think. Processed honey is available the world over, but the unprocessed, local honey that I’m looking for is, often as not, a treasure hunt. Sometimes I find it where I least expect it.

One of our stops on this cruise was an island just off the northwest coast of Madagascar, Nosy Komba. Thickly forested, volcanic hills sloping up from the beach, the island is notable for its lemurs. You don’t have to go far to find them. They pretty much own the island. Fortunately, they are quite happy to interact with humans, especially those offering bananas. For Susie, who has always been a big lemur fan, this was a small slice of heaven. We also saw chameleons of astonishing green and orange, very big tortoises, and some intimidating snakes.

 

The people in the town set up stands selling local wares. They specialize in hand-stitched table clothes many of which were quite beautiful. We were just about to leave when I spotted a woman selling, among other things, local honey. Lemurs and chameleons were a thrill, but finding local honey pretty close to the middle of nowhere; that really got me excited.

I had to wait another ten days to open the jar. I didn’t want to risk taking an unsealed jar through Customs. As far as what it would taste like, I didn’t know what to expect. The dark chocolate flavor was a pleasant surprise.

You’ll have to travel literally half way around world, 12 times zones, to sample this honey. Until then, take my word for it: its unusual taste matches its exotic source.

Final note: I beheld the most magnificent sunset of my life as we sailed away from Madagascar -- a golden dome sky painted with splashes of red and turquoise and accompanied by a flotilla of clouds so low that you'd swear  they were five feet above the water. Just like honeys taste different depending on where they come from; sunsets appear different depending where you are in the world.

None are more stunning the ones I saw in Africa on this trip.  

Postscript: I just received a lovely note from Donald Smiley, the owner of Smiley Apiaries and the maker of my new current favorite honey, Smiley ApiariesTupelo Honey, a honey that I describe as liquid sunshine. Following a "Honey Update" on the show, Donald received a lot of orders from Prager Listeners. I can't tell you how thrilled I was to hear this. 

If you wondering what all the fuss is about click on #19..

 

Name: Native Chilean Raw Honey. Ulmo Tree Honey.

You can buy it:  At Whole Foods or on the Internet here.

Country:  Chile

Purchased:  January, 2009

Color:  Lemon Curd

Flavor:  Anise with strong element of black currents.  Has a very pleasant, lingering black licorice aftertaste.  

Consistency:  Thick.  

Fragrance:  Anise seed.

Notes:  Why don’t Peruvians, Bolivians and Ecuadorians look to Chile as their model rather than to some Leftist lunatic like Hugo Chavez? South America remains one of the great economic mysteries to me.  I’ve been there twice and thoroughly enjoyed my visits. The people are hard-working and ambitious. You can feel the energy in the air – whether that air be in Brazil, Peru or Argentina. Sometimes, like in Lima, you can literally hear the energy with car and mini-bus horns blaring, day and night. But these countries always manage to squander whatever progress they make by embracing demagogues like Chavez and their utopian, guaranteed-to-fail, socialist fantasies.

Chile is the one clear exception. For three decades it has been a model of free market capitalism and has thrived. It has the most vibrant economy, the best education system, the least crime and the highest standard of living on the continent.  Much of the winter produce in American supermarkets comes from Chile. They are also the world’s leading producers of salmon and have developed a rapidly expanding and improving wine sector. Santiago, the capital has the temperate climate of San Diego and the cosmopolitan life-style to match.

The Chileans almost blew it in the early 1970’s when they elected the Marxist Salvador Allende, one of the Left’s great martyrs to lead the country. He was quickly leading it off the proverbial cliff when he was overthrown by a military coup headed by General Augusto Pinochet. With some help from the CIA and economist Milton Friedman, Pinochet, reviled by Leftists at universities world-wide, saved the country. That’s not the politically correct version of Chile’s history, but it happens to be true. As usual, Paul Johnson, the British historian, in his must-read Modern Times provides a brief and compelling summary of these events.

Back to honey: This honey is monofloral, harvested by Chilean bees from the Ulmo Tree. I’ve never heard of it, but from the pictures I’ve seen, it’s very pretty. It grows abundantly in Chile and Argentina and blooms in February and March, the South American equivalent of our July and August. It’s large, camellia-like, white flowers make it a tempting bee destination.

The anise, licorice flavors hits you immediately and stays with you for minutes afterwards. Beautifully packaged and easily available from a very stylish website, once again Chile leads in the way for her South American neighbors.

 

Honey Journal #19

Name: Smiley Apiaries Tupelo Honey

You can buy it: On the Internet here.

Country: Florida, USA

Purchased: October 2008

Color: Rapunzel gold

Flavor:Rich and buttery with a clear statement of clove. Feels warm and soothing as it coats your throat. Very sweet, but not cloying.

Consistency: Medium.

Fragrance:A suggestion of cut hay.

Notes:You might call this entry Tupelo II. I have read and heard so much about this prized honey that I didn’t want to just leave it at one go. Plus, I thought it would be interesting to do a taste comparison. This particular brand, Smiley Apiaries and its crusty, dedicated owner, Donald Smiley, achieved some notoriety in Holley Bishop’s fine book, Robbing the Bees which I have heartily recommended in a previous entry.

Parenthetically, I just finished another excellent book on bees, Fruitless Fall, by Rowan Jacobson.The author seeks to unravel the mystery behind the Colony Collapse Disorder, the sudden death of so many bees. It’s well written and full of fascinating information about bees and the role they play in modern farming. I’ll have more to say about this book in another entry, but let me note now that I strongly recommend it.

