Sweet Honey...

      I had forgotten how wonderful and delicate the sweetness of golden honey can be.  A friend asked me to pick up some local honey at the urging of her doctor.  She had been suffering from fall allergies when her doctor recommended that she try eating local honey.  The honey would contain pollen from local plants that could help my friend to become more tolerant to the pollen during the season.  When I found a neighbor up the road from my house who had honey for sale I was thrilled.  The honey he was selling was from spring harvesting from his hives.  Soon he would be harvesting honey from the fall pollen crops.  Due to the copious rains of the season the spring honey was unusually dark.  Usually it is quite light in color, sometimes almost clear.  The beekeeper thought that the fall harvest of honey might be light colored this year.  I am going to check back with him for some of that sweet treat.  He said he would also have some with the honeycomb in it as well.  I've always enjoyed that, so I will be looking forward to that as well. 
     There are lots of wonderful things one can do with honey.  The usual spreading on buttered toast is an easy way to enjoy the light sweetness of honey.  A spot of honey in tea for delicate sweetness is another good way to get honey's healing virtue into your system.  Whenever you have a sore throat, a bit of honey mixed with lemon makes for some easy relief.  I like to infuse some of my herbs into the honey for a subtle difference in flavor.  Lavender, thyme, and lemon verbena are several herbs that work nicely in honey.  To infuse the honey with the herbs heat the honey in a sauce pan until it is warm, but no so hot as to burn when you put a finger into it.  Place the leaves of your chosen herb into the honey.  In the case of the lavender, place the flower buds into the honey.  Simmer the honey and herbs for about 5 minutes then turn off the heat and allow the herbs to infuse into the honey.  Once the honey begins to thicken you may pour it into decorative jars.  You may like to strain the herbs out of the honey, but it is alright to leave them in if you like the look of them in the jars.  Allow the honey to cool completely before using.  Be sure to seal the jars tightly while storing the herb infused honey.  Makes a nice gift to include in a basket of herbal goodies for someone during the holidays.  I often include a spiral honey scoop tying it to the jar when creating a gift of honey.
      Though I have never tried this, I plan to make some honey drop candies this year.  They make the best cough drops as well as just a tasty sweet treat of candy.  Using honey often helps to clear up the flu, too.  So, I intend to support my local beekeeper for sure!  Now every time I see bees in my garden working hard to collect their pollen treasures I will wonder if they will be going up the road to my neighbor's hives.  I hope so.  I'd like to think I'm contributing to the process somehow.  Thanks, little guys!  And keep up that sweet work!