Fake honey – it’s a sticky situation
Discussion
Is anyone surprised?
Supermarkets in every town, across the entire developed world, billions of people, and these bees are some how keeping up with demand?
Maple syrup has been like this for years, you can absolutely taste the real stuff, most of what you buy in supermarkets isn't.
If you want honey then buy it from a local independent supplier, if nothing else you are benefitting you community, and assuming it's not an old wife's tale it's helpful to prevent hay fever.
Supermarkets in every town, across the entire developed world, billions of people, and these bees are some how keeping up with demand?
Maple syrup has been like this for years, you can absolutely taste the real stuff, most of what you buy in supermarkets isn't.
If you want honey then buy it from a local independent supplier, if nothing else you are benefitting you community, and assuming it's not an old wife's tale it's helpful to prevent hay fever.
Stick Legs said:
Is anyone surprised?
Supermarkets in every town, across the entire developed world, billions of people, and these bees are some how keeping up with demand?
Maple syrup has been like this for years, you can absolutely taste the real stuff, most of what you buy in supermarkets isn't.
If you want honey then buy it from a local independent supplier, if nothing else you are benefitting you community, and assuming it's not an old wife's tale it's helpful to prevent hay fever.
It’s not that difficult to keep bees, but it’s a long way from being cost free (especially if done on a proper commercial basis).Supermarkets in every town, across the entire developed world, billions of people, and these bees are some how keeping up with demand?
Maple syrup has been like this for years, you can absolutely taste the real stuff, most of what you buy in supermarkets isn't.
If you want honey then buy it from a local independent supplier, if nothing else you are benefitting you community, and assuming it's not an old wife's tale it's helpful to prevent hay fever.
The supermarket stuff is utter garbage compared to the real thing. Filtered and blended so that it barely resembles honey at all. The real stuff has proper taste and character, to the extent that it varies significantly year on year (and even within a year, depending on when it is harvested).
Trouble is that most people have never tried the real thing and/or would baulk at the price.
Huntsman said:
Considering the quality, £5.50 per jar is good value.The Gauge said:
There's a guy lives around the corner from me who has his own hives and sells jars of his thick honey for £4, it's really good stuff.
That’s cheap. Most who sell are now at/nudging above £5 for a 227g jar. In spite of what people might think, even putting aside the time element, there can be a lot of cost involved in keeping bees. It’s a long way from simply setting up a hive and just diving in every now and again to take the honey.
Salted_Peanut said:
Huntsman said:
Considering the quality, £5.50 per jar is good value.He's one guy, its what he does, I'm local so he drops off four for £20.
There's no shipping in bulk from China, no repacking in a factory, no additional rubbish.
Just his honey straight to you, mobey in his pocket.
Follow him on facebook and read his Wednesday posts on bee keeping.
Huntsman said:
Silly question time, how long does that last please?For my mum's birthday we bought her a bee keeper for a day thing, she thoroughly enjoyed it and it was a real eye opener for her with regards to mass produced honey and what it is actually made of or blended with.
She came away with a jar of the stuff produced by the company who ran the day, she gave it to me, the taste and texture was phenomenal, worlds away from even the "decent" stuff I've bought from the supermarket.
She was saying they small producers have an issue with labeling, they cannot call their product "raw honey" anymore it has to be labelled unpasteurised which people find off putting and subsequently it has had a negative effect on their their sales, people almost see it as unclean.
She came away with a jar of the stuff produced by the company who ran the day, she gave it to me, the taste and texture was phenomenal, worlds away from even the "decent" stuff I've bought from the supermarket.
She was saying they small producers have an issue with labeling, they cannot call their product "raw honey" anymore it has to be labelled unpasteurised which people find off putting and subsequently it has had a negative effect on their their sales, people almost see it as unclean.
Edited by HTP99 on Sunday 1st December 07:33
Oh yes fresh, local honey is worlds away from the supermarket stuff, but for me - I make mead and use a base of the supermarket stuff as it is literally there to eat the sugars and then I back-sweeten with the nicer stuff which will then give more of a flavour. I do it this way as buying 2kg of honey to make 5 liters of mead gets very expensive. I would love to do more proper honey bases so does anyone know of a reasonably priced "good honey seller" online at all? Ive seen ebay has quite a lot.
Stretchly said:
Oh yes fresh, local honey is worlds away from the supermarket stuff, but for me - I make mead and use a base of the supermarket stuff as it is literally there to eat the sugars and then I back-sweeten with the nicer stuff which will then give more of a flavour. I do it this way as buying 2kg of honey to make 5 liters of mead gets very expensive. I would love to do more proper honey bases so does anyone know of a reasonably priced "good honey seller" online at all? Ive seen ebay has quite a lot.
Go and have a chat with your local beekeeper/association. There will be someone locally who would be happy to sell by the tub/bucket.
Our best stuff (no smoke when removing frames, mesh filtered, no heat, fully settled) goes into jars but there’s always a quantity that sees a small amount of heat to separate from wax. That doesn’t get jarred because it doesn’t fit with our ultra-low intervention approach but gets used for cooking. We’re going to try using it for mead (have all the kit just not enough time this year) and in bbq sauces.
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