G c xO -n/ 4> . ^ " . O > . ci°,<. _ , *" v*<<^ .'^ *^^ > V * ^ FACTS ABOUT HONEY ^^C^^SE IT IS ^^^ o^. WHAT HONEY IS HOW TAKEN FROM THE BEES ITS VALUE AS FOOD HONEY RECIPES Copyrighted, 1916, by C. P. Dadant ,1) /, '-. '■ / 1 Modern Beehives WHAT HOKET IS Honey is the nectar of flowers gathered by the bees and ripened by them in their hive by the fanning of their wings which evaporates the water out of it and thiclcens it. A chemical change also takes place, by the action of the bees, whicli modifies this nectar into delicious honey. WHERE HONEY IS GATHERED It is gathered wherever flowers bloom in profusion, as far north as Finland and farther north than Quebec in Canada, during the summer months. The warmer climates of course are more favorable to honey pro- duction, since flowers bloom in greater profusion and during a longer period. As a rule, honey in the warmer climates is therefore lower in price than in colder countries. The honey of those countries is usually stronger in flavor than that produced in the north, the southern flowers being more rank and of a stronger fragrance. DIFFERENT FLAYORS OF HONEY Nearly all flowers secrete nectar, though some kinds yield more than others. Very few consumers realize that the difference in flavor and color of different honeys is due to the nectar being gathered from different kinds of flowers. *For instance, honey gathered from white clover blossoms or from alfalfa blossoms is very light in color and mild in flavor. On the other hand, honey from buckwheat blossoms is very dark colored and strong in taste. Honey from goldenrod or Spanish needle is of a bright amber or golden color, much prized by some consumers. Qj /\ O ©CI,A426055 ft^pi M 29 1916 As there are thousands of different kinds of flowers, so there are thous- ands of different flavors of nectar, all gathered by the bees. In each lo- cality, however, the flowers of certain plants are more abundant than all other flowers combined and produce more nectar than all other flowers. From such plants the main crop of honey is gathered. In the east and north and in Canada, white clover and buckwheat are the main sources of honey, with sometimes a little basswood, also called linden. In the central states, white clover, sweet clover, heartsease and Spanish needles are the principal honey-producing flowers. In the southern states, sweet clover, horsemint, mesquite, cotton, tupelo, etc., produce large crops. In the west, alfalfa, sweet clover, white sage and other mountain flowers yield abundant crops. Each of the flowers named produces honey of a different flavor. As a rule, light-colored honey is mild, while the dark-colored is strong in -flavor. PRmCIPAL KINDS OF HONEY Alfalfa honey Very light color Aster honey Light amber color Basswood honey Light color Buckwheat honey Dark color ■Cleome honey Light color Cotton honey Light color Heartsease honey Light amber color Horsemint honey Amber color Mesquite honey Light amber Orange blossom Light color Sage (white) honey Light color Spanish needle Amber color Sweet clover Light color White clover Very light color Mild flavor Medium flavor Pronounced flavor Pronounced flavor Medium flavor Medium flavor Mild flavor Strong flavor Medium flavor Mild flavor Mild flavor Pronounced flavor Mild flavor Mild flavor These are some of the principal honey-yielding plants of North America. Although the bees usually gather only from the main blooming plant, at times they gather honey from every source within their reach. This ac- counts for the fact that honey, called by the same name, sometimes varies considerably in color and flavor. "Hiving" a Swarm of Bees A Field of White Clover in Full Bloom Honey from white clover, alfalfa, sweet clover or basswood is so light in. color that many people who have never eaten any other kind are apt to think the other kinds are not pure. A Field of Buckwheat in Full Bloom Although buckwheat blossoms are of the same color as white clover, their honey is not only very dark but also strong in odor and flavor. It smells and tastes just as the bloom smells. Spanish needle honey is of deep golden color and pronounced flavor, very different from the clovers. HOW HONEY IS PRODUCED The old way — Before beekeeping became a science^ the common way of •securing honey was to destroy the bees usually by sulphur fumes or by driv- ing them