Last Call for Honey 2012 Season

Greetings!

Who knew? September is National Honey Month!

I have to call the farm Tuesday night with the final numbers for people who are ordering Honey so if you want any and haven’t placed your order yet…respond to this email or leave a phone message (see end of email for number) and place your final orders no later than midnight on this Tuesday, August 21st. Bring cash to pay for your order this Thursday (I’ll need to pay our farmer this Thursday when he drops off our food before you get to the CSA so any orders placed now, you’ll be paying me back for “fronting” you the money).

The Honey is $10 per 1 lb container. We may or may not get another opportunity to order Honey this season. Often we’ve had two chances…June/July and then again in November/December but won’t guarantee this will happen this year.

They come in plastic squeeze bottles. I would prefer glass but this Honey is shipped and she tried glass jars the first time but there was too much breakage to have confidence it shipping it again using glass. Plus, I haven’t heard anything yet about there being an issue with anything from plastic leaching into Honey (just don’t heat up the Honey in the plastic bottle…if you do, I bet then there could be some leaching…microwave – definitely, warm, not hot, water – maybe none to some, hot water – more likely). And since she’s a Biodynamic beekeeper I’d hope she’d keep informed about such matters and would change to glass if it indeed was a problem.

The Honey should arrive either next week or the first week of September. Will keep you posted.

A CSA member asked me how long will the Honey last. The answer is…
http://www.eatbydate.com/other/sweets/honey-shelf-expiration-date/

Why buy local Honey?

For one thing, most store bought Honey…isn’t (and can be contaminated with pesticides, illegal antibiotics as well as legal ones, and watered down with corn syrup, etc).

The short version of the story…
http://insects.about.com/b/2009/07/16/why-you-should-buy-local-honey.htm
The more detailed version…
http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2011/11/tests-show-most-store-honey-isnt-honey/

Like any other local foodstuff, you have a greater chance for accountability and safety if you know who’s growing/producing/processing your food.

Good piece from Rodale on five reasons to befriend your local beekeeper…
http://www.rodale.com/organic-beekeeping

Here’s some info about nutritional info and suggestions of how to use/cook with Honey…
http://www.thedailygreen.com/healthy-eating/latest/2660

Farmer Bill’s daughter has Honey for us to buy from her hives. She’s a biodynamic beekeeper who lives upstate New York by the St. Lawrence River. Honey can’t really be certified organic as Bees will fly within a 5 mile radius, on average, if they’re not happy where they are and not getting the pollen and nectar they’re looking for. I imagine these upstate Bees are happy as the proverbial clams are they’re living out in what might be called “God’s country” (ie – the sticks) and so, aren’t going anywhere and thereby the Honey is as organic as it’s going to get.

Info about Biodynamic Beekeeping…
http://www.themelissagarden.com/beekeeping.html
Biodynamic beekeeping class in November upstate NY…
https://www.paymenttrakker.com/pfeiffercenter/courses.aspx

Why aren’t we getting Honey from Green Thumb Farm? My belief is that Farmer Bill is trying to be supportive of his daughter’s ongoing beekeeping efforts in hopes that someday she will come back to the family farm and become their beekeeper.

If your concern is using Honey for the treatment of allergies, you want to use Honey within a 10 mile radius of where you live and it’s not just a matter of then getting any old nearby Honey and consuming it whenever. It’s more complicated than I had originally thought. I’d be happy to discuss this with anyone interested in more info and/or go to Frederique Keller’s website and I’m sure she could help out…
http://beepharm.com/BeepharmSite/Home.html

Any further questions, please feel free to contact me and ask! 

Best wishes…suzanne
631-421-4864