• Sassafras Bee Farm
  • About
  • Contact

Beekeeping365

~ The more I studied beekeeping, the less I knew, until, finally, I knew nothing. But, even though I knew nothing, I still had plenty to unlearn. Charles Martin Simon

Beekeeping365

Daily Archives: June 5, 2017

Is this RAW Honey?

05 Monday Jun 2017

Posted by sassafrasbeefarm in beekeeping, food, honey, honey as food, raw honey

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

beekeeping, food, honey

Excellent write up on the topic of raw honey. Many, if not most, of my customers ask for specifically “raw honey” for the health benefits. They often have many requirements such as non-filtered, non-heated, and local sourced. This article by The Apiarist explores the topic of raw honey.

Source: ‘Raw’ honey — The Apiarist

How many times have your been asked that?

Not for sale ...

Define ‘raw’

Chambers 21st Century Dictionary defines ‘raw’ as meaning: 1. said of meat, vegetables, etc: not cooked. 2. not processed, purified or refined. … and then wanders off into definitions of ‘raw’ silk, weather and wounds, though no mention of raw honey.  Clearly honey is both a foodstuff and ‘not cooked’, though if it’s heated excessively it has to be sold as ‘Bakers honey’.

However, is it processed, purified or refined? I operate my extractor with the gate open. I run the honey through a coarse filter (~2 mm) directly into 30 lb. buckets. This removes the worst of the lumps that really shouldn’t be in honey … big pellets of pollen, scraps of brace comb and bits of bees. I really don’t want any of these on my toast in the mornings, and I don’t want them floating on the – inevitable – scum when the jar is opened as I would really like to attract repeat customers. I store the 30 lb. buckets until I’m ready to jar the honey, re-filtering it through a fine mesh and removing the scum before bottling. The end product looks great and has a good shelf life.

Since ‘purified’ means to remove contaminants I suspect the pedantic would consider the honey is no longer raw.

Raw honey on labels

Honey labelled for sale must carry one of the following reserved words that describe the product … Honey, Blossom Honey, Nectar Honey, Honeydew Honey, Comb Honey, Chunk Honey, Cut Comb in Honey, Drained Honey, Extracted Honey, Pressed Honey, Filtered Honey and Baker’s Honey. If the predominant nectar source is known the reserved word can be prefixed with the source e.g. heather honey.

It’s notable that raw, organic, unfiltered or unheated aren’t reserved words and yet are regularly found on honey labels, sometimes immediately preceding the word ‘honey’.

The taste test

The jar at the top of the page is coarse filtered ‘raw’ honey run straight from the extractor into the bottle. It’s slightly cloudy and has bubbles and a sort of swirly, almost birefringent, appearance when you hold it against the light. It will almost certainly crystallise unevenly and unpredictably. It might have an antenna lurking in its murky depths.

It tastes absolutely delicious.

But then so is honey that’s been allowed to settle in the buckets, gently warmed in a honey warming cabinet†, filtered through a fine mesh filter, allowed to settle again, skimmed (to remove the bubbles that rise to the surface) and then carefully bottled in pre-warmed jars. This is still ‘raw’ – as in uncooked – honey but it’s also certainly a more refined product. It’s beautifully clear, it looks great on the shop shelves or the breakfast table, it sells well and it attracts a premium price. Like all pure honey that hasn’t been heated to very high temperatures or filtered excessively it will eventually crystallise, but it has a long shelf life and will remain attractive for the duration.

No bee legs or antennae ...

It might be interesting to conduct a blind taste test of a jar of ‘raw’ honey with one refined just enough – as described above – to look really good and sell well. It might also be interesting to auction an unlabelled jar of each and see which is more attractive to the customer … or see whether customers who find bee legs in the jar make repeat orders 😉


† Going by the number of visitors who come to this site having searched for a ‘honey warming cabinet‘ I suspect that the ‘raw’ honey sold by most beekeepers is at least partially refined. As an aside that last link also takes you to details of the cabinet sold by Abelo’s, which looks lovely (a lot more aesthetically pleasing than my DIY effort), but costs an eye-watering £599 and doesn’t enable you to pre-warm supers before extraction. A missed opportunity.