out of their hive with dense smoke. Bees were kept in logs or gums and box hives, and the combs containing the honey had to be cut out. The honey was then pressed out of the combs and as it often contained more or less bee-bread or pollen, bee-glue, bits of wood, dead bees and other foreign matters, it was rarely of good quality. Honey secured in this way was called and is still called "strained honey," which is quite different from the modern "extracted honey," which we are about to describe. Honey From a Bee Tree — The Old Way — Lots of Trouble and Forty Pounds of Honey Although the old way of getting honey from trees out of hollow logs or from boxes was a very romantic procedure, it was a very unprofitable meth- od and the honey was rarely of good quality. The bees had to be destroyed ^nd this interfered seriously with the future supply. Bees in the Old Style Box-hives The combs of the bees, in these hives, being fastened to the inner walls of the box, it was impossible to remove the honey without destroying or damaging the bees. Besides, they could not be cared for when they were queenless, or diseased, or needed help. HOW HONEY IS PRODUCED THE NEW WAY — Scientific beekeeping has entirely done away with the destruction of the bees to secure their honey. By means of the movable- frame hives and honey sections, in which each comb is hung separately in a frame, the careful beekeeper can take the surplus honey from his hives without killing a single bee and without getting his hands daubed with honey. As the modern way of handling bees has been in use for but a comparatively short time, many persons imagine that because the combs are so straight and the honey so nice in appearance it must be adulterated. Nothing is farther from the facts. Honey handled in the new way is pure and perfectly sanitary as it does not come in contact with the fingers of anyone or anything but the bees themselves, before it is sold. Taking Honey from the Bees in a Modern Apiary In a modern apiary the honey is taken from the bees in a sanitary as well as humane way. By means of a little smoke they are rendered docile with- out injuring them. The frames may be handled without killing a single bee. HOW HONEY IS PRODUCED COMB-HONEY — When bees gather nectar, they store it in their combs. These may be irregularly built, large or small, if they are left to their own devices and it usually is impossible to remove them without breaking them. But with the modern methods, the hives are supplied with little square wooden boxes or COMB HONEY SECTIONS, containing comb guides made •of pure beeswax. These guides are called COMB-FOUNDATION, because they are built with the imprint of the cells and are the foundation or base of the comb, made from their own wax. They accept nothing but their own product, in this way. Comb-foundation acts as a guide and secures straight combs in the sections, an indispensable requirement in producing comb- honey for market. Comb-Honey Sections as Given to the Bees by the Beekeeper Man has found it impossible to build the full comb. The bees themselves finish the work by adding their own wax to the foundation given them and filling it with honey. ■PW MW I I BW ^ Il »^»l*t«t»«»i« • «f Comb-Honey — The Finished Product of the Bees This shows sections of honey as taken from the bees by the beekeeper. Note that the bees have fastened each comb to the wall of the sections and sealed the cells after filling them. No two sections are alike in finish, as they would be if it were possible to fill them by human processes. The bees do not finish any two combs exactly alike any more than mother Nature makes any two men exactly alike. Sections of honey may be compared with the leaves on the trees, all are similar but no two are exactly alike. CHUNK HONEY — Sometimes the beekeeper gives the bees large frames to be filled, instead of small sections. In that case, the honey, comb and all, is cut out and put into pails or cans with enough liquid honey to fill the spaces. This is called CHUNK HONEY. It is a favorite method of harvest- ing honey in some southern states, such as Texas. A few beekeepers in the north also follow this method. HOW HONEY IS PKODUCED EXTRACTED HONEY — Honey may be produced more economically, ::f the combs can be emptied and returned to the bees to be filled again. Combs cost the bees a great