The Buzz About Store Honey

Looks like I'll have to make an extra effort to only get locally produced stuff.

Or get my own bees. I've always kind of wanted to do that.

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Wow I didnt know that pollen is like a fingerprint and the origin of the honey can be traced by it.
Always buy our honey from local producers and now I am glad there is more reason than ever to do so!

Wow that's an eye opener. I noticed the date on the article being 2011 but I doubt that anything has changed in 2 years.

I just bought a 1kg of Western Family honey guess I'm returning it and going to buy from 1 of our local producers.

I find it REALLY disturbing that the Asian countries keep trying to put non-food (prescription, plastics ect.) in our food and theirs. Can anybody explain as to why anybody would allow this ?

I was surprised that they add the fructose corn syrup.  here I thought honey was a healthier alternative to sugar in my coffee.

Glad we have lots of local sources around here.  I had been buying local anyway but I did occasionally pick some up at the store.  Not anymore.

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I shall have to give this a thorough reading later. I have just skimmed it.

I suspect the removal of pollen may be to protect those with allergies. This is a US article. I will ask my neighbor who runs an apiary about Canadian repercussions.

Interesting...I always go to the local apiary and fill my own containers with fresh honey. They always put the best honey on tap and sell it to the locals in bulk. We had a conversation about buying honey in the store and reading the label. In Canada, if it is not pure honey, it has to be on the label. It is often called a Honey blend ("blend" being in very small print.) I also bought some propolis as I make my own antibiotic ointment for the animals with honey and propolis.

Schipperkesue wrote:I shall have to give this a thorough reading later.  I have just skimmed it.

I suspect the removal of pollen may be to protect those with allergies.  This is a US article.  I will ask my neighbor who runs an apiary about Canadian repercussions.

My brother buys local honey because it HELPS his allergies.

authenticfarm wrote:

Schipperkesue wrote:I shall have to give this a thorough reading later.  I have just skimmed it.

I suspect the removal of pollen may be to protect those with allergies.  This is a US article.  I will ask my neighbor who runs an apiary about Canadian repercussions.

My brother buys local honey because it HELPS his allergies.

That's what I've heard too.

authenticfarm wrote:

Schipperkesue wrote:I shall have to give this a thorough reading later.  I have just skimmed it.

I suspect the removal of pollen may be to protect those with allergies.  This is a US article.  I will ask my neighbor who runs an apiary about Canadian repercussions.

My brother buys local honey because it HELPS his allergies.

My brother is allergic to some pollens and reacts to honey.

And now you can come back and say, "Oh yeah! Well MY brother..."  

Schipperkesue wrote:

authenticfarm wrote:

Schipperkesue wrote:I shall have to give this a thorough reading later.  I have just skimmed it.

I suspect the removal of pollen may be to protect those with allergies.  This is a US article.  I will ask my neighbor who runs an apiary about Canadian repercussions.

My brother buys local honey because it HELPS his allergies.

My brother is allergic to some pollens and reacts to honey.

And now you can come back and say, "Oh yeah!  Well MY brother..."   

Worst version of "my dad can beat up your dad" ever. Lol

We've been aware of this for some time now and only buy from a local small apiary. We try to avoid HFCS in as many food items as we possibly can. It is awful stuff in every way.

We still intend to do our own bees by the top bar method. We want to leave the honey for the bees through the winter and harvest in the spring. From there, we should be able to learn how much we can take and how much we have to leave to sustain the bees through the next winter. This way we don't have to give them a syrup or sugar syrup (which can often be HFCS) to sustain them artificially until the flowers are out or during no-flower times and we can keep it out of our final product. Doing this won't make us a lot of money, since we are not stripping all of the honey out of the hives before winter, but it will be much healthier for the bees.

Did you know that you can find some of the HFCS/sugar syrup (and its contaminants) in the first honey run and in the honey throughout the life of the hive? You can also find contaminants in the wax that remains as well. We found that interesting, and since we want our honey to BE honey and not something else, we figure that doing bees ourselves and by excluding what contaminants we can control, is our best solution. It is just too bad that we can't do it fully natural/organic. We figured that there really is only a very small area in Canada where this might even be possible, and it was pretty remote. I really hate seeing honey marketed as "Organic honey" when you know that according to regulations, it really cannot be. Unless all weed districts stopped spraying and all the farmers quit doing the same (which will never happen), or the bees learn to stay within certain boundaries, that just cannot happen.

As far as the allergies...what I have read is that if the honey is very local, it will contain local pollens, and therefore should help alleviate allergies. If it is from farther away, it contains different pollens and so cannot help.

Sometimes I think having my own bees would be a good idea. And then I remember that I don't like bees. lol