First, I’d like to wish everyone a happy new year! I think this is going to be a great year, so don’t disappoint us, 2009. My poppy’s good friend makes the most amazing honey-it tastes good and it’s from local hives, so it helps with allergies (you ingest pollen from local plants and increase your tolerance to them). I adore honey in general, but Spitzer’s honey is special and I got a big ol’ jar of it for Christmas! Lucky me.
I just came across a very disturbing article about Chinese honey laundering; who knew that was even a thing?! Apparently, the Chinese use an antibiotic to keep their hives healthy but this chemical is potentially fatal to people and has been banned in food by the U.S. The way honey exporters have gotten around selling this tainted product is by shipping the honey to other countries like Russia and India and calling them Russian and Indian products. Tricky tricky. And it’s awful because many honey importers and producers here don’t test their honey for harmful chemicals. So, buyer beware! It is nearly impossible as a consumer to know where the honey has come from unless of course you have a local apiary that you can buy that sweet sweet nectar of bee butts.
