Ignoring the disturbing mental imagery that honey is basically bee vomit, this is a fascinating article about one of the few foods that can, virtually, last forever:
Modern archeologists, excavating ancient Egyptian tombs, have often found something unexpected amongst the tombs’ artifacts: pots of honey, thousands of years old, and yet still preserved. Through millennia, the archeologists discover, the food remains unspoiled, an unmistakable testament to the eternal shelf-life of honey.
There are a few other examples of foods that keep–indefinitely–in their raw state: salt, sugar, dried rice are a few. But there’s something about honey; it can remain preserved in a completely edible form, and while you wouldn’t want to chow down on raw rice or straight salt, one could ostensibly dip into a thousand year old jar of honey and enjoy it, without preparation, as if it were a day old.
And, yes, the article touches on the medicinal use of honey on wounds as well…and explains why it works on wounds, which was quite interesting.
For me, honey slathered over hot cornbread or other warm baked good is all the reason I need to keep it on hand. Had I the space and time, an apiary would not be an unwelcome part of Casa Zero.
Yeah, honey doesn’t stick around long enough in my house to discover its “best used by” date.
I buy quart jars of raw honey from an elderly couple who have bees. They have a spring version that is light and sweet and a fall version that’s dark and thicker, the difference comes from the bees visiting the sugar cane fields through the summer. Love the stuff on biscuits, cornbread and toast. 👍👍👍👍..
I have a “stockage” of honey, some about 10-12 years old. I have to heat it slowly in a pot of hot water to get it to flow again, but it’s still as good as when bought new.
The dark Australian native bee is smaller than the European honey bee, and stingless. Welcomed by gardners, like most bees, even the bee-sting allergic need not fear them. Their dark, smokey honey is called ‘sugarbag’ by the natives and highly sought after by them. What will the world do if we madly keep killing off our bees? We’ll die of hunger without the humble bee to pollinate our crops. Aussie gumtrees and flowering rainforest species provide bees a food source to produce wonderfully flavoured honey.
One of the Basic 4s that the LDS church pushed for a long time. Not sure they still do (Wheat, Powdered Milk, Salt and Honey). No slouches they. Its extremely long shelf life alone makes it a good candidate for storing for use or trade.
Assuming you don’t have neighbors doing the “Scotts Yard” thing with in a couple of miles as bees forage far and wide, bees are a fun project. I especially like how after I posted my property with “A Beekeeper lives here, Please be aware Bees can be aggressive if disturbed” my casual visitors volume has dropped to near zero.
Alas between that and the geese I have to pick up my UPS-Amazon orders at the down town office.
But it is pretty quiet around here aside from the geese and buzzing 🙂
Now I’ve got the song, “Tupelo Honey” stuck in my head.
“A Beekeeper lives here, Please be aware Bees can be aggressive if disturbed”
Not that sign might actually work better than “Beware of Dog” signs!!!!
Sorry, “Now” not “Not”.
My wife and I have had a hive in our backyard for a few years. My son has been tending bees for years. He needed to separate his hives, which is necessary from time to time, so we got one of his hives. They are necessary in modern agriculture to pollinate many of our plants. They are very beneficial and interesting to watch. In the morning they come out to work and dance in the morning sun. They are one of God’s wonders. The honey is good too! They are not aggressive and we leave each other alone. Not a bad hobby. The do the work and we benefit
After trying my hand at beekeeping for a few years, I came to the conclusion I could have purchased at least 10 years worth of local honey from the local keepers and been ahead of the curve on time and expense. Yes, I learned a lot, but unless you want to do it for the joy of keeping bees, then you are better off with purchasing local raw honey (from a purely “efficiency” perspective). My 2 cents…