Liquifying Honey

“Virtually all types of honey will crystallize in time. Some types of honey may crystallize very rapidly, while others may remain liquid for years.

Sometimes, though, naturally crystallized honey granulates with coarse crystals, resulting in a product that most people wouldn’t care to eat. But the natural crystallization process can be controlled to create a delectable product usually called creamed honey, or spun honey.

One unfortunate byproduct of the natural crystallization process can be fermentation. As mentioned above, the crystallized honey is part liquid and part solid. Since the solid crystals contain no water, the remaining liquid portion of the honey contains a higher concentration of water than before crystallization.

This makes the honey more susceptible to fermentation, and when this happens, the honey is ruined.

But if you have some crystallized or granulated honey that you wish to liquefy – and assuming it hasn’t fermented – it’s very easy to restore it to a liquid state. Simply place the jar of honey in a pan of warm water, and leave it until the heat has melted all of the honey crystals.

Just take care not to get the honey warmer than necessary, because that will damage the flavor of the honey.

If the water temperature is just on the verge of being too hot for you to put your hand in it, then that’s about the right temperature for the honey. If it’s too hot for your hand, it’s too hot for the honey.”

Source: http://www.bees-and-beekeeping.com/crystallized-honey.html

Raw Honey

“As with most processed foods, much is lost when honey is processed.

Though processed honey tastes much as it did in its raw, natural state, it’s still just not quite the same. The processing procedure unquestionably alters the natural flavor of the honey, even if only by little. Whether the taste of raw honey is better than processed honey is a matter of personal opinion, but most who are accustomed to eating honey in its natural state seem to prefer it that way.

 Perhaps more important than alterations to the flavor, though, are some of the raw honey health benefits that may be lost when honey is heated and filtered.

 Honey is a highly nutritious food, containing many minerals, enzymes, and antioxidants.The process of heating honey destroys some of these valuable nutrients. And though there is some disagreement among experts about how much of these nutrients are destroyed, there’s no doubt that at least some damage is done to honey’s nutritional and healing properties during the process of heating it.

And the filtering process removes most of the pollen grains suspended in raw honey. This eliminates any value the honey may have had in helping to reduce allergy symptoms, and also removes the nutritional and healthful benefits of the bee pollen itself.”  Source:http://www.bees-and-beekeeping.com/raw-honey-health-benefits.html

High bee activity

The bees have discovered new sources of pollen and the Japanese Knotweed is a strong source of nectar. When you approach the apiary you hear a load buzz of bees coming and going. The white on the backs of some incoming bees is from the abundant pollen of the Hardy Hibiscus.

Honeybees on a hot day

Honey flow expected

Japanese Knotweed is in blossom and the weather is warm and sunny.

Japanese Knotweed