HONEY

Bees are the only insect that makes a food—honey—eaten by humans. And they have been doing it for 20 million years, 18 to 19 million years longer than we’ve been eating it.

Flowers and other blossoming plants have glands that produce sugary nectar. Worker bees suck up the nectar and water and store it in a special honey stomach. When the stomach is full the bee returns to the hive and puts the nectar in an empty honeycomb. Natural chemicals from the bee’s head glands and the evaporation of the water from the nectar change the nectar into honey.

In cooking, because of its higher fructose content (and stronger “sweet” taste), honey is not a 1-to-1 substitute for granulated sugar in recipes. Also, honey doesn’t substitute where sugar granules are a necessary factor; for instance, in whipping egg whites.

Store honey at room temperature and away from light and it will last indefinitely. As long as it is sealed, honey will never spoil, oxidize or mold—ever. Added to water, it will ferment very, very slowly and then we have honey wine, or what is called “mead.”

Honey crystallizes naturally (especially at cold temperatures). In fact, Europe prefers whipped, crystallized honey (also called creamed honey) over our free-running honey.

Honey is not mere food; it is also good medicine. Unlike plain sugar, it contains small amounts of antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, and amino acids, not to mention more flavor. Research centered in New Zealand illustrates the way honey helps heal skin wounds (something known to the ancients, only recently rediscovered by us). It is a natural humectant (it attracts and absorbs water); hence, it deprives bacteria of an ideal environment.

Honey Facts

• Honey is 80 percent sugars and 20 percent water.

• Honey is the only food that includes all the substances necessary to sustain life, including water.

• Out of 20,000 species of bees, only 4 make honey.

• To make just one pound of honey, the bees in the colony must visit 2 million flowers and fly over 55,000 miles. One pound of honey is the lifetime work of 768 bees.

• A typical beehive can make up to 400 pounds of honey per year.

• Bees produce honey as food stores for the hive during the long months of winter when flowers aren’t blooming and therefore little or no nectar is available to them.

• Honeybees’ wings stroke 11,400 times per minute, thus making their distinctive buzz.

• A queen honeybee lives, on average, 18 months. A worker honeybee, 15-40 days in the summer and 150-200 days in wintertime.

• Although the Bible describes Israel as a land flowing with “milk and honey,” the Torah is referring to a paste made of overripe dates, raisins, figs, or carob beans, not specifically to honey from a hive.