Honey

[s/v Faith]

One of the most wonderful cruising provisions I would recommend to anyone is honey.

  It requires no refrigeration.  It is stable (does not spoil).  If it crystallizes you can put it in a pan of warm water and it will be good as new.

  It goes well on toast, in tea or coffee.  It will pretty much replace sugar in most things.  Makes a great 'secret' ingredient to sauces.  Works well as a glaze for grilled fish.  Hot cerial, pancakes, biscuits, even white rice are made better by a bit of honey. 

  All natural, and actually GOOD for YOU. 

  As a matter of fact, if you have problems with allergies you can go and buy a jar of locally made honey and eat a spoonful every day.  After a while you will notice you are less affected by the allergen.  Much of the local pollen is in the local honey.  Taking it daily works the same as 'desensitization' therapy that is used to medially treat allergies.

  I have a near phobia about sticky things.  Having honey aboard with the traditional 'dabber' that you put in a jar and then drip honey on to things would give me nightmares.  I use a squeeze bottle, any one would work but the kind I like is from some tea concentrate I tried once.  It has a pour spout built into the squeeze lid.  The tea concentrate was not very good, but the bottle works very well.

 

[Frank]

Grog on the honey tip.Never thought of it...it really is perfect.

[AdriftAtSea]

One other point... honey can be also used as a field antibiotic dressing for cuts and scrapes. Certain honeys, depending on what plants the nectar was collected from, are more effective than others.  One sailor I know, who is diabetic, has used it per doctor's orders on some ulcers on his legs. 

[Piraten]

Just know where the bees are getting the pollen............the following is an article on it.

With regard to toxic honey, there is also a long history.  One of the
earliest references comes from the writings of the Greek Xenophon
(approx.  400 B.C.) who described the effects of soldiers eating a toxic
honey.  The incident occurred in what is now Turkey.  The soldiers were
returning to Greece from a campaign in the Persian Empire, encountered the
hives and robbed them of their honey.  Xenophon indicated that the
soldiers who consumed the honey lost thier senses, and were inflicted with
"vomiting and purging".  A later reference indicates that the honey of
that region was also used against soldiers of the Roman army under
Pompey.  The Heptakometes left jars of the honey along the roadside as a
"tribute" to some of the advancing army.  The soldiers who ate the honey
lost their senses and were easily defeated by the Heptakometes.  The
source of this toxic honey in the Middle East is probably Rhondodendron
ponticum, although R. luteum could also be a source.  A good reference to
the toxic honey of this region is Sutlupinar et al. 1993. Poisoning by
toxic honey in Turkey, Arch. Toxicol. 67:148-150.

There are several references to toxic honeys in the US.  The earliest
record of which I am aware dates back to Philadelphia in 1790, when a
child died from eating honey.  There are also references from the Civil
War and from the 1940's and 1960's.  The most recent report is the one we
found here in Virginia.  A beekeeper became violently ill after comsuming
some honey from his hives and ended up spending 6 days in the local
hospital.  We were contacted about the possibility of the honey causing
the problems and subsequently analyzed the honey.  We found two
grayanotoxins (primarily nerve toxins that lead to a prolonged
depolarization of the nerve)  in the honey in sufficient levels to cause
very serious medical problems.  Based on the time of year, the area in
which the honey was made, and the toxins, we believe the source was Kalmia
latifolia (Mountain laurel).  This type of toxic honey is not common but
seems to be reported once about every 20 or 30 years.

There are a number of other plants that produce nectars with various
toxins.  Some of these include Yellow jassamine, tansy ragwort, and
Egyptian henbane. If you would like more infromation on plants and
specific toxins, please let me know.  Hope this answers some of your
questions.

Bibliography:
Rick Fell
Professor
Department of Entomology
Virginia Tech
Blacksburg,Virginia 24061
Tel. (540) 231-7207
e-mail: rfell@vt.edu

Not that it is a common thing, but......

[s/v Faith]

Wow Rick,

  Good to know, thanks.  I guess you never can be too careful...

[Piraten]

Rick is the guy that wrote the article, I just left his name and stuff on so I wasn't plagiarizing.

[s/v Faith]

Darn,

  And I was about to PM you a series of questions about fleas...!

 

[Piraten]

They bite, dogs carry them.   

[s/v Faith]

They bite, dogs carry them.   

Yea, thanks for clearing that up for me... 

 


 

[Tim]

They bite, dogs carry them.   

A grog for that one

[CapnK]

*Two* grogs for that one.

[Amgine]

Honey is good stuff!

When substituting honey in recipes, use slightly more than half the amount of sugar being replaced. Honey is made up of 'split' sucrose (which is what most sugar is) - fructose and glucose - so tastes about twice as sweet. You will probably need to reduce the amount of liquid in the recipe as well - reduce water-based liquids more than oils.

An important job sugar does in baking is causing the browning. Honey-sweetened goods do not brown precisely the same way as sugar-sweetened, in my experience; sometimes it seems to be slower to brown, and then browns suddenly and too much. It just takes some experimenting with times and temperatures to get it right.

Honey makes an excellent base for grilling sauces. The basic rule is: something sweet, something sour, and something spicy. Honey + mustard can do just by themselves, or mix honey with some lemon juice and garlic, and who wouldn't love honey + tomato paste + steak sauce on most any meat?

[s/v Faith]

FWIW,

  I heard a story on NPR last Saturday about problems with the honey market.  Apparently there is a glut of Chineese honey in the US market right now.  Honey is not regulated closely, and the FDA actually has no legal definition for what is in honey.  This apparently matters since honey could apparently be manufactured with corn syrup and yellow food color and put into bear shaped bottles and sold.

  I like to find local honey, and would recommend others look for it as well.  Farmers markets, health food stores, and country 'feed and seed' type stores are likely sources for good honey.

[Zen]

Unfiltered, local honey is the best. Not just a sweetener it is food! Last forever. I will be taking a large amount with on the Crossing. Maybe some small containers for trading.

[Oldrig]

This is a great thread, folks.

I've always liked honey, but never thought about bringing it onto the boat instead of those darn little packets of sugar that my wife insists on using. (They turn into soggy little clumps pretty quickly in the marine environment.)

Amgine: I usually put molasses into my marinades, grilling sauces and in stir-fry recipes. It adds a nice dark color. But honey would certainly do the trick, especially in warmer weather.

There is one caution about honey, according to some articles I've read (sorry, no citations): It can stick in the smallest crevices in the teeth, leading to tooth decay. This is especially true when serving it to children, who don't brush their teeth as well as we adults supposedly do.

Anyway, thanks for the tip.

--Joe

[skylark]

Honey is a good remedy for itchy bug bites.  Apply to skin over the bite.