What's In YOUR Honey?

What's in YOUR honey?

First guess: It's not all honey.

On the left is a jar of the last of the store bought honey in my house (and probably ever). It was labeled as "local" honey and probably was, from the local large honey making corporation that most of our South Dakota honey gets sold to The honey on the left isn't part of that weird Chinese honey scandal of 2014, it came from here.

The honey on the right is also locally made--but straight from the beehive, no "processing plant" in between. The beekeeper spun it out of the honeycomb and straight into a 5-gallon pail. The only "processing" it has had was me transfering it to a jar yesterday. It has not been filtered, pastuerized or altered in any way---real, raw honey just the way the bees made it.

Why the huge color difference?

Well that's the last big thing that never happened to my honey--it never had any "sugar water" added. Adding water to store honey is standard practice today because A. The honey processor makes more money because they are literally watering it down and B. Americans tend to freak out if their honey crystallizes (a 100% natural, normal and safe process) and won't buy it if it does (extra water and pastuerization prevents that).

Personally, I think the bees probably got it right the first time and to do anything to change Nature's most perfect food is just silly poppycock on our parts. Give me the light, truly "honey-colored" stuff any day of the week--it is so DAMN GOOD!

And yes, I am going to get some more fresh, raw honey from the same beekeeper---if you haven't told me you wanted some yet, do it now!