Honey – Part Two – the golden harvest

Honey is made in one of nature’s most efficient facilities, the beehive. About 60,000 live in the hive and travel up to 55,000 miles to gather nectar from more than two million flowers to make just one pound of honey. No wonder we say “busy as a bee”! The queen bee lives in the hive along with many thousands of worker bees, hundreds of drones, and the brood, or immature stages of developing bees. The bee colony will construct wax honey combs to rear the brood and store the honey and pollen. A colony will make and store more honey than it needs to feed itself through the winter. Wintering colonies will need about 100 pounds of honey until spring and the surplice is available to be harvested for our use.
Honey is a viscous liquid – thick when cold and runny when warm. The color and flavor of the honey will differ depending on the nectar source. There are over 300 unique kinds of honey in the United States – clover, sage, orange blossom, sunflower honey – the list goes on. But honey can also be collected and graded by color. This kind of honey is a mixture of different pollen from a variety of sources. The lighter colored honey is mild in flavor and the darker colored honey is more robust. Generally speaking, the lighter honey is much more expensive than the dark or amber colored honey but the functional aspects of honey are the same in light or dark varieties. The delicate flavor of honey can be damaged by overheating or fermentation.
Honey can be found in several forms. We are all familiar with the sweet, golden liquid honey. But there is also comb, cut comb, and crystalized honey. Honey comb is the original form of honey and is completely edible, wax comb and all. Cut comb honey is liquid honey with added chunks of the honey comb in the jar. Naturally crystallized honey is honey in which part of the glucose content has spontaneously crystalized. Whipped or creamed honey is a crystalized form of honey to make the honey spread like butter at room temperature.
Liquid honey is most often used in cooking. Honey is hygroscopic, or moisture loving, so it has the ability to absorb and retain moisture to keep your baked goods fresher longer. The general rule to use honey in place of sugar is to substitute 2/3 cup of honey for each cup of sugar. Also reduce the amount of liquid in the recipe by ¼ cup for each cup of honey used. When substituting honey in baked goods, add ½ teaspoon of baking soda for each cup of honey. Bake items 25º F. lower and use the middle or top rack of the oven for best results. Another tip for baking with honey is to measure your honey is the same cup you used to measure your shortening or butter. The greased sides of the measuring cup will allow all of the honey to pour from the cup easily. Try baking with honey and taste the smooth distinct flavor in your favorite bread and cookie recipes.
 
Try this award winning honey recipe from the 1980 Minnesota State Fair.
Honey Ranger Cookies
½ cup shortening
1 cup honey
1 large egg
½ tsp vanilla
¼ tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
½ cup coconut
1 cup flour
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup dry cereal flakes
Preheat oven to 350º F. Mix thoroughly shortening with honey, egg, and vanilla. Stir in remaining ingredients. Drop by rounded teaspoons 2 inches apart on a greased cookie sheet. Bake 10 minutes and remove from the sheet immediately.
Yield 3 dozen cookies