The Sweetness of Honey in history Just-in-time for the Apple Harvest

Honey has a sweet way of showing up in human history.

It appears in Judaism, where the Promised Land is described as flowing with “milk and honey,” and where apples dipped in honey welcome the sweetness of a new year at Rosh Hashanah.

In Christianity, the Psalms describe God's word as sweeter than honey, while John the Baptist lived in the wilderness on locusts and wild honey.

The Quran has an entire chapter named for the bee, and describes honey as a source of healing. In Hindu tradition, honey is one of the five sacred substances of panchamrita, used in offerings and wedding rituals.

And it was sacred long before any of these traditions. The ancient Greeks and Egyptians used honey in offerings, ceremonies and rituals, and imagined it as something close to the food of the gods. Different places, different centuries, different beliefs—and somehow honey keeps finding its way into the story.

Sweetness. Healing. Abundance. Something good shared by the world of the bees.

Honey itself show us manny of the good things in life are made. Slowly.

A bee visits thousands of fruit orchards. An orchard takes years to grow.

Neither can be hurried.

Especially right now in Washington.

The orchards of the Wenatchee, Chelan and Okanogan valleys are in some of the state's most active fire corridors, and this summer has been a hard one. Fires have burned across the region, homes have been lost, people have been evacuated, and farms have watched smoke settle over the trees they've spent years tending.

And the smoke affects the bees, too. Bees use patterns of polarized light in the sky to find their way between the hive and the flowers they visit. Heavy smoke can scramble those patterns, making it harder for them to navigate. Smoke can also mask the scents flowers use to attract  the bees and reduce the sunlight plants need to produce nectar and pollen.

Bees have an innate response to fire, too. When they sense smoke, they turn to the honey they've stored in the hive, drawing on it as food and energy. The honey buys them some time. Eventually, though, they need to get back to the pollen.

An apple tree doesn't simply come back next spring. It can take seven to ten years to reach full, dependable production. So when fire moves through an orchard, it doesn't just take this year's apples. It takes years of time and work to come back.

That's something honey and an orchard have in common: neither is made quickly. Both are the result of patience and care.

And perhaps that's why honey has meant so many different things to so many people. We recognize something in it. Something made slowly, something precious, something worth sharing.

Honey, sweetness in tea, the drizzle on toast and the dipping of freshly harvested apples is perfection.

And keep in mind next time you get a scratch from your cat, or a bite from a no-see-um, honey applied can give relief to the itch!

The Blue Gum is one of the tallest trees in the world, reaching up to 70 meters (230 feet) in its native habitat, though it typically grows to around 45-60 meters (150-200 feet) in the wild.

The leaves are long, narrow, and lance-shaped, often with a distinctive bluish-grey tint, which is how the tree gets its common name, Blue Gum. The leaves have an aromatic, medicinal fragrance, especially when crushed.

Blue Gums produce white to creamy flowers that are large and attract a variety of pollinators, particularly bees. These flowers are iconic for their fluffy, brush-like appearance, with prominent stamens.

The tree's flowers are a valuable nectar source for honeybees, and in some regions, eucalyptus honey is highly prized.

Bees take the nectar from the Blue Gums flowers and produce eucalyptus honey, which is known for its distinctive flavor and medicinal properties, such as being a natural remedy for colds and respiratory issues.

To the nose it smells like honey. It looks like it is smooth and easy to pour.

One spoon in and you find out it is not what the eye believes. The honey, to the touch, is almost bouncy and sticky in a firm way, not in a tacky sticky way.

It is a firm honey. Stick your spoon straight in and it won’t shift or fall over. Remove the spoon and you can see the crystals (?), not as smooth as the glossy sheen on top.

To the tongue it is as expected, smooth with a hint of texture. It does taste like you want honey to be. Squeeze it into your mouth cavity and it dissipates nicely. This is when the hidden gems within reveal themselves. As the tail end of the spoonful disappears a hint of flavor, not so easily recognizable winks at you. Similar to the notes you would get from Manuka honey, a twist that is not bitter, but an edge.

Not quite the bitterness of a tree honey, yet not the sweetness a flower honey can impart. It is just about right.

There is nothing to turn you away from having this honey everyday, this spoon dipping capable honey, makes it easy to measure for dishes, and putting in your tea, though it is not pourable if you want to drizzle.

I do really like this honey. For a daily honey this one fits the bill!

This honey comes from the rich clover fields of Tasmania's dairying farmlands. The nectar comes not only from clover, but from blackberry hedgerows that divide the fields, the buttercups that grow along the mountain streams, and the wildflowers that are found in the nearby forests.

Meadow honey has a mild and delecate character and a very smooth finish. The honey has not been filtered or heated, so it comes to you in it's pure, natural state with all it's pura a natural flavors in tact.

This wonderful honey is smooth and delicate. With a wonderful flavor that is more than "honey", it changes as it flows through your mouth. Subtle with personality!

Gathered at the foothills of the California coastal mountain range, black sage honey is a medium amber color in the jar, and on the spoon it is a light amber color that looks so natural the color of purity. With wonderful notes of flowers, the flavor floats and flows freely across your tongue and through your mouth. One never tires of the taste of freshness that fills your senses. If you like honey that flows and never crystallizes, then this is the honey for you.

Beyond tea, it is perfect with cheese or drizzled across a salad or a grilled peach. Don't miss out on having this once-in-every-4-out-of-10-year honey for your tummy and you can store it for a lifetime ... if you can resists its wonder!

