Age Defying Treatment for Old Honey

We are almost all sold out of last year's honey crop.  In 2012 our bee hive yielded approximately 35 jars of beautiful, golden yellow honey.  This honey won us third prize in the golden honey category at the Carp Fair.

Before you think our heads swelled winning such a prestigious award, I should disclose that there were only three entries in this category.  However, I don't think it was the quality of our honey that was the issue - our feedback sheet listed our shortcomings as: 1) we didn't fill our jar full enough; 2) our honey was a little light coloured for the "golden" category (perhaps we should have submitted to the "light" category - who knew?!); and 3) there were too many bubbles in our honey - which makes sense since we has just harvested it the day before submitting our entry.

Since we don't pasteurize our honey, we refrigerate it right after processing to reduce the chance that bacteria will grow in it which is the cause of botulism.  However, refrigeration also increases the viscosity of the honey, so it takes longer for the air bubbles to move up through the honey to the top of the jar.

Next year, we will fill our jar fuller, process the honey a few days earlier and leave the jar on the window sill in the sun for a few days (insider advice from a veteran beekeeper) to make it clearer prior to submission to the Fair.  Then we'll see how we do!  How exactly we'll know whether to classify it as "light" or "golden" still alludes us but we'll worry about that when the time comes.  Maybe we'll do a public opinion poll on the blog.

While we have been focused on selling our 2012 yield; Ian and I are still eating our way through our 2011 honey crop.  This honey has been in the fridge for about a year and a half now and had begun to crystalize at the bottom of the jar.

Lucky for us, the honey, while older, is still perfectly edible and delicious, so to get rid of the crystals we simply place the room temperature jar of honey in a small pot of warm water on the stove.

Sure enough, after a few minutes the heat causes the crystals to dissolve back into the liquid honey and it all looks as good as new.  Perfect for tea, oatmeal and toast - yum!