deal of labor and expense, for they are produced by digesting honey — a process of nature very similar to the production of fat in cattle — and taking the little scales of wax while they are warm to build the comb. Beekeepers have succeeded in removing the honey from the comb without injuring it, by the use of a HONEY EXTRACTOR, and honey pro- duced in this way is called EXTRACTED HONEY. In the production of extracted honey, the beekeeper uses large frames. Instead of small square boxes, because the frames are more easily handled in a honey extractor. Uncapping the Combs and Extracting the Honey This shows the process of extracting. The extractor consists of screen baskets hung on a reel. The combs are placed in the baskets, after the cappings or covers of the cells have been removed with the uncapping knife. The reel causes the baskets to revolve very rapidly and centrifugal force throws the honey out of the combs against the sides of the can. The combs are re- turned to the bees who repair the slight damage done and refill them rapidly. For this reason, extracted honey is more econ- omical to produce than comb-honey, for with comb-honey production the bees have to build their combs each time. That is why extracted honey is sometimes cheaper than comb-honey, although it is the pure honey, minus the wax. HONEY-EXTRACTOR— The accompany- ing cut shows the construction of a honey- extractor. The reels and baskets may be seen. The invention of the honey-extractor In 1865 has done more for honey production on a large scale than any other thing except the invention of the movable frame hives. Honey in Standard Packages PURITY OF HONEY Before the enactment of pure food laws, honey was sometimes adulter- ated with glucose or cheap syrups. Now all packages labeled "HONEY" must be marked with their minimum net weight and must contain the pure article gathered" by the bees. (JRAMTLATION" OF HONEY Thick, well-ripened honey often candies or granulates when exposed for a time to air and cold. Some grades of honey even granulate in the cells. Extracted honey usually granulates at the opening of cold weather and keeping it in a warm room does not always prevent granulation. This change of condition, however, is not in any way injurious and many people prefer the granulated honey to the liquid article. Exposing it to heat re- turns it to the liquid state. The best way to liquefy honey is to place the can or pail in warm water, being very careful not to let the water boil, as too much heat would spoil the flavor and color. Honey liquefied in this way is usually slow to granulate again. THE FOOD YALUE OF HONEY In the days of our grandfathers honey had a place on every table. Honey and maple syrup were the only sweets supplied to the family. Refined sugar, as now used, was unknown. A few bees were kept to supply honey the same as a cow was kept to furnish the family milk and butter. As the conditions of the country changed and ways of living became more com- plicated, new food products appeared upon our tables, and substitutes took the place of things formerly regarded as necessities. The dairy interests of the country made a tremendous fight to prevent oleomargarine from replacing butter and the sentiment created by this or- ganized effort was sufficient to create a demand for butter from the Ameri- can public, rather than for its cheaper and inferior substitute. Unfortunately, the beekeepers have not been organized, and while butter has continued to grow in demand and sell at constantly higher prices, the demand for honey which was once well nigh universal has been largely supplied by corn syrup and other inferior products, while honey sells at a lower price than it brought half a century ago. IS HONEY A LUXURY While it may not be a necessity, no more is it a luxury than is butter or beefsteak. Some writers have pointed out that because one could not live on honey alone, it was a luxury and should be sold as such. One could as well live on honey alone as on butter alone, yet no one regards butter as a luxury. A fair basis of values of food products is the actual food units which they contain. In order to secure reliable information as to the food values of the products which we wish to compare with honey, we have taken the table compiled by Hon. W. B. Barney, of the Iowa food and dairy department. With