Liquid gold: Honey

A day without a friend is like a pot
 without a single drop of honey left inside.
Winnie the Pooh

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We have a very large Red Gum tree in our front garden and at present it is humming with the sound of hundreds and hundreds of bees all excited about the red gum flowers.  It is a lovely sight to see and hear knowing that these bees are doing ok.

• Did you know that honey is mentioned 56 times in the Bible. 

• There are 20,000 species of bees in the world.

• The honey bee flaps its wings 11,400 times every minute - they are hard working creatures. 

• And honey never go off, you don't need to be worried about the use by date on your jar of honey. Honey has been found in the Egyptian tombs and it was still edible. 

• Bees visit 50 too 100 flowers during their collection trip.  That is a lot of flowers they need to visit. 

• The main species of honey bee in Australia is the European bee which was introduced to this country in 1822.  This species of bee kills one to two people each year in Australia. 

• So far scientists have identified 1647 native Australian bees but these bees struggle to compete with the imported european bee.

Honey can be used in all sorts of cooking and it such a very useful ingredient to have in the house. I add honey to cakes, muffins, biscuits and to savoury dishes (such as chicken and pork). And it's very nice on hot porridge too.  Honey is great when making bread, instead of using sugar, substitute it for honey - it makes bread smell divine and the yeast seems to love it more than sugar. 

Honey is brilliant for healing and can be used on wounds.  Nothing nicer than warm honey tea when feeling sick. Honey is very soothing for the throat.   There is something very comforting about honey, even honey on toast when feeling down in the dumps.

Without bees we wouldn't get cross pollination - vital for our flowers, fruit trees, canola and vegetables - basically for our entire food supply. Where would we be without bees? Sadly bees are dying in great numbers and that is very bad thing.  In the USA, the number of bees have declined by 50% and in the last winter a third of US bees died or disappeared.   The pesticides we are spraying on our food crops appear to be causing major problems for our bees.  

Sadly I read only the other day that not all honey sold in the USA is 100% honey, much is mixed with corn syrup - I am not sure if this is occurring in Australia but its worth checking.  I would also be concerned about honey coming in from overseas e.g. China.  I buy organic Australian honey as it hasn't been heated to high temperatures to kill all the goodness - but better still buy direct from the farmer.  I think you pay for what you get these days.

We all should encourage bees into our gardens by growing flowers that they like, but make sure that you avoid pesticides as it isn't good for bees. 

Now John himself was clothed in camel's hair, 
with a leather belt around his waist; 
and his food was locusts and wild honey

Matthew 3:4