I mean, can we talk honey...

If you're looking for real honey, FSN recommends buying organic from places like Trader Joe's or farmer's markets, where the honey has plenty of pollen.

http://motherjones.com/blue-marble/2011 ... t-be-honey

http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2011/11/t ... snt-honey/

Thanks FDA. We need more crap from China.

i really enjoyed this article, thanks! i remember my grandpop's honey, he had bees swarming around outside, and whenever we would visit we pretty much always came home with a big ol' tin of honey! that would for sure crystallize...there just seemed something mystical about it, as opposed to any we had available otherwise.

having said that! i know there are some who do not do well with straight up pollen ingestion (they had a WTF reaction)...i was intrigued and asked if they could tolerate honey then? they eventually found out that they could (i suppose they would probably choose what they could perceive as a good quality honey available on the store shelf, like at co-ops and stuff) ,,, now i have to wonder...how filtered is it? what percentage of pollen is in it? and/or does the honey matrix make pollen ingestion different? (more tolerable)

I don't know about that, but I do have a very old "Home remedies" type book (my grandmother's, and maybe even her Mother's!) that recommends honey as an anti-septic (I have read other things that say it provides a sterile environment). It is used (or used to be used) as a preservative.......it seems like it has lots of good uses, besides tasting so delicious. NTM, Captain Zap's meade, which I guess he makes from honey? I live on the edge of the Apalachicola National Forest (biggest nat'l forest east of the Mississippi) and there are hundreds of folks who are contracted to keep bees throughout it. Lots of different kinds of honey depending on location, time of year, etc. --- gallberry, tupelo, blackberry --- dozens of flavors I can't remember now but I've tasted them all and they're all good

Being a life long allergy and only recent asthma sufferer, I've long used local honey to help build my imunity. My understanding is the local farmers market, coo-op and TJ honey is minimally filtered to remove only the bee and wax parts, but leave all of the pollen. Pollen grains are much smaller, and not trapped.

From FSN...
Why should consumers care if their honey has had its pollen removed?

"Raw honey is thought to have many medicinal properties," says Kathy Egan, dietitian at College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass. "Stomach ailments, anemia and allergies are just a few of the conditions that may be improved by consumption of unprocessed honey."

But beyond pollen's reported enzymes, antioxidants and well documented anti-allergenic benefits, a growing population of natural food advocates just don't want their honey messed with.

The Codex commission's Standard for Honey, which sets principles for the international trade in food, has ruled that "No pollen or constituent particular to honey may be removed except where this is unavoidable in the removal of foreign matter. . ." It even suggested what size mesh to use (not smaller than 0.2mm or 200 micron) to filter out unwanted debris -- bits of wax and wood from the frames, and parts of bees -- but retain 95 percent of all the pollen.

yeah, i got that (about the allergy thing), which is why i thought about the person i know who had issues (bizzare stuff including hives) involving straight up pollen ingestion. (not a ton, as i recall they were just trying it)
i also wanted to leave the part at the end of what i was saying here (put in bold) (at least i am going to attempt to put it in bold)



what i was saying (or trying to), wondering if they could tolerate honey then since this episode, ,,they found out that they could (still). and guessing the choice of honey might be a minimally filtered honey, or a little more than minimal...or something that looked generally acceptable...or what, i am not sure...and IF minimally proccessed, could it be that pollen included as part of the honey matrix makes it more tolerable? or something like that! and then there are the varying levels of the heating processes used and its effects...
at any rate, whatever honey they have got seems fine.



and i do understand the importance of knowing where the honey comes from (by being able to examine the pollen).

do you know what i want?...crêpes!!

Crepes, yum! I've heard that local honey is good for you cuz it helps you with your allergies. It supposedly helps you get used to the local pollen.

the pollen was local. from area beekeepers.

i was just wondering outloud about stuff...it is weird i guess

Weird Pollen would be a good name for a band.

Weird Pollen and the Benadryls

weird pollen and the venus flytraps! :)

Two good names for bands! And then you got me to wondering (early mornin' rain down here and all), do carnivorous plants make pollen? and if they do, do bees collect it? and if they do, what the honey would taste like?.......and would it be 'vegetarian'? Why are there so many questions in the morning?

Mosquito Honey?

KACK!!

interesting questions though
here is venus flytrap pollen
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/arc ... 18993i.jpg

these ones are really cool (i think)....
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/arc ... 19007i.jpg

here's a bunch more
http://www.imagegossips.com/wp-content/ ... /88305.jpg

http://beeguardian.posterous.com/awesom ... len-grains

those are awesome..thanks..

Now I feel voyeuristic