this table at hand we went to a retail store where the usual retail prices prevail, and purchased different products of equal food value. Fig 1 — Four Articles of Equal Food Value — 7 Ounces Honey, One Quart Milk, 15 Ounces Codfish and Ten Eggs Figure 1 shows 3 articles, with food value equal to 7 ounces of honey. For the quart of milk we paid 10 cents, for the codfish 20 cents, and for the eggs 25 cents. Milk and eggs are generally recognized as necessities, yet as far as food value is concerned the eggs cost more than twice as much as the honey, and the milk is slightly higher in price. In Fig. 2 is shown a 12-ounce steak which costs at retail 15 cents, yet which, according to Mr. Barney's table, is only equal to 7 ounces of honey in food value. When beefsteak is regarded as a necessity even by those who are working for the lowest wages, why should the impression grow that honey is a luxury at half the price? Nine cents worth of cream cheese is equal to 7 ounces of honey, yet even this costs more than the product of USE OF HONEY IJf COOKING As honey eaten in its natural state is so healthful, it is very evident that similar results may be obtained if it is used in the place of sugar in cooking. Foods prepared with honey are not only better than those prepared with sugar, cheap molasses or syrups, but they will keep better.^ Baked foods, especially such as cakes, cookies and breads, retain their freshness much longer if honey is used. This is due largely to the fact that honey absorbs moisture, while sugar, on the contrary, readily becomes dry. KECtPES HONEY FRUIT CAKE Take 154 cups of honey, 2-3 cup of butter, J^ cup of sweet milk, 3 eggs well beaten, 3 cups of flour, 3 teaspoonfuls of baking powder, 2 cups raisins, 1 teaspoonful each of cloves and cinnamon. MRS. MINNICK'S SOFT HONEY-CAKE Put scant teaspoonful soda in teacup, pour 5 tablespoonfuls hot water on the soda; then fill the cup with extracted honey. Take Yz cup of butter and 1 egg and beat together; add 2 cups of flour and 1 teaspoonful of gin- ger; stir all together, and bake in a very slow oven. HONEY-CAKE One quart of extracted honey, yi pint sugar, Yi pint melted butter, 1 teaspoonful soda, dissolved in Jut of molasses, 4 heaping tablespoonfuls brown sugar, lYz level tablespoonfuls soda, 1 level teaspoonful salt, 1-3 pint water, Yi teaspoonful extract vanilla. MOCK MINCE PIE Roll and crush 12 crackers, add to this Yi cup of vinegar, 1 cup of sugar, 1 cup of hot water, Y2 cup of honey, 1 cup of currants and 1 cup of raisins. Makes 4 pies. PUMPKIN PIE To 2 large cups of stewed pumpkin add Y2 cup of sugar, Y^ cup of honey, 2 eggs, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, ^ teaspoon of nut- meg, a scant teaspoon of vanilla, a pinch of salt, a very little (about an J^ of a teaspoon) cloves and ginger, 1 tablespoon of flour and 2 cups of rich milk. This makes 2 large pies or 3 small ones. HONEY-CARAMELS 1 cup extracted honey of best flavor, 1 cup granulated sugar, 3 tablespoonfuls sweet cream or milk. Boil to "soft crack," or until it hardens when dropped into cold water, but not too brittle — just so it will form into a soft ball when taken in the fingers. Pour into a greased dish, stirring in a teaspoonful extract of vanilla just before taking off. Let it be J4 or J4 in^h deep in the dish; and as it cools, cut in squares and wrap each square in paraffine paper, such as grocers wrap butter in. To make chocolate-caramels, add to the foregoing 1 tablespoonful melted chocolate, just before taking off the stove, stirring it in well. For chocolate-caramels it is not so important that the honey be of best quality. — C. C. Miller. HONEY AND TAR COUGH CANDY Boil a double handful of green hoarhound in 2 quarts of water, down to 1 quart; strain, and add to this tea 2 cups of extracted honey and a tablespoonful each of lard and tar. Boil down to a candy, but not enough to make it brittle. Begin to eat this, increase from a jiiece the size of a pea to as much as can be relished. It is an excellent cough candy and always gives relief in a short time. WALNUT CREAMS Boil to the hard snap stage 1 cup of grated chocolate. 