BuzzbeesHoney.com

Health Benefits Of Honey Logo Bee

Raw honey is a food noted for its exceptionally high enzyme content. Other enzyme-rich raw foods include bee pollen, raw vegetables and fruits, cold pressed extra virgin olive oil, raw dairy foods, lacto-fermented dairy products like yogurt and kefir and cultured or fermented foods such as miso and sauerkraut. Grains, nuts, legumes, and seeds are rich in enzymes as well as other nutrients, but they also contain enzyme inhibitors like phytic acid. This is why some people choose to soak and sprout these foods in order to deactivate the enzyme inhibitors. It needs to be emphasized that these foods must not be heated above 110 F so that the enzymes are viable and available. Buzzbee's honey is strictly raw and unheated, thus retaining the maximum enzyme content.

As mentioned above, because our honey is raw and unheated, the maximum enzyme content and health benefits are present for the consumer. Honey contains more than 75 different compounds, among them are; enzymes, minerals and trace minerals, vitamins, proteins, carbohydrates, organic acids, and hydrogen peroxide. The enzymes in raw honey help to initiate the process of digestion and reduce the body’s need to produce digestive enzymes. Because of its high enzyme content, raw honey spares the enzyme reserves of the pancreas and other digestive organs. They won’t be constantly stimulated to produce and secrete various digestive enzymes. Wonderful long-term benefits of this enzyme-sparing activity are good for health, increased longevity and energy, fewer illnesses, and a healthy immune system. In this way, one can see the importance of including raw, unheated honey in the diet.

To learn more about the health benefits of honey, we highly recommend Joe Traynor's book "Honey, The Gourmet Medicine".

Cooking With Honey Logo Bee

Honey has many unique flavors and is rich in history. It can be used in diverse ways: from baked goods, to a topping for ice cream, to a glaze for meat, or a sweetener for tea.

Baked goods stay moister when made with honey. Honey is hygroscopic in nature, meaning it draws moisture from the air. Your bread, cake or cookies will not dry out as fast as those made without honey. Foods made with honey continue to improve in flavor after baking and will be even better the second day; for this reason honey-baked goods make excellent gifts and are especially suitable for mailing long distance.

When measuring honey for cooking, measure in a cup thinly coated with oil. This allows the honey to slide right out of the cup. Better yet, if the recipe calls for oil, measure the oil first in the same cup as the honey.

The question often arises as to how to convert recipes from sugar to honey. There is no simple hard and fast rule, but here are a few tips. In quick breads, cakes or cookies the general rule is to substitute 2/3 cup honey for each cup of sugar. Also reduce the amount of liquid by 1/4 cup for each cup of honey used. You also will need to add a little more leavening agent - usually 1/2 teaspoon baking soda for each cup of honey used. In addition, remember to lower the oven temperature by 25 degrees because foods baked with honey tend to brown faster. Honey will also provide a firmer, heavier texture.

When only small amounts of sweetener are uses such as in yeast breads or salad dressings, you do not need to adjust the recipe to substitute honey for the other sweetener.

In most fruit pies, use 1/4 cup less honey than sugar, but increase the thickening agent by 1/2 (flour, corn starch, eggs). Honey does have more of a sweetening power. In addition it brings out the flavor of the fruit.

If all the adding and subtracting of ingredients sounds like too much trouble to use honey, then use the link below, the recipes there already include the honey and take all the guess work out of your cooking.

For Honey Recipes visit:http://www.honey.com/nhb/recipes/

Bee Pollen Facts

Both people and animals can benefit from eating bee pollen. Bee pollen contains 18 amino acids, and is 35% protein. Bee pollen is richer in proteins than any animal source. It contains more amino acids than beef, eggs or cheese of equal weight. It is a powerhouse source for the entire family of B complex vitamins including B12. Along with vitamins and protein, bee pollen is packed with a combination of minerals and trace elements such as potassium, magnesium, calcium, copper, iron, silicon, phosphorus, sulfur, chlorine, manganese, thiamin, riboflavin, nicotinic acid, pyridoxine, pantothenic acid, biotin, folic acid, and lactoflavine. The large proportions of free amino acids, especially methionine, a specific medicine for the liver, make bee pollen an excellent choice for aiding in digestion. Bee pollen contains all the essential elements for life far exceeding those present in brewer's yeast and wheat germ. .

For centuries the bee pollen in raw unfiltered honey has been known for it's benefits for those that suffer with seasonal allergies. Ingesting small amounts of bee pollen daily (such as in raw unfiltered honey or small amounts of fresh bee pollen) is helpful in building a natural immunity to seasonal allergens and lessening the incidences of asthma, sinus conditions, and bronchitis. Bee pollen will give you added energy and increase your resistance to infection.

Suggested Uses:
To start your day, sprinkle bee pollen liberally on your cereal, granola or oatmeal after cooking. Add bee pollen to some nuts, dates and honey in a food processor, spread in a pan and you have the perfect healthy candy. Toss some on your fruit or vegetable salad; it is a also nice topping for ice cream or try a tablespoon mixed in your smoothies.

One of my most favorite and quick ways to eat our bee pollen is to simply mix it with equal parts of our raw unfiltered honey and just eat it by the spoonful...the taste is rich so you can't eat much, but it taste better than any candy.

The following recipe is another one of our favorite ways to use fresh bee pollen:

Buzzbee's Honey & Pollen No-Bake Brownies

These are more like a raw candy bar than a brownie...you can also add other things like a pinch of cinnamon, dried coconut, etc....they are yummy.

combine in food processor:
1/4 cup carob or cocoa powder
1/4 cup pitted dates
1/4 cup raw unfiltered honey
1/2 cup raw nuts, walnut, almonds or cashews work best
set aside for topping:
1/2 cup fresh bee pollen granules
1/4 cup chopped raw nuts
Add carob, dates, nuts and honey to a food processor. Using a spatula in between mixing to scrape down sides until it's mixed enough that it starts to form into a ball...Then spread batter evenly in a 8x8 pan and sprinkle nuts and bee pollen on top and press into batter so it won't fall off when cut and handled. Store in the refrigerator until firm enough to cut or if you can't wait, just scoop out portions to eat.

Some Honey History & Other Facts Logo Bee

Honey, a pure, natural sweetener prepared by bees from nectar collected from wild and cultivated flowers. It is frequently mentioned in the Bible and other ancient writings. It has been said that honey bees were not native to North America; and that early settlers brought bee colonies to the East Coast States.

Honey is considered a solid and is sold by weight. Honey is itself a preservative, three-thousand year old honey found in Egyptian tombs was still edible. Only when the honey’s moisture content rises above 18% does it have the risk of spoiling. Many people think that crystallized honey has spoiled. This is not the case; all honey will revert into sugar. Because of the variations in nectar, some honey will crystallize faster than others. To re-liquefy honey, simply warm the jar of honey in a pot of hot water. DO NOT over heat the honey; keep the temperatures at or below 110 degrees F to preserve the natural live enzyme content of the honey. Low temps, under 70 degrees F will cause honey to crystallize faster; store honey in the pantry with other dry goods. Honey can be frozen, but never store honey in the refrigerator, this will quickly crystallize the honey.

To make honey from nectar, honey bees evaporate much of the moisture and add compounds called enzymes that change the composition of the nectar. Some of the complex sugars are broken down into simpler ones; and some of the sugar is converted into an edible acid called gluconic acid. This process helps to give honey it's distinctive taste. When the moisture content of the honey is reduced to about 17%, the bees fill the small cells of the comb and seal them with a white beeswax capping. We can then remove the sealed combs from the beehives to use them on our table as comb honey or to have them extracted for use as liquid honey. You need not worry about eating the wax with the honey because beeswax is a completely wholesome product.

When bees have access to large areas of one kind of flower, such as sage, clover, blackberry, wildflowers, or buckwheat, they produce honey with a flavor and color typical of that particular plant. Bees also make natural blends of honey from many different flowers in areas where no one flower predominates.

The color and flavor of honey depends solely on the floral source from which the nectar was collected. Honey flavors range from mild and bland to strong and pungent. The color ranges from black to white. Pigment (color) begins in the nectar at the plant and is transported back to the hive. It is intensified by the natural process that the bees put it through (reducing the moisture level, etc.). Darker colored honey does not mean lesser quality; it means a different source of nectar and a different taste of honey. By trying different honeys, you can find the ones you enjoy most.

Why Buy U.S.A. Produced Honey?

U.S.A. honey production is subject to rules and regulations (inspections, sanitation, chemical use restrictions, etc.). U.S.A. honey is produced by your friends and neighbors. U.S.A. honey is one of the products of the bees who pollinate many crops that directly or indirectly supply all of us with a very large portion of our food. Honey bees are vital to agriculture and our nations food supply; while gathering nectar to produce honey, bees are transferring pollen. The USDA estimates that one third of the food supply benefits from honeybee pollination. In summation U.S.A. honey provides wages for our families, food for our tables, and pollination for our crops.

Why is my honey crystallizing? Logo Bee

All raw honey will at some point turn to sugar crystals. Some other terms for it are sugared, granulation, solidifying and crystallizing. This is a natural process. The crystals may be large or small, a grainy, sandy type or smooth and creamy type. What makes it crystallize is due to the type of flower the honey bee visited when she gathered the blossom's nectar. The floral source determines whether the honey will turn into a solid form more quickly or not. Some honeys while raw will stay in a liquid form for quite a while. Other honeys will turn to a solid form with in a few weeks. This is due to how stable the sugar crystal is in the nectar.

Crystallized honey has not turned bad, and it does not affect the taste or quality of the honey. You may find you like it in a more solid form! It spreads on toast or bread without dripping off. It won't run off the spoon as you take it from the jar to your hot drink. To turn it back to a liquid, pourable state, use gentle warming of the jar in hot (not boiling) water with the lid loosened slightly. Honey should be stored at room temperature as refrigeration will greatly speed up the formation of crystals.