Food For Thought | The Buzz on Honey

Ah, honey, the sweet sweet insect nectar you drizzle on your toast & peanut butter, pour into your tea, use in recipes. It’s sticky, sweet, and it is basically bee poop. And the stuff is everywhere! Anywhere bees can pollinate flowers and build hives, honey can be found. It can be extracted from the hives directly, but it's probably best left to the experts.

Interested in becoming a beekeeper, or just plain intrigued by the process? Why not take an Apiculture course at the University of Guelph. It actually counted as an elective back in the day when I was a student. Those were the days... 

Photo credit: University of Guelph

Honey is also an aphrodisiac (not when you think of it as bee poop, though), increases sperm count, and promotes the health of women’s eggs

Romantic, no?  The only thing more romantic, perhaps, is barbecue. Who needs flowers, chocolates, or Kenny G when you’ve got honey and barbecue? And when you combine the two? Sweet Jesus – that right there might just be too hot to handle.

Take this guy, for example. He’s too sexy for his bee suit, too sexy for his bee suit, but he’d hurt without it…

Whew… okay, we’ve gotta take a second to cool down. Back to the honey. Now we’re going to leave you with some fascinating facts about honey that you must memorize so you can whip ‘em out at any time and impress everyone with your honey prowess. Ready? Okay!

KNOW YOUR FACTS, HONEY

• Honey is so much more than just sweet; it takes on the flavours and aromas of what the bees feed on! Read more here..
• Honey has no expiration date. None! It never spoils! It is the nectar of the gods! The fountain of youth! That concoction that Goldie Hawn and Meryl Streep drank in “Death Becomes Her”!
• In her entire lifetime, a worker bee produces just 0.8 grams of honey. So, like, appreciate it. Bees are seriously hard workers.
• Bees are the only insect that produces food eaten by humans
• Honey isn’t just wonderful for your tastebuds, it is also pretty amazing for your skin. And boys, if you do whip up a face mask or something, don’t worry, we won’t tell. Your radiance, however, will.
• Only female honey bees sting, we're leaving that one alone.
• Most important of all, honey makes mead. Check out some of the delicious (*hiccup*) products from the good folks at Fallentimber Meadery. 
• Do you know the function of bees wax, other than making candles and lip balms? They are produced by the honey bees once they are finished filling in the combs of the honeycomb.