1 cup of brown sugar, 1 cup of extracted honey and Y2 cup of sweet cream. When it hardens on being dropped in water, stir in butter the size of an egg. Just before removing from the fire, add 1 "teaspoonful of vanilla and 2 cups of finely chopped walnuts. Stir thoroughly and pour on buttered plates to cool, cutting it into squares. Other kinds of nuts may be sub- stituted for walnuts. CHOCOLATE CARAMELS 1 pint of sugar, 1 pint of extracted honey, Ya pound of grated chocolate, Yz cup of sweet cream. Try often while it is boiling by dropping a small portion in cold water. When it will form a soft ball, pour about Ya, inch thick on greased tins. BUTTERSCOTCH 1 cup of butter, 2 cups of sugar, 2 cups of extracted honey, 1 heaping teaspoon of cin- namon. Boil ten minutes, pour into a but- tered pan and when cold cut into squares. CRACKER JACK 1 cup of brown sugar, 1 cup of extracted honey. Boil until it hardens when dropped into cold water. Remove from stove and stir in Yi teaspoon of soda. Stir in all the pop-corn it will take, spread on greased tins and mark in squares. INDIAN PUDDING Five cups of milk, 1-3 cup of corn meal, Yi cup of honey, 1 teaspoon of salt, 1 tea- spoon of ginger. Cook milk and meal in a double boiler 20 minutes; add honey, salt and ginger; pour into buttered pudding dish and bake 2 hours in a slow oven; serve with cream. MRS. BARBER'S HONEY-CANDY 1 quart honey, 1 small teacup of granu- lated sugar, butter size of an egg, 2 table- spoons strong vinegar. Boil until it will harden when dropped into cold water, then stir in 1 small teaspoon of baking soda. Pour into buttered plates to cool. Without the vinegar and soda it can be pulled or worked a long time, and is just the thing for an old-fashioned candy pull, as it is_ not sticky and yet is soft enough to pull nicely. HONEY SAUCE Boil 1 scant cup of honey, ;i cup of water, 1 tablespoon of butter, a saltspoon of salt, a saltspoon of cinnamon, a little nutmeg and the juice of one lemon (or 2 tablespoons of vinegar) together for fifteen minutes. Nice with apple dumplings or boiled rice. HONEY GRAPE-JELLY Stew the grapes until soft; mash and strain them through cheesecloth, and to each quart of juice add 1 quart of honey, and boil it until it is thick enough to suit. Keep trying by dipping out a spoonful and cooling it. If you get it too thick it will candy. Any other fruit-juice treat just the same. HONEY SHORTCAKE 3 cups of flour, 3 teaspoonfuls baking-pow- der, 1 teaspoonful salt, J^ cup shortening, lyi cups sweet milk. Roll quickly and bake in a hot oven. When done, split the cake and spread the lower half thinly with butter, add the upper half with ^ pound of the best flavored honey. (Candied honey is pre- ferred. If too hard to spread well it should be slightly warmed or creamed with a knife.) Let it stand a few minutes and the honey will melt gradually and the flavor will per- meate all through the cake. To be eaten with milk. HONEY POPCORN BALLS Take 1 pint extracted honey; put it into an iron frying pan and boil until very thick; then stir in freshly popped corn and when cool mold into balls. These will especially delight the children. MRS. AIKEN'S HONEY APPLE-BUTTER 1 gallon good cooking apples, 1 quart of honey, 1 quart honey-vinegar; 1 heaping teaspoonful ground cinnamon. Cook several hours, stirring often to prevent burning. If the vinegar is very strong, use part water. TO SPICE APPLES, PEARS or PEACHES 1 quart of best vinegar, 1 quart of honey, Yi ounce each of cloves and stick cinnamon. Boil all together 15 minutes, then put in the fruit, and cook tender. Put in a stone jar with enough of the syrup to cover the fruit. It will keep as long as wanted. FOR SUGAR CURING 100 POUNDS OF MEAT 8 pounds of salt, 1 quart of honey, 2 ounces of saltpeter and :i gallons of water. Mix, and boil until dissolved, then pour it hot on the meat. DR. KNEIPP'S HONEY-SALVE This is recommended as an excellent dress- ing for sores and boils. Take equal parts of honey and flour, add a little water and stir thoroughly. Don't make too thin. Then apply as usual. DR. PEIRO'S HONEY- SALVE For boils and other diseases of a similar character — is made by thoroughly incorporat- ing flour with honey until a proper con- sistency to spread on cloth. Applied over the boil it hastens suppuration and the early termination cf the painful lesion. J THE FOOD VALUE OF HONEY Fig. 2 — Seven. Ounces of Honey is Equal in Food Value to 12 Ounces Round Beefsteak, 5.6 Ounces Cream Cheese or 8i/^ Ounces Walnuts the hive. Thirteen cents worth of walnuts are necessary to