Organic  & Organic Raw Honeys

Honey has been collected by man since the dawn of civilization. Aristotle called it "the nectar of the gods."  One of the most natural and sustaining of all foods, it is easy to digest, quickly assimilated into the body, and has a deliciously mild, sweet taste.

And we should appreciate all the work that goes into the creation of that single jar of honey that we enjoy.  Honeybees only work within 2-4 miles (on average) from their hive (and will not go further than 7 miles) to collect nectar.  Worker bees fly the equivalent of more than twice around the globe and gather nectar from more than two million flowers to make just one pound of honey.  A colony of bees include 30,000 - 60,000 worker honeybees, 500-1000 drones, and one queen; a strong colony will produce twenty five pounds more honey than they need.

Honey adds more than sweetness to our life, it has healing powers, is an antibacterial, and contains antioxidants.  Honey can work to ward off asthma and allergy attacks as well as help heal the body of many things from minor scrapes, and digestive issues, to major disease. Ancient Egyptians used honey to treat open wounds, cuts, burns and even cataracts.  Ancient Romans used honey to help fall asleep.  Singers use honey to soothe their throat.  Athletes use honey to boost energy levels.  Honey can even aid in our body getting vitamins and minerals from other sources.  Purdue University researchers found that honey may work to increase the absorption of calcium.

Honey can be used as a personal care item for shiny hair, softer skin, and as a natural antibacterial soap and sweet bath.  It can help heal canker sores, bleeding gums and even help prevent cavities.

Honey adds flavor, nutrients, and is easily digested as well as offering a good jolt of energy.  Honey is composed of carbohydrates and water with amino acids, vitamins, including B, minerals, including calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, phosphorus and zinc, and antioxidants.   The darker the honey, the higher the antioxidant level.  Each honey, based upon the flowers the bees visit, has it's own unique flavor.  Raw honeys have the healthful benefits intact.

Honey is a natural preservative.  It can reduce enzymatic browning of fruits and vegetables and can prevent lipid oxidation of meats.

Conventional honey is gathered by bees from plants sprayed with pesticides and chemicals and those chemicals end up in the honey we eat.  Further, conventional bee keepers use sulfa compounds and antibiotics on the bees regularly.  At the end of the season when they are ready to extract the honey, conventional bee keepers will kill the bees with calcium cyanide and carbolic acid. 

Organic bee keepers don't do that; they work with nature.  Getting organic honey is an expensive process.  The bees gather nectar from organic plants.  Since bees can fly around a certain area, the entire radius must be free of pesticides.  The plants depend upon the bees for pollination.  This furthers the entire organic process!  Supporting organic honey supports our earth. 

We offer a great selection of organic honeys.  We do offer some conventional honeys but we are quite picky in which ones we choose.  If they are from remote areas (like our honeys from New Zealand) where they are far removed from pesticides and those that are exceptional (like Really Raw Honey) with unique flavors and characteristics, and only from beekeepers who care for their hives.

When replacing honey for sugar in baked goods, we have to remember that honey adds liquid and is sweeter than sugar.  Replace 1 cup of sugar with a generous 3/4 cup of honey and use 2-4 tablespoons less of other liquid in the recipe.  Because honey is more acidic than sugar, and add a pinch of baking soda (unless of course the recipe already calls for sour cream or buttermilk) to neutralize the added acid.  Since honey will make the baked good brown faster, reduce the cooking temperature by 25 degrees.  Honey will make the baked good darker and denser than sugar (think of a traditional honey cake) with a wonderful flavor and a delicious moist texture.

Honey can be an allergen and dangerous to children under 1 year so never feed your baby honey, even pasteurized honey.

Links:

• Organic Honey: The Sweet Healer, The O'Mama Report
• Honey Facts
• How Far Do Bees Fly, Bee Source
• Central Bee Keeper's Alliance
• The British Beekeeper Association
• National Honey Board Reference Guide
• Sweet Tips for Honey Usage
• Making Mead: the Art and Science of Making Honey Wine

Organic Active 12 Manuka Honey  This honey should be on every cook’s shelf and in every Mom’s first aid kit! 