Jacobson has exhaustively research the CCD problem and reached a challenging conclusion: it’s not one thing that’s decimating the bees; it’s many. Bee-killing mites, pesticides, overwork, and forced travel (bees shipped across the country in trucks) are just a few of the culprits. One problem wouldn’t be enough to do the bees in, but all together they compromise the bees’ immune system. Bees are at once very hardy and fragile just like everything else in nature.

Back to Smiley’s Tupelo Honey: Here’s an interesting reaction. In addition to loving the rich, buttery, clovey flavor, I can’t stop looking at the jar. This is the most beautiful honey I’ve ever seen. It relaxes it me just to study its gorgeous golden hue. And, since its Tupelo honey, as I discussed in the last entry, it never crystallizes, so there is nothing to mar its beauty. But its taste matches its good looks. Of course, it’s untreated and unheated.

The Savannah Tupelo honey that I reviewed last month was harvested in southern Georgia. Smiley’s bees work in the Florida Panhandle along the Apalachicola River basin.

Between the two Tupelos, both of which I like, I give Smiley’s the clear nod. This is honey at its best – sweet cream, true nectar. If I wanted to introduce someone to the good stuff, this honey would be my first choice. As a Christmas gift for a honey lover or potential one, you couldn’t do better.

 

Honey Journal Entry #18

Name: Savannah Bee Tupelo Honey

You can buy it:  On the Internet here.

Country:  USA

Purchased:  May 2008

Color:  Sunrise gold

Flavor:  Rich and creamy with a pleasant lavender flavor.  

Consistency:  Medium.

Fragrance:  Very mild with a suggestion of cotton candy. 

Notes: One honey world’s most famous and prized productions, Tupelo honey can only be harvested for a few weeks in April and May, mostly in the river basins of Southern Georgia and Northern Florida.  Since the Tupelo tree’s white blossoms burst open for only a brief period, the bees and their keepers have their work cut out for them. Bad weather or an early frost can compromise the crop, so it’s a tense time, too. But there’s a big payoff – a smooth, picture-book golden honey with a distinct lavender flavor that, because of certain unique chemical properties, never crystallizes.

Something else about this honey that's different. Normally honey is 60 calories per tablespoon. This one is 45.

Van Morrison, who I have mentioned before in these pages, produced a famous rock album, “Tupelo Honey,”  in the early seventies. “She’s as sweet as Tupelo honey” is one of the lyrics of the title song. If so, she was very sweet.

There’s another famous association with the name Tupelo, but it has nothing to do with honey. Tupelo, Mississippi is the birthplace of Elvis Presley.

 

Honey Journal Entry #17

Name: Pure Busy Bee Farm Honey

You can buy it:  By calling the farm in Larkspur, CO at 303-657-5360 or by emailing them here. steven_lechner@msn.com.  For a little more info go here.

Country:  USA

Purchased:  September 2008

Color:  Amber

Flavor:  A very pleasant nutty flavor with a strong hint of chocolate and raisins.  

Consistency:  Medium.

Fragrance:  Chocolate honeycomb.

Notes: This honey was a gift from the Colorado Prager Group. Last month the group organized a debate between Dennis and David Sirota, a prominent progressive journalist who lives in Denver. What the Prager Group leaders pulled off frankly astonished me. They conceived, organized, staged, and

publicized the event all on their own. I don’t think I can adequately describe what this entails. There are many moving parts to these kinds of events – arranging the venue, ticket sales, publicity and so on. It’s a daunting task for full time professionals.

The debate was a smashing success. SRO as they say on Broadway. 1500 people attended. If it sounds corny to say that the Colorado Prager Group showed the “can-do” spirit that makes this country great, then so be it. They made believers out of me.

They even managed, among all the chaos, to send Dennis home with some honey. This one with the very unprepossessing name of Pure Honey from Busy Bee Farms in Larkspur, Colorado (half way between Denver and Colorado Springs) is a very soothing, rich, but not overwhelming honey perfect for every day consumption. How soothing? If I had a sore throat this is the first honey in my current collection that I would turn to. With winter coming on, you might want to have some around.

This is the one year anniversary of the Honey Journal. I’ve done 17 entries so far.  I have sampled honey from 10 different countries and 7 different states. Every country in the world, every county in the USA produces honey, so there are a lot more to try. Some honeys are more complex than others, but it’s not like tasting wine where one is sublime ( 90 on the Robert Parker scale) and one is mediocre.  First, I only taste pure, organic, unrefined, unprocessed honey – the real stuff. No homogenized mass produced supermarket honeys for me. Second, I only review what I like. In other words, they’re all good, but they’re all different.  The biggest kick I get out of this journal is noting how different honeys from different parts of the country and the world have their own distinct flavors, fragrances, and consistencies.  

This week is also the beginning of the Jewish New Year. Last week was Rosh Hashanah, this week is Yom Kippur. It seems appropriate to note that honey is God’s food. The phrase “the land of milk and honey” is a description of the Promised Land.  It appears 16 times in the Bible. Honey on its own is referred to 55 times. One tradition of Rosh Hashanah is to dip a slice of apple in honey and wish each other a sweet year.  On behalf of the Honey Journal, that’s what I wish for all of us.