Sharon
Gibbons has been an established beekeeper since 1980. What
started out as a hobby is now a full-time business. She
manages 700 colonies of bees in Central and Eastern Missouri,
which produces about 80,000 pounds of honey a year. She
markets a light, mild clover honey, along with a darker,
more flavorful honey that the bees gather from wildflowers.
Sharon has developed a variety of honey-based products.
She blends powdered dried fruit with honey, which is processed
into a creme. The cremes are spreadable and easy to use.
Flavors are cinnamon apple, strawberry, raspberry, apricot,
peach, lemon, Jalapeno pepper, along with two nut flavors:
pecan and black walnut. These all are kosher food products
approved by the Vadd-Hoeir.
Honey
Information
(From the National Honey Board) Honey is "manufactured"
in one of the world's most efficient factories, the beehive.
Bees may travel as far as 55,000 miles and visit more than
two million flowers to gather enough nectar to make just
a pound of honey. The color and flavor of honey differ depending
on the bees' nectar source (the blossoms). In fact, there
are more than 300 unique kinds of honey in the United States,
originating from such diverse floral sources as clover,
eucalyptus and orange blossom. In general, lighter colored
honeys are mild in flavor; while darker honeys are usually
more robust in flavor. Honey is primarily composed of fructose,
glucose and water. It also contains other sugars as well
trace enzymes, minerals, vitamins and amino acids. In addition
to gathering nectar to produce honey, honeybees perform
a vital second function--pollination. About one-third of
the human diet is derived from insect-pollinated plants,
and honeybees are responsible for 80 percent of this pollination.
Pollination is the fertilization of a flowering plant. It
occurs when pollen is transferred from the anthers of a
flower to the ovules of that or another flower. Honeybees
are responsible for pollinating a variety of fruits, vegetables,
legumes and more.
Most of us know honey as a sweet, golden liquid. But, in
fact, honey can be found in a variety of forms.
Liquid Honey - Free
of visible crystals, liquid honey is extracted from the
honeycomb by centrifugal force, gravity or straining.
Whipped (or cremed) Honey
- While all honey will crystallize in time, whipped honey
(also known as cremed honey, sugared honey or spun honey)
is brought to market in a crystallized state. The crystallization
is controlled so that, at room temperature, the honey can
be spread like butter.
Comb Honey- is honey
that comes as it was produced--in the honeybees' wax comb.
The comb, as well as the honey, is edible!
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