Found only in a few areas of New Zealand, active honey contains an additional antibacterial component found only in some Manuka honey. This factor is tested on a scale of 0-20 for antibacterial activity. Diffusing deeper into skin tissues than other honey, Active Manuka can be effective against superbugs like E. coli, Staphylococcus aureus, and Helicobacter pylori.

Manuka is the Maori name for Leptospermum Scoparium, a native tree of New Zealand. Manuka has been used for centuries in traditional Maori folk medicine for treating fevers and colds and healing skin and stomach ailments. Known as "the Healing Honey of the Tea Tree," Manuka possesses strong curative properties derived from powerful antibacterial agents and high mineral content. Manuka honey is a very limited natural resource due to the short pollination period of the spring-time flowers. Output may vary depending on climatic conditions.  Global demand and promising medical research has created a shortage of this rare honey. The antibacterial properties of Manuka honey are being studied for effectiveness against a variety of bacteria and fungi.

Manuka honey is a unique taste experience.

Therapeutic Uses:

• Internally: One tablespoon before meals and at bedtime to combat ulcers and gastritis.
• Sore Throats, Cold or Flu: Coat the throat with one teaspoon before meals - allow honey to melt in mouth slowly.
• Externally: Use 1 1/2 tablespoons on a 4" X 4" dressing. Make sure there is contact between the wound and the dressing. Change the dressing daily.

Scrapes & Cuts:

• Wound Healer - an ancient remedy! 
• Honey creates a moist healing barrier between wound and dressing with no sticking and no tissue damage -- scarring is reduced because skin cells grow without forming a scab.
• All honey has an antibacterial activity due primarily to hydrogen peroxide formed in a "slow release" manner by the enzyme glucose oxidase which prevents bacterial growth and reduces infection: "applied every 2 to 3 days under a dry dressing, honey promotes healing of ulcers and burns better than any other local application."

• Honey contains Vitamins A, B complex, C, D, E, and K, beta-carotene, minerals, and enzymes. The stronger and darker the honey, the richer the mineral content.
• Honey acts as a natural Antibiotic while promoting the growth of beneficial bacteria.
• Honey promotes the mobility of joint tissue.
• Honey is a natural Antioxidant source: "drinking a mixture of four tablespoons of honey per 16 ounces of water increased the antioxidant levels in the blood."
• Honey is a quick source Energy - fructose and glucose are absorbed directly into the blood.
• The sugars in honey are completely digestible!
• Honey provides greater Endurance: "one of the most effective forms of carbohydrate to ingest just prior to exercise."
• Honey does not cause cavities like sugar.
• Honey is sweeter than sugar - replace in recipes for added vitamins and minerals!
• Honey supplies nutrients necessary for healthy tissue regeneration and stimulates the growth of new blood capillaries.
• Honey draws lymph out to the cells while absorbing moisture and providing an anti-inflammatory action.

About Really Raw Honey

It's no secret! Unprocessed honey, straight from the hive, has been used worldwide for millennia to promote healing.

We've gathered an extensive "intelligence base" both old and new, from medical journals, historic references, leading research facilities and the National Honey Board. Here's just a sampling of how Really Raw Honey is being used with amazing results.

Aids stomach and digestion

"In digestive disturbances honey is of great value. Honey does not ferment in the stomach because, being an inverted sugar, it is easily absorbed and there is no danger of a bacterial invasion. The flavor of honey excites the appetite and helps digestion. The propoma of the ancients, made of honey, was a popular appetizer.

"For anemics, dyspeptics, convalescents and the aged, honey is an excellent reconstructive and tonic. In malnutrition, no food or drug can equal it. The laxative value of honey, on account of its lubricating effect, is well known. Its fatty acid content stimulates peristalsis. In gastric catarrh, hyperacidity, gastric and duodenal ulcers and gall bladder diseases, honey is recommended by several eminent gastroenterologists.

