The whole row of flowers was buzzing with bees today!
I just happened to be at the Ferry Plaza during their Tuesday farmers market, so I browsed a little and ended up getting raw honey. I actually had been searching for raw honey with pollen. Honey has been revered in Eastern cultures for thousands of years. In Ayurveda, honey is used for many ailments and preventive measures. Raw honey with pollen is prescribed to those suffering from allergies to scrape mucus and to build resistance and immunity. Of course, thousands of years ago, there wasn’t a concept of industrial farms, adulterating food with additives and fillers,or pesticides. Also, honey was never radiated or cooked. Actually, all of this only happened in the last 150 years. Unfortunately, there is now the issue of Colony Collapse Disorder where worker bees are mysteriously disappearing from their hives. The issue of CCD goes beyond just consuming honey. Bees pollinate other many other food (apples, lemons, chestnuts) and are very vital to our food supply ecosystem.
There is a significant difference between honey produced on large industrial farms and honey produced on small, local family farms. Sadly, bees are treated like livestock on industrial farms. They are forcefully fed corn syrup, not nectar from wildflowers. Shocking. The honey found in most grocery stores comes from China and is adulterated with other substances. In other words, most of the time you are not getting pure honey. That is a huge reason why honey from large, industrial beekeepers is so cheap. The benefit of buying local honey is that you can trace it back to the beekeeper and know that the honey is pure. Pure, raw honey is full of antioxidants and enzymes that are good for your health. You can ask questions about beekeeping and honey cultivation. Also, most small beekeepers take care of their bees, do not use deadly pesticides or treatments and let their bees swarm and drink nectar. In the end, you get pure honey.
Sure, honey produced on small farms that use sustainable and ethical practices will be much more expensive. But then again, how much honey do you really need to consume? An 8 ounce jar of honey lasts us for a full year, if not more.
Snyders Honey at the Ferry Plaza Tuesday’s market. Their hives are located at Crystal Springs Reservoir south of San Francisco. Super local.
Gina and I at the Fort Mason Farmers Market. Gina sells Snyders Honey along with her family’s olives and olive oils.
For more information about bees and CCD check out the film Vanishing of the Bees. You can also sign a petition to tell the EPA to get to the bottom of CCD.
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I was surprised when I first heard on blogs that so much honey in the US comes from China and has other, cheaper, substances within it. In the UK it’s illegal to have honey on the label if other substances have been added to it. But we do have honey in the shops which has been mixed together from lots of different producers or even different countries, which in my opinion is not as good.
I like snyders honey, she comes to the noe valley farmers market too, I usually get wildflower flavor or theres one other I like a lot I forget. I enjoy sampling all the different flowers to see which honey tastes best. Im bad at getting to the farmers market though… we used to go through one of those jars maybe every month or month and a half. Now that my roomie gave up sugar sugar, we go through a larger jar of honey every week or 2 LOL. Its good for tea, smoothies, and cream of wheat. I still buy local honey from the grocery store, we’re lucky to live in SF where such things are available. I didn’t know that they were feeding the bees corn syrup that’s so gross!! Im so glad I get the more local stuff!!
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