Oh Sugar... Honey, Honey!

I've never met a living soul who didn't love a good honey.  Finding an amazing honey however, can be be challenging.  Unprocessed honey, straight from the hive, has been used worldwide for millennia to promote healing. For more natural healing benefits of raw honey, click here . Troy Adair wrote a great blog entry on Raw Desert Blossom Honey. This is why we carry Crockett Raw Honey it's a mild honey with fruity hints. Collected from natural sources and bottled here in the valley of the sun. at Crockett Honey Co. they  produce and package the finest honeys of the Southwest. The Sonoran Deserts produce a mild delicate flavored honey from many desert floral sources. These sources include Cactus, Mesquite, Catclaw, Palo Verde, as well as many other flowering plants. These honeys are unique in that they are only produced in the Sonoran Desert regions.  Our desert honey is 100% pure and natural. Honey is Nature's Natural Sweetener and is proven to be more easily digestible than refined sugars. They do nothing to the honey except carefully package it in a manner that will not alter its natural quality or change its delicate and mild flavor. 

But what do you do when you buy crystallized honey? Can it be uncrystallized without changing it's natural ability to heal? Well, some say no. If you add much heat it can kill the natural healthy enzymes. 

If however you aren't worried so much about the enzyme content and want a honey with a better viscosity...Here's how to do it.

If you don't plan on using the full container of honey, transfer the amount you want to use into a seal able jar. I use a half pint canning jar.  Then I put the jar into a cup or pot of hot water for 10-15 minutes, refreshing the water once so it stays hot (or if you use the insert to your slow cooker as the container for the water bath it will hold the heat fine). 

Honey comes out crystal clear.

 Enjoy our Raw Honey! We love it!

Raw Honey 101

Raw Honey.......More than just a sweetener.

First off, honey is a wonderful sweetener.  I especially enjoy Raw, Crystallized Desert Blossom Honey.  Since it is crystallized, you have to use a spoon or a knife to extract it from the container.  It doesn't pour out of the container like processed honey.  It is lower in moisture content than the processed or regular honey that you buy in the stores, which helps to concentrate the natural flavor and sweetness.  Raw honey doesn't go through the same processing as commercial honey and it readily crystallizes, which explains the  deep golden color of raw honey.  (Incidentally, you can warm up crystallized honey and it will become more viscous and you can pour it, but you run the risk of losing out on the beneficial enzymes.)

Growing up, I really enjoyed sports.  I had one soccer coach who used honey to help rejuvenate tired athletes after games.  He would provide different honey foods and snacks after games to help with muscle fatigue and provide a natural boost to tired bodies.  As a missionary in Argentina, a simple yet effective tonic for many illnesses, including soar throats, was warm lemon water and honey.  The natural antioxidants of lemons and honey, coupled with the other health benefits of the two often produced great results in a relatively short amount of time.  Most nutritionists seem to agree that while white sugar and other processed sugars weaken the bodies immune system, honey can help in healing.

We use raw honey as a wonderful spread on toast.  Instead of grabbing a so-called energy drink, toast some bread, add a little butter and spread with raw honey.  This will provide a bit of an immediate pick-up, while helping to sustain energy.  One of our favorite uses of raw honey is to add a bit of sweetener to breakfast smoothies.  We also use it for homemade barbecue sauce recipes.   It is especially great for sweetening hot breakfast cereals like oatmeal, corn meal mush, farina (creamy wheat) and cracked wheat.

I am not a nutritionist, but from past personal experience and from research I have conducted, I feel like there are wonderful benefits of honey, especially raw honey.  Raw honey has nutural enzymes that assist in digestion and assimilation.   Honey has natural antioxidants that help with our immune systems and assist the body's natural defenses.  Honey, when collected from local sources, is also considered to assist in helping individuals with allergies.  This comes from the fact that the bees are harvesting local pollens for their hives.

Raw honey can be difficult on infants because of the natural enzymes and other factors.  Also, many folks store honey but don't regularly use it.  If you go from white sugar and white flour to honey and whole wheat, your body is going to be in for a shock.  So, the best advice is to incorporate these into your diets now on a regular basis.  This is not only to help you from a transition standpoint, but to provide your body with more nutrition.