Buckwheat Honey.

Last night I attended a "Honey and Flowers" wine tasting. Yup forumites, very unusual but some great food and wines/honey beer and mead.
Is anyone familar with this kind of honey? Very unique in my mind.

I will be posting a full report on the main forum later today.

Cheers Bob P

Very familiar, Bob. I've been eating it for well over 25 years.

I use it as a sweetener in black tea, which I prepare with an ample squirt of fresh lemon juice. I have also made buckwheat mead.

It's great stuff, and apparently wickedly high in nutrients.

I've had buckwheat honey and enjoyed the flavors. Did not find it sweet.
Curious. Don't understand it but even adding increased amounts didn't add up to the sweetness level I am used to in honey sweetened coffee as an example.
I really enjoy the single blossom honeys - lavender, chestnut, orange- especially with good Greek yogurt and fresh walnuts as a dessert. Heavenly !

Buckwheat honey was once very common in the US, but since the 1960s it has become fairly rare. Many people find it too dark and too "heavy" for their taste.

I would really enjoy tasting notes on monofloral honeys, Paul -- many of them are quite delightful.

Recently we've been buying the honey from our local Audubon Society in Franklin Lakes. They have a few hives, usually have five or six bottles available. These are multi-floral types -- maple in early spring for example, with no effort to keep the types separate.

Local honeys can confer some benefits for folks with allergies, and I really like the idea that some of our honey comes from nectar from flowers growing on our property. Incidentally, it supports the NJ Audubon -- I strongly prefer it to the US Audubon.

Regards, Bob

I would really enjoy tasting notes on monofloral honeys, Paul -- many of them are quite delightful.

Bob, a few months ago I happened across some varietal dandelion flower honey at a health food store. It was very nice, and had the spot-on aroma of dandelion flowers in spring. There was even a very slight bitterness in the flavour, as there is with dandelion greens, but to a much lesser extent.

Of course, thinking about dandelions and their nutritive value (just the Vitamin A content alone), it always irks me to think that so much money is spent pouring poisons on them.

Dandelions are dandy, Paul.

It always amuses me to see the ads for dandelion seeds, although there are some really interesting varieties, one from Italy that is quite beautiful.

The thing about dandelion seeds is that, although they sprout, I have never been able to get them to grow very large - I actually gather seeds in the spring and then plant them in pots to grow as greens. I may be crowding the seeds, though, because rather than developing the sort of huge leaves found on dandelions that grow, for example, behind barns and sheds and in what appear to be shaded areas, my potted dandelions remain insiginifcant in size.

And, in case anyone wonders why I would grow dandelions - it's because the ones at the supermarket look very dirty and shabby by comparison. We get dandelions imported from the U.S. but by the end of their travels, they are really rather rough looking - not quite what I would like to add to my salad.

Paul, try root cuttings instead of seeds. About half an inch long from the tap root. The root segment seems to give the seedlings more nutrition and the plants should grow larger.

Also, dandelions grow better with less light -- spring and fall when the days are shorter.

Dandelions are perennials -- the ones grown from seed usually won't flower the first year; the ones grown from cuttings are already "perennials" and are ready to not only flower but grow much bigger. The first year they creep, the second year they leap!

Emily Dickinson has a pretty poem on the subject:

The Dandelion's pallid tube
Astonishes the Grass,
And Winter instantly becomes
An infinite Alas --

The tube uplifts a signal Bud
And then a shouting Flower, --
The Proclamation of the Suns
That sepulture is o'er.

Wow, that is a lot of interest in my honey!!!!! We were able to sample other honeys including the lavender. Take a look here if you like....................

http://www.lolacanola.com

I am about to enter some TNs on the event.

Lola reads like a smart cookie, Bob. She'll get a premium if she can control the bee's access to the specific flowers in bloom. Sounds almost impossible in her area though.

Last night I attended a "Honey and Flowers" wine tasting. Yup forumites, very unusual but some great food and wines/honey beer and mead.
Is anyone familar with this kind of honey? Very unique in my mind.

I will be posting a full report on the main forum later today.

Cheers Bob P

I pick up a jar or two of buckwheat honey every time I visit PA (PA's a buckwheat producer. In the 1800s, my ancestor was proprietor of the country's second-largest buckwheat mill). I have two jars on my shelf. I like the stuff, but it's not an all-purpose type of honey. Very dark, it tastes on the order of molasses.

Burt's Honey Farm, Benton, PA is the brand I always buy.