# Honey question



## Hummingbird (Aug 21, 2002)

Hi all -

I'm not a beekeeper but I sure do like honey! I saw a website for 'totally raw honey' and it looked to be kinda creamy looking and they were talking about it having the "propolis" (sp?) still in it and that was a good thing.

Is it? Could someone teach me about what 'totally raw honey' is and if it does indeed have the benfits touted on this site? Thanks so much!

Nance


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## Iddee (Sep 25, 2005)

Don't know about the website, but the honey is straight from the hive without heating or blending with other honeys. Also, it has only been strained, not filtered to remove microscopic particles. It may contain pollen, propolis, and other small particles. Propolis is the "glue" that bees use for sealing cracks and sticking boxes together. It is said to have health and medicinal properties.
Most prefer local "raw" honey to the processed honey found in most stores.
Hope this helps. If you have more questions, just ask, I'll do what I can. What I can't, someone else here will.


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## Hummingbird (Aug 21, 2002)

Thanks! This is the website I ran across http://www.reallyrawhoney.com/ and I thought it looked interesting. 

Nance


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## Iddee (Sep 25, 2005)

Looks about like any beekeeper that lets his honey chrystalize. Any natural honey will do that after a certain time. If you don't want it that way, you can just set it in a pan of hot water and it will reliquefy. The biggest thing I see is the price. Most local beekeepers get from 3 to 5 dollars per pound.
Even cheaper in larger containers, IE: 5 gallon.


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## dcross (Aug 12, 2005)

Bees don't normally store honey and propolis together, the propolis is used as a glue or varnish in the hive.

My understanding of "Really Raw Honey" is that it is honey straight from the extractor, unfiltered, unheated, mostly goldenrod, and maybe with the cappings mixed in. 

Most grocery store honey is heated extensively, run through very fine filters, and blended so that every jar on the shelf looks and tastes the same. Dark honey, like goldenrod, is usually not sold in the big chain stores.

The "Really Raw" people have worked to carve themselves a niche in the premium honey market, and they charge a premium price. Odds are, you could find raw honey that isn't very filtered at any farmers market for half the price.


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## Hummingbird (Aug 21, 2002)

Cool! Thank you both for all your help! NOW - does anyone have "raw" honey in Central east Missouri? 


(saw an ad for Dadant on top of this page a minute ago - I used to live right across the river from them in Montrose, IA many years ago - their candle 'clearance' room was always one of my favorite places to go!)

Nance


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## dcross (Aug 12, 2005)

http://www.beesource.com/cgi-bin/ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi

I would post it here, under "Wanted to Buy". You'll probably find all you can eat, and then some


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## Hummingbird (Aug 21, 2002)

Thank you! I just posted.

Nance


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## foxtrapper (Dec 23, 2003)

"Could someone teach me about what 'totally raw honey' is and if it does indeed have the benfits touted on this site?"

A lot of that web site is marketing.

Almost any local honey you buy is raw. The degree of perceived "rawness" varies. 

The large commercial guys that sell honey by the ton to grocery stores use very fine filtration, and usually heat in processing the honey. Some of them even claim pasturization with that heat, and it can be a true claim. The "trash" in the honey is removed. As in all the pollen, wax, etc. You get well stripped honey. That's why it's so crystal clear, and not very good tasting.

The rest of us who do it at home extract the honey, use some sort of screen to catch the large chunks, and bottle it. It's generally not as crystal clear because of the contamination. This does give you the benefits of the local pollens and such, which can help with allergies, and tastes better to most folk. Our honey is "raw".

I do have one customer who goes buck-wild over my "trash" She wants the stuff I'd normally scrape out of the filter screen. Bee legs, etc. That's a marketing thing. She wants, and pays for, the stuff most people look at and go "ew". OK, I'll provide it, and call it "really raw". 

A lot of his honey is granulated, and perhaps intentionally so. On a higher end market you refer to this as creamed honey. It makes it a nice spread. Do a google search on it and you'll see what I mean. He takes it a step further, or perhaps a step down, depending on how you look at it.

On the web site, he brags about how trashy his honey is. That's the marketing I was talking about. He in some fashion is grinding/blending the trash like caps and such into small particles. I'd suspect he's using a beater blade like a paint mixer. That's what I use when doing this. It works well. The contamination tends to promote crystalization, and can promote some interesting flavor changes via fermentation or mold growth and the like on the bug parts.

If you want raw honey, just buy honey from a local bee keeper. That will give you the benefits of local raw honey. For pollens and such can differ regionally, and it supposedly works best to buy locally.


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