White Honey From Tigray: Distinct Flavor from Dizzying Heights

by: NourishingthePlanet

Mon Jan 31, 2011 at 08:25:44 AM PST

Ethiopia accounts for twenty-four percent of African honey production.  One of its most unique and flavorful honeys is produced only in the very northern part of the country, in the Mountains of Tigray, at an elevation of 2,300 meters above sea level.

Once a year, during the main rainy season, the rocky and arid mountains produce a short and diverse flowering period. A variety of blossoming indigenous plants found nowhere else in the world contribute to the honey's distinct and sweet flavor. And the isolated region has, until recently, been relatively protected from land degradation and urban sprawl that has damaged bee populations in other parts of the country.

The honey is a traditional delicacy, served steamed with white bread as a festival meal and used to make tej, a honey-wine recognized as the national drink of Ethiopia.  It is also a critical source of income for the region and producers sell the honey in both local and national markets.

Urban Beekeeping

by: Jill Richardson

Thu Apr 02, 2009 at 15:02:50 PM PDT

"beekeeping backwards" -- working with nature and not thinking that keeping is just about money and honey.

To illustrate that, the article quotes a couple who raises bees:

Russell Bates and Amy Seidenwurm, a married couple living in Silver Lake, are new keepers...

"At first, we thought: 'We're gonna get honey! We're gonna get honey!' " Bates said. But now the couple are excited about the bees themselves.

"We have a lot of affection for our bees. They're like our 50,000 pets," Seidenwurm said.

They even describe an urban beekeeper who does house calls to rescue bees and give them happy new homes. And it makes a rather simple case that Colony Collapse Disorder is no mystery at all. When your #1 purpose is money and honey and you forget about the bees, no wonder they are dying - whether it's pesticides, crappy food, trekking all over the country each year with no opportunity to adapt to local seasons, etc.

Apparently the article was so popular that the LA Times had to follow it up with a blog post with instructions on how to be a beekeeper.

Honey and Bee Sampler Platter

by: Jill Richardson

Tue Mar 03, 2009 at 16:54:01 PM PST

• From the USDA: In 2008, honey production was up 8 percent over 2007 (PDF). You might wonder how this can be if we are suffering from CCD - colony collapse disorder. Well, there are 6 percent less colonies in 2008 than in 2007 BUT each one produced more honey by an average of 15 percent. And despite the increase in supply, the price went up too (to a record high), by 31 percent over 2007.

• About that Colony Collapse Disorder, here's a great piece on honeybees under attack on all fronts. Apparently even though France banned the suspected cause of CCD, neonicotinoid insecticides, French bees are still dying! Another possible cause is the varroa mite, which has spread from Siberia around the world (except Australia).

Every Third Bite

by: asimbagirl

Mon Feb 16, 2009 at 15:11:46 PM PST

At any rate, during our email conversations, I learned that Wendy had recently produced her first documentary short, about honeybees. She sent me a link to her film, and I have to tell you, watching this short 9 minute documentary did change my life.

More, including a link to her documentary, below.

Fraudulent Foods

by: Jill Richardson

Sat Jan 24, 2009 at 08:00:00 AM PST

This isn't terribly surprising to me, given what I've heard about cheese with milk protein concentrate (that's a fancy sounding word to mean the remains of milk after anything valuable has been removed... it's cheap and that's why they use it) and at one point there was some noise about re-defining chocolate so you could replace cocoa butter with cheaper ingredients.

Here's USA Today's list:

• Wild salmon: In a study, over half were actually farmed salmon.
• Red snapper: Sorry, it's usually actually tilapia.
• Olive oil: A percent of your oil may actually be a cheaper oil like soybean oil - or it might be olive oil, just a lower grade of it that is labeled and priced as extra virgin. (I recommend Temecula olive oil to make sure you're getting the real stuff)
• Honey: You might be getting beet sugar instead
• Maple syrup: This may be diluted with water or sugar
• Vanilla: Might actually be vanillin

Illegal Honey Trafficking?

by: Jill Richardson

Sun Jan 04, 2009 at 02:24:45 AM PST

• Big shipments of contaminated honey from China are frequently laundered in other countries -- an illegal practice called "transshipping" -- in order to avoid U.S.import fees, protective tariffs or taxes imposed on foreign products that intentionally undercut domestic prices.
• In a series of shipments in the past year, tons of honey produced in China passed through the ports of Tacoma and Long Beach, Calif., after being fraudulently marked as a tariff-free product of Russia.
• Tens of thousands of pounds of honey entering the U.S. each year come from countries that raise few bees and have no record of producing honey for export.
• The government promises intense scrutiny of honey crossing our borders but only a small fraction is inspected, and seizures and arrests remain rare.
• The feds haven't adopted a legal definition of honey, making it difficult for enforcement agents to keep bad honey off the shelves.

More headlines:
Antibiotic use could taint honey's reputation as a miracle drug
Experts call for better U.S. standards for honey
U.S. honey producers don't have it easy, and some say industry board isn't helping
Don't let claims on honey labels dupe you: If it's made in America, it's likely not organic

If your farmers' market is like mine, you can get some fantastic honey there. Given how sleezy the larger global industry appears based on these articles, it's a relief to know I can buy truly organic and truly local honey from people I know and trust.

Sweet

by: by foot

Fri Jul 18, 2008 at 22:14:01 PM PDT

I'm certainly not what you'd call an experienced beekeeper -- although I'd been around them a bit 20 years ago, we just acquired our first hive this Spring.  I'd been looking forward to it for months.

After separating the honey from the big chunks of wax with a collander, we ran the honey through a screen sieve before decanting to jars. Linden honey is considered to be a very fine type of honey.  It's light in color, and has a wonderful, almost minty flavor that I'd never tasted before.

Penny gave me a top bar hive last Christmas, and through the same local beekeeper who sold her the hive, boxed up a swarm of bees in May.  The beekeeper had been contacted by another beekeeper in nearby Arvada, who had a vigorous hive that had swarmed, resulting in a big ball of bees on a nearby shrub.