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Dr. Schacht, of Wiesbaden, claims to have cured many hopeless cases of gastric and intestinal ulcers with honey and without operations. It is rather unusual that a physician of standing has the courage and conviction to praise honey. The beekeepers and their friends know that honey will cure gastric and intestinal ulcerations, this distressing, prevalent and most dangerous malady, a precursor of cancer. But the news has not yet reached 99% of the medical profession. The remaining few physicians who know of it, are afraid to suggest such an unscientific and plebeian remedy, for fear of being laughed at by their colleagues and scientifically inclined patients. You may read in almost every issue of agricultural papers the reports of correspondents regarding their experience with honey for gastric ulcers, after going through the medical mill for years without improvement, without even hope of ever getting cured. Then incidentally, they meet a beekeeper or one of his converts and if they have courage and common sense (there are few) to heed the advise, they get well. It is disheartening for a physician to read such reports.

For instance, a correspondent A.L.T. of Omaha, Nebraska, writes in Gleanings in Bee Culture, February, 1931, "I have been a sufferer from ulcerated stomach for several years, part time in the hospital, part time in bed and nearly all the time in much pain. I noticed from the middle of September I was much better and gave no thought to the reason but kept up eating honey because I relished it. I had no attack since and it held good." It would fill a volume to assemble similar testimonials, praising particularly the curative value of honey in gastric and intestinal disorders, including ulcers. Father Kneipp, a great admirer of honey, remarked, "Smaller ulcers in the stomach are quickly contracted, broken, and healed by it."

The above historical information from the 1930s and contemporary commentary compiled from: Honey and Your Health, Bodog F. Beck, M.D. and Doree Smedley, Health Resources Press, Inc., Silver Spring, MD, 1997.

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Honey as a treatment for stomach ulcers.
A team of researchers from the University of Waikato in New Zealand studied whether honey could benefit those afflicted with the H. pylori bacterium known to cause gastric ulcers. Within three days, honey stopped the growth of bacterium colonies!

For healing ulcers and burns

Also many years ago, a study by Robert Bloomfield, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, reports "Applied every 2 to 3 days under a dry dressing, honey promotes healing of ulcers and burns better than any other local application. It can also be applied to other surface wounds, including cuts and abrasions..."

For treating allergies

Ada, Oklahoma (AP) - An Oklahoma allergist told a meeting of 150 beekeepers that raw honey is an effective treatment for 90 per cent of all allergies. Dr. William G. Peterson, an allergist from Ada in the 1950's, said he now has 22,000 patients across the nation who are using raw honey along with more customary medications to relieve allergy symptoms.

"It must be raw honey because raw honey contains all the pollen, dust and molds that cause 90 per cent of all allergies," he told a meeting of the Oklahoma Beekeepers Association. "What happens is that the patient builds up an immunity to pollen, dust or mold that is causing his trouble in the first place. The raw honey must "not be strained, not even through a cloth." he added. "I know the customer wants good, clear strained honey, and that's fine, but for health reasons, raw honey is what we need."

Dr. Peterson said he and the 20 doctors at his clinic at Ada normally prescribe a daily teaspoon of raw honey. The honey treatment continues even after the allergy is under control.

Information excerpt from "Bee Hive Product Bible" (pages 127-130)

Much of the effectiveness of raw honey to help treat respiratory problems has been traced to the bee pollen and propolis suspended within it. According to a research report from Bulgria, they found the honey has anti-allergic, anti-imflammatory, and expectorant properties that insure the body has an immunobiological defense and give it the capacity to regenerate its attacked cells. Research on using raw honey to treat respiratory problems shows the following results: Of the 17,862 patients treated with honey, 8,836 were men and 9,026 were women. Most of the patients ranged in age from 21 to 60 years old. After treatmetn the results were:

Read what a user said about using Really Raw Honey to clear her allergies.