equal the small jar of honey. Since extracted honey usually sells at less than 16 cents per pound at retail, 7 cents will not be far from the cost. Figure 3 shows that 8 oranges, which cost 20 cents, supply an amount of food equal to 7 ounces of honey, and 5 bananas, at 25 cents per dozen, cost 10 cents. The following table shows the amount of the various items required to supply food value equal to 7 ounces of honey, according to the above men- tioned authority. The retail prices that prevail at this time are also given: Honey, 7 ounces 7^ Boneless codfish, 15 ounces 20^ Cream cheese, 5.6 ounces 9(? Oranges, 8 20^ Eggs, 10 25(1: Bananas, 5 10<^ Round beefsteak, 12 ounces 15^ Walnuts, 8i/^ ounces 13^ The above items are in general use, and few if any of them are regarded as luxuries. By reference to the above table it will be seen that as far as actual value is concerned, honey is one of the cheapest of the ready-prepared foods. Only such raw products as potatoes, corn meal, beans, etc., which must be prepared for the table after purchase, are cheaper in food value, at current prices, than is honey. Fig. 3 — 7 Ounces Honey, 5 Bananas and 8 Oranges — Honey is One of the Cheapest Foods in the Market for Actual Nutritive Value HONEY AS A HEALTH FOOD According to the South African Farmer's Weekly, honey sells In many South African towns at from 36 to 54 cents per pound, notwithstanding the fact that g-ood crops are readily produced there. Butter often sells at such prices in this country but never honey. Since honey contains but little waste, it can be eaten in moderate quantities with much less tax on the eliminating organs than most other foods. Dr. Imfeld, of Geneva, Switzerland, has been quoted as saying: "If people would eat more honey, we doctors would starve." "Eat thou Honey because it is good." Prov. XXIV-13. About 80 pounds of sugar on the average is consumed annually by every man, woman and child in the United States. Formerly honey was the principal sweet and it was one of the items sent by Jacob to his son, the chief ruler of Egypt, 3000 years before the first sugar refinery was built, /When sugar is eaten it cannot be assimilated until it has been changed by digestion into grape sugar. Very often the stomach fails to do this work properly and the kidneys are taxed beyond their strength to remove this excess sugar from the system. With honey, the case is entirely different, as it is already in the form of grape sugar and is assimilated without any effort on the part of the stomach, and thus the kidneys and other organs are relieved of any extra work. J Dr. C. C. Miller of Marengo, Illinois, says: — "It would be greatly for the health of the present generation if honey could be at least partially re- stored to Its former place as a cojiimon article of diet. The al- most universal craving for sweets of some kind shows a real need of the system in that direction but the excessive use of sugar brings in its train a long list of ills. Now in the wonderful laboratory of the bee- hive there is found a sweet that needs no further digestion, hav- ing been prepared fully by those wonderful chemists, the bees, for prompt assimilation, without taxing stomach or kidneys." Dr. C. C. Miller at 84 years of age eats honey instead of sugar because he wants to live as long as he can and be as w^ell as he ^^^^^^^^^^ .__.^^^^_ ^^^ while he lives. r Prof. A. J. Cook, State Horticultural Commissioner at Sacramento, Cali- fornia, says: — "Physicians may be correct in asserting that the large con- sumption of cane sugar by the Twentieth Century Man is harmful to the great eliminators, the kidneys, and so a menace to health and long life. There can be no doubt but that in eating honey our digestive machinery saves work that it would have to perform if we ate cane sugar, and in case it is overtaxed and feeble this may be just the respite that will save it from a breakdown." GIVE THE CHILDREIV HONEY ' ' Children have a natural craving for candy and other sweets and this craving is an evidence that it is needed in their diet. Give the children honey and they are supplied with a sweet that will have no bad effect. Honey being readily assimilated it will not be a tax on the little stomachs and kidneys and will go a long ways toward keeping them in a healthy ^condition. / ^ y ^^'\ ^'•. ^o .^^ ,-''"' > "^^ "...