Some things to try it ....

* in your coffee
* in your cookies
* on your cheese
* in your oatmeal
* with your tomatoes
* in your salad

An excellent show case for honey, maple syrup or molasses. This recipe works best with a runny honey. If using a solid-style honey, you can heat the honey up to 95 degrees - hot enough to liquefy the honey but not hot enough to kill the natural health qualities of the honey - before using.

Whole cramelized onions are used as a garnish for roasted meats or birds, served with sauteed potatoes and a comforting red wine from a sunny place, a Chateauneuf-du-Pape, for example. The key to successfully caramalizing onions is to take your time. the end result, though, is amazing - and a wonderful side, especially if you like sweet onions.

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There’s Manuka honey…and then there’s bio-active Manuka from Tasmania.

The Tasmanian Honey Company’s Bio-Active Manuka Honey is harvested from the remote wilderness of Tasmania, where the Leptospermum (Tea Tree) blooms in one of the world’s last great temperate wild regions. Founder Julian Wolfhagen built his company around a simple idea: work in harmony with the environment that makes this honey possible.

This Manuka is creamier and milder than the intensely sharp “highly active” versions—but still carries those unmistakable almondy notes and the resinous, herbal fragrance that defines true Manuka. Clean and complex, the flavor will stick with you (no pun intended!).

What makes it special isn’t just flavor. Manuka honey contains methylglyoxal (MGO)—the naturally occurring antibacterial compound that sets it apart. The MGO rating tells you how much is present per kilo (for example, 100+ MGO = at least 100mg/kg, lab verified). It also contains leptosperin, a compound unique to Manuka, used to confirm authenticity and purity—with Australian Manuka testing particularly high.

Unlike Leatherwood honey, which relies on hydrogen peroxide activity, Manuka’s antibacterial properties come specifically from MGO. It’s a different mechanism. A different honey altogether.

Stir into warm tea. Spoon over yogurt. Pair with aged cheese. Or take it straight from the jar.

Acacia honey is actually from a false acacia, Robinia pseudoacacia, commonly known as black locust, a tree native to eastern North America and widely planted in Europe.

Acacia honey has lower acid content than other honeys and its high fructose content means that it can stay liquid for a long time. It's color ranges from a light yellow to white to clear.

The Acacia honey from Apidis is a very pale yellow and very runny. Because it tastes so purely sweet, it is the perfect all-purpose honey to have around you pantry. Perfect for french pastry!

Though we automatically pop these particular prunes into our mouths right away because they are such a treat, prunes are a special way to naturally sweeten your recipes.

Prunes do especially well with pork in savory dishes. Even simple ones like bacon-wrapped sausages with prunes are super easy to make and celebrate the prune.

California is the source of most of the prunes in this country, but France is the home of the most splendid prune of all Pruneaux D'Agen from Agen, France.

When you try one of these pitted sun-dried plums for the first time, you realize that not all prunes are the same. Those dried, wrinkly, chewy ones I grew up with are nothing like these, which are a totally different eating experience.

With their micro-thin skins, they are absolutely melt-in-your-mouth delicious, and just as good for snacking as they are for either sweet or savory dishes, like Bruce Aidells' and Denis Kelly's Braised Pork with Port and Prunes, or rich North African-style tagines, which incorporate warm spices like cinnamon or allspice with prunes and meat, often lamb.

This is a fun recipe to make. It takes some easy work to get wonderful results and is perfect to make and share with family and friends.

How Paula Wolfert found this recipe is a wonderful story and shows that she lived her life to learn these recipes and put them in her cookbook. This one is from the Rif Mountains, where the people do their own thing. Add her cookbook "CousCous" to your library!

When it comes to strawberry there are a zillion of those. And these days they are often more jelly like than jam smooth.

Some tout theirs big chunks of berry, which quite frankly ruins the spreadability of the jam. It is like spreading jam with speed bumps. And many are sickly sweet, not in a happy sugar kind of way. More like a bad taffy that is stuck to your teeth way.

And then there is this Fraise (strawberry) jam, it tastes like strawberry, like you want it too.

The morsels that are left are not visual chunks of bumps. Instead, they are like packets of strawberry explosions. Or are they more like a bite of strawberry flesh you are eating?

In any case the jam is sweet, of course, with sugar, yet when you are done with a spoonful, it is the flavor of strawberry that remains.

This French Strawberry Jam is like what you remember and want it to be. It is worth always having on hand for the daytime and for the late night saltines, peanut butter and Fraise jam. Just like what I used to do in high school.

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Plumped Ginger-Caramel Shrimp Recipe

— Ann E., ChefShop Reader

use the Cold Mountain Dry White Rice Koji as an amazing hack to dry-age steak, or really any protein of your choice, by taking the rice (the vehicle to carry the spores) and grinding it up in a blender to make a fine powder. Then rub it on your meat.

You can add spices, salt ... really most everything you normally do that is dry; whatever flavors you're used to. Place on a rack over a pan in the fridge for 48 hours for best results. Really that's it. After 48 hours, scrape the crust off and rinse. Then, cook as you normally would, just a little shorter.

The use of koji with food is really about the fifth dimension; changing the composition so your taste is rewarded. It's magic! Think of changing and making food better with just a little pixie koji dust!
Shop now for Cold Mountain Dry Rice Koji here!

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