 

Read more at:  ‘Raw’ honey — The Apiarist

Feel free to share this on:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • Email
  • LinkedIn
  • Reddit
  • Tumblr
  • Print
  • Pocket
  • Telegram
  • WhatsApp
  • Skype

Like this:

Like Loading...
Follow Beekeeping365 on WordPress.com

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Calendar

June 2017
S M T W T F S
 123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
252627282930  
« May   Jul »

Posts by Month:

  • January 2021 (19)
  • December 2020 (19)
  • November 2020 (18)
  • October 2020 (11)
  • September 2020 (3)
  • August 2020 (7)
  • July 2020 (1)
  • April 2020 (2)
  • February 2020 (5)
  • June 2019 (1)
  • March 2019 (2)
  • February 2019 (7)
  • January 2019 (1)
  • December 2018 (10)
  • November 2018 (9)
  • October 2018 (15)
  • September 2018 (25)
  • August 2018 (15)
  • July 2018 (32)
  • June 2018 (32)
  • May 2018 (35)
  • April 2018 (28)
  • March 2018 (32)
  • February 2018 (26)
  • January 2018 (22)
  • December 2017 (18)
  • November 2017 (19)
  • October 2017 (25)
  • September 2017 (27)
  • August 2017 (24)
  • July 2017 (30)
  • June 2017 (28)
  • May 2017 (19)
  • April 2017 (17)
  • March 2017 (19)
  • February 2017 (15)
  • January 2017 (15)
  • December 2016 (5)

Posts by Categories:

  • absconding (1)
  • africanized honey bees (1)
  • apitherapy (1)
  • bee health (6)
  • bee law (2)
  • bee lining (2)
  • bee removals (2)
  • beekeeper (5)
  • beekeeper education (16)
  • beekeeping (615)
    • South Carolina (2)
  • beekeeping author (9)
  • beekeeping books (14)
  • beekeeping calendar (6)
  • beekeeping chores (8)
  • beekeeping equipment (25)
  • beekeeping history (50)
  • beekeeping management (38)
  • beekeeping pest management (9)
  • beekeeping seasons (23)
  • beekeeping vocabulary (16)
  • beeswax (13)
  • biography (4)
  • biology (14)
  • birthday (41)
  • birthdays (35)
  • book review (16)
  • breakfast (1)
  • calendar (6)
  • CCD (1)
  • chores (8)
  • comb (7)
  • comb honey (10)
  • commercial beekeeping (2)
  • cutouts (2)
  • dearth (3)
  • defensiveness (2)
  • diseases (9)
  • drawn comb (6)
  • ecology (4)
  • education (28)
  • equipment (25)
  • extracting (1)
  • fall nectar flow (1)
  • famous beekeepers (27)
  • feeding bees (8)
  • first blog entry (1)
  • folklore (1)
  • food (7)
  • forage (4)
  • hacks (3)
  • hive inspections (8)
  • hive placement (2)
  • hive products (6)
  • honey (92)
  • honey as food (23)
  • honey bee anatomy (3)
  • honey bee behavior (25)
  • honey bee biology (43)
  • honey bee genetics (4)
  • honey bee nutrition (1)
  • honey bee photos (6)
  • Honey Bee Research (1)
  • honey bee vocabulary (12)
  • honey bees (14)
  • honey judging (4)
  • honey recipe (72)
  • humor (14)
  • inspections (10)
  • journal (1)
  • log book (1)
  • making increase (3)
  • management (86)
  • mentoring (2)
  • mites (3)
  • national pollinator week (2)
  • nectar flow (6)
  • nomenclature (1)
  • opinion (8)
  • out yards (1)
  • outyards (1)
  • package bees (1)
  • pears (1)
  • pests (18)
  • plants for bees (3)
  • polish (1)
  • pollen (4)
  • pollination (11)
  • pollinators (7)
  • product review (1)
  • production (1)
  • products (3)
  • propolis (2)
  • queens (17)
  • raw honey (7)
  • recipe (96)
  • removals (1)
  • safety (3)
  • sales (2)
  • season (1)
  • seasons (21)
  • sideliner (1)
  • small hive beetles (1)
  • spring buildup (4)
  • state fair (2)
  • sustainable (7)
  • swarms (26)
  • ursurpation (1)
  • usurpation (1)
  • varroa (22)
  • varroa destructor (13)
  • varroa mites (26)
  • Winter (5)
  • winter solstice (2)
  • woodenware (3)
  • yellow jackets (2)

Sassafras Bee Farm on Facebook

Sassafras Bee Farm on Facebook

Sassafras Bee Farm

Sassafras Bee Farm

Recent Posts

  • Notes and Beehives
  • How to Catch A Swarm-N-A-Bucket!
  • Midlands Beekeeping Calendar for February
  • Catching Honey Bee Swarms
  • Trapping Honey Bee Swarms

Beekeeping365 on Facebook

Beekeeping365 on Facebook

Top Posts & Pages

  • Types of bees by Fat Daddy’s Apiary
    Types of bees by Fat Daddy’s Apiary
  • How to Catch A Swarm-N-A-Bucket!
    How to Catch A Swarm-N-A-Bucket!
  • Honey Cake by Farm, Garden and Beyond
    Honey Cake by Farm, Garden and Beyond

Blog Stats

  • 86,875 hits

Website Built with WordPress.com.

Cancel
loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.
Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
%d bloggers like this: