Need Help Re Raw Honey

[Jemima]

I've recently been reading about how much of the honey on grocery store shelves is nutritionally worthless due to pasteurization, etc. So I looked up honey on a site that carries a lot of health foods and am now completely confused. Are all liquid honeys pasteurized? If so, do you use the raw honey paste the same way as liquid honey? I'm just beginning to substitute honey for sugar in recipes so I'm a complete novice at this. TIA.

[ApatheticNoMore]

No there is no federal requirement to pasterize honey and you can easily find raw honey (unless some state has outlawed it or something, it's legal here for sure and I imagine most places). I can't imagine using a honey paste instead of honey (though I haven't tried them). I think the ideal is probably to find someone who supplies it locally (I have when I am lucky ), but natural food stores do carry it. Just don't feed it to babies, as it can poison them. I think there are other things to look out for like how naturally the honey was produced as well.

[AnneM]

I buy all of my honey raw from farmer's markets. Pretty much all of what you buy at the grocery store has been blended to achieve consistency in taste and color, and the beneficial pollen has been removed. The following article is very illuminating and will make you think twice about buying anything other than local raw honey.
http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2011/1...ey-isnt-honey/

[Jemima]

No there is no federal requirement to pasterize honey and you can easily find raw honey (unless some state has outlawed it or something, it's legal here for sure and I imagine most places). I can't imagine using a honey paste instead of honey (though I haven't tried them). I think the ideal is probably to find someone who supplies it locally (I have when I am lucky ), but natural food stores do carry it. Just don't feed it to babies, as it can poison them. I think there are other things to look out for like how naturally the honey was produced as well.

I guess I didn't make my question clear. What I'm wondering is, if I buy a jar of liqid honey that's labeled "organic" does that mean it hasn't been ultra-processed and is healthier than a store brand? The site where I was looking is Swanson Health Products ( http://tinyurl.com/7s3bpp9 ) and it looks like all the certified organic honey is in paste form. However, I found another site that has liquid honey that's certified organic. I'm so confused.

[Jemima]

I buy all of my honey raw from farmer's markets. Pretty much all of what you buy at the grocery store has been blended to achieve consistency in taste and color, and the beneficial pollen has been removed. The following article is very illuminating and will make you think twice about buying anything other than local raw honey.
http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2011/1...ey-isnt-honey/

Thank you! Great article and great website!

[cdttmm]

I would be skeptical of any honey labeled organic as the requirements for honey to be organic are incredibly stringent and almost impossible to achieve. I'm a beekeeper so I have experience with this. In order for honey to be organic you have to be able to certify that all of the pollen the bees could have access to is from plants that are organically grown. Bees can travel up to a 3 miles in any direction, so it's almost impossible for a beekeeper to be able to certify all of that land as organic. Not saying it couldn't happen, but it's unlikely.

See if you can find a local beekeeper and buy honey directly from him/her. But I would encourage you to ask about their beekeeping practices. If they are keeping bees for commercial use their bees are likely get exposed to a wide variety of chemicals Try to can find a small local beekeeper who practices chemical free (or chemical light) beekeeping, also sometimes called Backwards Beekeeping.

[Tiam]

Ah, I was trying to find that article, but see someone has found it and posted it.

[pcooley]

Since I'm a beekeeper, I feel compelled to weigh in. Honey crystallizes naturally, but it happens over time. Honey that is pasteurized and strained does so much more slowly than honey that is not pasteurized. (I, for instance, just strain it through a nylon paint strainer).

Some varieties of honey -- like Tupelo honey -- never crystallize.

As cdttmm points out, there really isn't any such thing as organic honey. Beekeepers cannot control where their bees go. So while I don't treat my hives with chemicals for mites, etc., the honey that I sell comes from the yards of the houses around me. I would like to think my neighbors don't use any chemicals on their fruit trees and flower beds, but that is just wishful thinking.

Once honey has crystallized, you can always warm it up to reliquify it, but that of course, in some people's opinions, destroys enzymes, etc. Sometimes, the honey I gather crystallizes to be almost rock hard. As it is just a sweetener, I go ahead and warm mine up, but I sell it at the Farmer's Market as unheated, so I always sell it in hardened condition and leave heating it or not up to my customers.

I've come back to add that usually, my honey is liquid for about a month before it hardens up. Since I sell it almost as quickly as I gather it in the summer, it's not crystallized when I have it at market. Just because honey is liquid doesn't mean that it's been pasteurized. All honey starts out liquid. Well, sometimes it crystallizes in the comb, but in that case, the beekeeper can't get it out of there.

[Jemima]

Many thanks to all of you! I think I've got the picture, now.