Honey, honey pouches

Honey types:

Acacia honey has a harmonious taste. It is sweet, mellow, less acidic compared to other honeys and its taste is as luscious as the acacia flower. Its colour ranges from light yellow to almost colorless. It contains a significant amount of fructose and can therefore stay liquid for a very long time. It is also very good at sterilising and is recommended for curing coughs.

Chestnut honey is famous for containing the highest level of minerals of all honeys. It has a yellowish-brownish colour and is scented by its flower. Its smooth sweet bitter aftertaste makes it unique. Regular consumption of chestnut honey helps prevent thrombosis and combats dilatation of the veins.

Canola honey is yellow in colour and even though the fresh honey is liquid, it becomes hard (like butter) relatively quickly and changes its shade to white BUT never loses its enjoyable taste characteristics. It contains very little natural acid it therefore serves as a remedy for people with stomach problems.

Linden Honey. Although its coloration depends on the time of collection, differing from the beginning of the flowering season to the end, its taste is very revealing. It is commonly used for spicing dishes and wine, giving them strong character. It is also used to relieve fever and muscle cramp. (Mixed with different kind of honeys it enriches their flavour.)

Spring wildflower honey is mostly a great combination of wild cherry, hawthorn, wild rose and acacia flowers. It comes in a light colour, with a pleasing aroma and savoury taste.

Silkweed flower honey is known in Latin as Asclepias syriaca?s nectar. It is a pronounced condiment honey with a pleasing strong scent and taste. It is excellent for spicing raw dishes, oh my, what a taste?! NOW THAT'S A REAL ?HUNGARICUM'.

Mixed flower honey is golden yellow and gets darker with time. Transforming it into cream honey makes for a wonderful delicacy. It?s excellent for cooking and a good cordial as well. It's a must for people with sensitive stomachs!

What you should know
All honey contains a number of natural substances such as protein, enzymes and vitamins. Most of these healthy ingredients disappear from the honey once it is heated above 40C degrees. You should be aware that most of the honey on supermarket shelves has been heat-treated for easier filtering and for packaging reasons. They therefore lose most of their enzymes and vitamins. Put simply, they lose their curative power. These heat-treated products contain only a fraction of the healthy substances which honey from natural producers does.

Although some sweet products' names are combined with honey, they often contain no honey at all. Like, honeycomb, honey biscuits...etc. If you want the real stuff, buy honey products from natural producers!

It was about 100 million years ago that the first angiosperms appeared on Earth and the bees' job became indispensable, pollinating the first 'prehistoric flowers''. Thanks to evolution, the bees we know today came into being approximately 70 million years ago (while our history is only 1-2million years old). Time made these little creatures so perfect.

Before agriculture evolved, man could only collect food from nature. During their daily prowls they discovered the treasure of bees. Can you believe it? Experience with bees and honey goes back to ancient times. The Egyptians, Greeks, Chinese and Incas realized the curative power of honey before the time of Christ. They developed bee keeping and started producing honey on their own. The science of curing developed from experience and they tried to cure all kind of illnesses with honey, both external and internal. Ancient peoples used it as a cosmetic because it moisturizes the skin, and makes it supple without blocking out the air. Cleopatra took honey-milk baths regularly to preserve the tenderness of her skin. King Herod kept his dead wife in honey for 7 years to preserve her beauty. Honey had huge importance during these times. Ancient peoples were even treating external injuries with honey because its antibacterial quality prevents infections. Mixed with herbs, honey is excellent for stomach problems too. Greek sportsmen knew, thousands of years ago, that honey quickly restores energy. According to Emokritos, the body needs to be treated with oil and fed with honey to keep it healthy for a long time. He proved his theory. He died at the age of 109.

3700 years ago, the first Chinese medical book was written explaining that the secret to a long healthy life is regularly eating ginseng roots with honey. As we see, honey has enjoyed great respect since ancient times. Unfortunately modern science barely, if ever takes advantage of it.
Just like many other natural materials, honey has had to cede its place to mass-produced goods. Is that right? Or else we can rediscover the real value of our natural sources, the indispensability of these treasures. Treasure like Honey.

If honey is packaged in an airtight container, it will never perish, but in contact with air it can pick up moisture and start to ferment. The crystallization of honey is a natural process and this does not mean that it is of poor quality, as many laymen would think. Some honeys, like canola, clover, sunflower etc, start to crystallize almost right away. The crystallization process depends on the balance of glucose and fructose in the honey. The more glucose it contains, the faster the process. Our tip: give the honey a water bath, NO HOTTER THAN 40 DEGREES C! It will become liquid again.

Many people expect the same taste from the same kind of honey but because it is produced naturally, as wine is, its flavor and colour differs every year. It mostly depends on the weather and of course on the plant but the same kind of flower from a distant region can make a difference to the flavour as well. That is why the same kind of honey from other beekeepers may not produce the same experience. Now you can see why it is so hard to describe the flavour of a honey. Take my advice and just pick the one that best suits your taste.

Those who want to replace sugar with honey in their kitchen should know that 150ml-175ml of honey is as sweet as 200g of sugar and contains much fewer calories. The oven temperature has to be 15-30C degrees lower compared to sugar-based cooking. If you are making sponge cake with honey, you need to add an extra 3 spoonfuls of flour for every 200ml of honey. For cakes that contain other liquids, add 50ml less liquid for every 200ml honey. If this is the first time you try using honey recipes, use lighter tasting honey such as acacia and then gradually go for stronger flavors so the new experience won't surprise you.

Carrot cake: Yield 12 servings
1 cup oil
2 cup honey
1 ts vanilla
4 eggs
2 cups whole wheat flour
1/3 cup milk, dry skimmed
1 ts baking soda
1 ts salt
1 ts baking powder
2 ts cinnamon; ground
3 cups carrots; shredded
1 cup walnuts; chopped
In a large bowl, blend the oil and honey on a low heat until well mixed. Add the vanilla. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, blending well after each addition. Stir together the dry ingredients and add to the egg mixture until well blended. Stir in the walnuts and carrots by hand. Pour batter into a well-greased and floured 10" tube pan or fluted pan. Bake at 350oF for 50-60 minutes. Leave to cool in the pan, then top with powdered sugar or frosting of your choice.

Fruit turmix: Yield 2 servings
2 ts vanilla ice cream
200g any kind of fruit
2-3 ice cubes
2 ts honey

Did you know?
A bee has to visit approximately one million flowers full of nectar to collect only 100g honey. They fly from flower to flower until their tiny honey bags are full and then take it back to their hive. Even though the load is almost 2/3 of their body weight, they fly at over 25-30km/h, depending on wind conditions.

To produce 1kg honey, they have to full fill their honey bags 150,000 times and transport it to their hive. If the flowers are about 1,5km away from their hive, they have to fly at least 3km (distance between the flowers not included). So, it takes 450,000km of flying for one bee to collect 1kg honey. That's the same as flying around the Earth about ten times.