Honey has anti-cancer properties.

Recent studies by Gribel and Pashinskii indicated that honey possessed moderate antitumor and pronounced anti-metastatic effects in five different strains of rat and mouse tumors. Furthermore, honey potentiated the antitumor activity of chemotherapeutic drugs such as 5-fluorouracil and cyclophosphamide.
-- Gribel, N.V., and Pashinskii, V.G. Antitumor properties of honey. Vopr. Onkol., 36:704-709, 1990.

 

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C.V. Rao at the American Health Foundation in Valhalla, New York found caffeic acids in propolis are inhibitors of colon cancers in animals. Other research shows hive products have the ability to prevent and halt the spread of malignant diseases. Earlier research by M.T. Huang also published in Cancer Research found caffeic acids effective in inhibiting skin cancer tumors in mice.
-- American Bee Journal, June 1994

The consideration alone that a snake is pictured coiled around the stick of Aesculapius, eager to feast from a cup of honey, ought to be sufficient exhortation to medical men to be more interested in this substance. Aesculapius, the god of Medicine, who not only healed the sick but restored the dead to life, held the snake sacred. The snake was the emblem of health and recovery. The snakes were fed on honey and honey cakes. Whoever entered the cave of Trophonius had to throw honey cakes to the snakes (Pausanias IX. 39:5). Honey was also the favorite food of the fabled serpent, the guardian of the Acropolis (Herodot. VIII.41). The snake of Aesculapius in Cos was given honey and honey cake (Herondas IV. 90; Virgil Aeneid IV. 484).

The above historical information from the 1930s and contemporary commentary compiled from: Honey and Your Health, Bodog F. Beck, M.D. and Doree Smedley, Health Resources Press, Inc., Silver Spring, MD, 1997.

Dolce Nocciola-Organic Honey Hazelnut Cream

11 oz. (300 grams)

Master apiarist Giuseppe Follino blends his organic Tuscan millefiori (mixed flowers) honey with organic Sicilian hazelnuts to create a creamy, rich dessert topping. Giuseppe believes in the health benefits of raw honey, and never allows the honey to be warmer than the inside of a beehive. Dolce Nocciola is pure and simple, containing only hazelnuts and honey, avoiding the use of milk powder, oils, emulsifiers or stabilizers.

MOUNTAIN HONEY CERTIFIED ORGANIC NEW ZEALAND BLUE BORAGE HONEY

This true monofloral honey is harvested from the remote, high country region of the Clarence Valley in Central Marlborough, New Zealand.

The Vipers Bugloss plant - commonly known as Blue Borage - grows wild in the remote areas of the Clarence Reserve in the Kaikoura mountain range in New Zealand. It is one of the hardest won honeys in New Zealand from one of the purest sources. The wild flower covers the hills of the Central South Island in a floral carpet of brilliant blue flowers. The plant produces a nectar at lower temperatures than clover yielding a very dry honey with a chewy or tacky texture. Blue Borage is slower to crystallize, and has been used in folklore to treat stress and fatigue.

Blue Borage Honey has an unmistakable light, clean herbal flavor with a floral bouquet. Its delicate taste and color draws from the spirit of the Borage flower. "It is a honey to strengthen the heart." With its distinctive flavor and high fructose levels, Blue Borage Honey is a unique sweetener in beverages such as coffee and tea. Refrigerate for a natural snack for kids of all ages.

SWEET MEADOW NEW ZEALAND REWAREWA HONEY

This distinctive sub-alpine flower is often called New Zealand Honeysuckle. The long succulent flower only blossoms for a very short period to produce a truly native flavor.
 

SWEET MEADOW NEW ZEALAND RATA HONEY

With its vibrant red flowers lining much of the South Island's West Coast, Rata produces a pearly white honey with a pleasant flavor unique to this native tree.