New to me product: Creamed Honey

Some friends passed through town last week on their annual trek to Palm Springs and brought me some local-to-them food gifts. They are from Manitoba (no wonder they go to PS every winter, eh?!). They brought me a HUGE bag of wild rice, Miss Vickie's Sweet Chili and Sour Cream Chips, saskatoon berry jam, maple syrup, and.... creamed honey with raspberries.

Oh. My. Having another snow day here, so having a leisurely morning, I have just tried the creamed honey on a whole grain English muffin and I believe I will go have another one! Incredible.

I did some reading on the Cornell Dyce Laboratory for Honey Bee Studies site, so now I know what this product is exactly and better yet, how one can make more when this runs out!

(Oh, I gave them a bottle of Gruet Pinot Noir 2004.)

I've creamed honey many times, but never with raspberries. Sounds great.

How's the snow there? We're pretty much snowed in again in Albuquerque. No meetings. No work. Yay!

On the east side of the Sangres we've only got about 8 inches so far, but it's still snowing.

I could have made it to work, but why?

Talked to a friend down your way last night when it had just started there, and he was hoping it would get worse. Guess he got his wish!

Hi Cynthia,
Your post intrigues me because I grew up on creamed honey and today 80% of the honey sold in NZ is creamed. So what kind of honey do you normally have - natural, liquid or comb honey?
Cheers,
Sue

natural, liquid or comb honey?

You see, I read that and go, there's a difference?

natural, liquid or comb honey?

You see, I read that and go, there's a difference?

Um, yes.

Or maybe natural and liquid are the same , but comb honey still has the waxy comb with it.

I usually get raw, liquid, local honey. A tablespoon or so a day really helps with my allergies.

Ryan, the natural liquid that Sue speaks of is the honey after it has been spun from the comb...no wax.

So what exactly is Creamed Honey? I've heard of it, but never seen it except once at a farmers market. Since I had already blown my wad on fresh corn on the cob, cantalope, tomatoes, peas, and fresh asparagus (for my wife) I didn't have any money left to buy a jar.

It's finely crystallized honey. The process is pretty easy from my reading. One of the key pieces, maybe THE key thing, is to use "starter" crystals the same size you want to end up with. And don't incorporate air into it. Pretty cool.

And the addition of the raspberries in this jar is just perfect!

I use a product called Oregon Apiaries Vanilla Honey Creme. Ingredients are U.S. and/or Caniadian honey, vanilla. Very nice. You can usually find the special honey in boutique type stores, Harry and David, speciality shops that cater to tourists.

Having worked with bees for a number of years back in Wisconsin, Cynthia, we didn't find the creaming process very easy. There are many variables, and temp controls are very important. There's an excellent discussion at http://www.masterbeekeeper.org/creamhoney.htm of the process which was patented by a Cornell professor in the 1920s.

Creaming makes a wonderful product, although the creamed honey needs to be refrigerated by the consumer to insure stability. New Zealand has a long tradition of creaming honey and consumes more honey per capita than any other country -- I've read that 80% or more of the honey on sale in New Zealand is creamed.

I've creamed honey from time to time with rent a kids -- the mistakes are fun even though not all the results are so great. But, I agree, the whole process is sort of miraculous when it goes well.

Regards, Bob

Karen, yum! I am all about vanilla in any form. I'll have to look for this.

Bob, yep, that's the site where I was reading about the process. I think I'll take a try at it sometime soon.

Have fun Cynthia. In one way you can't fail -- almost all honey will crystallize -- it's the fineness of the crystals that matters.

Please let us know how it comes out -- and control those temps. Speed matters.

So here's a bit of trivia for you.

Q: Who is New Zealand's most famous bee keeper?

A: Sir Edmund Hillary.

Tenzing's assistant, right?

Worsley kept bees as a kid, Sue -- amazing guy, even though he was a little erratic at times. In many ways, his accomplishments were greater than Hillary's.

Incredible small boat navigation to South Georgia, rammed a German sub, stayed true to himself -- admirable guy -- but reckless at times.

Two very impressive people.

Um, who is Worsley? (I could google I guess).

Oh my gosh, Sue. One of the great New Zealanders.

Frank Worsley, Shackleton’s Captain and extraordinary navigator, was born in Akaroa in 1872. His remarkable skill brought the 22.5’ James Caird safely to South Georgia across 800 miles of Southern Ocean, saving the lives of all Shackleton’s men. Frank Worsley’s white ensign and other memorabilia can be seen at the Museum in Rue Lavaud. A monument to Frank Worsley is under construction on the waterfront, using a base of Antarctic rocks. Museum opening 10.30 – 4.30 daily.

I bored Janet with a visit to a predecessor of this museum during our fascinating trip to New Zealand.

[One small correction: the guys on the other side of Antarctica didn't all get back -- so it's an exageration to say all of Shackleton's men returned. But Worsley didn't have anything to do with that -- he had gone on to captain a destroyer in WWI.]

But what Worsley did was an amazing feat of navigation: there are three great ones -- the Aborigines somehow getting to Australia 40,000 years ago, Captain Bligh's return after the Mutiny, and Worsley -- one sighting during the entire trip -- three amazing human accomplishments.

And, add ramming a German U-Boat -- only guy to do it.

Three great navigators that's for sure.

Oh, THAT Worsley!
But Sir Ed is the more famous. Everyone knows him because he is on the NZ $5 note.

Well, he got the credit in part for beating Mallory and Irvine, a couple of Brits who might have made it up, but didn't make it down safely.

But no one did what Worsley did, ever. Twice, yet, in two different oceans too.

You guys might consider putting him on a tenner!

An FYI and a FWIW on honey:

up at our biodynamic vineyard site, the vineyard managers swear by the honey. We keep several hives of bees there, and move the hives around from place to place on the ranch. Occasionally, they swarm in odd places too, like the one time they got into one of the trees in the olive groves--small tree, so it looked odd totally covered in bees.

We put the hives in the lavender fields so we can make lavender honey. But one of the vineyard managers puts hives over by a patch of poison oak...he swears that if you have a spoonful a day of honey from near a poison oak stand, you'll develop a resistance to poison oak, because the bees feed on the pollen from, and the pollenated honey that results acts as a sort of vaccine against the poison oak.

I've read that Hoke -- I wonder if it would work for poison ivy.

One caution: some folks have an allergy to honey made from poison oak -- try small amounts until you know if you are susceptible.

But what Worsley did was an amazing feat of navigation: there are three great ones -- the Aborigines somehow getting to Australia 40,000 years ago, .....

While truly admirable, with ice ages and glaciation at those times, almost the entire East Indies archipelago were connected as a single land mass as the sea levels were about 400 feet lower than today. I wonder what the archeologists will someday discover when they start to excavate the continental shelves. One of the most amazing things I've read recently is that the closest relatives to the natives of Patagonia are Australian Aborigines.