Honey — pure, simple, concentrated nectar — is sweet with memories of summery days, warm grass with bees buzzing among flowers. Honey is food for those bees; the source of energy so they can fly and collect more nectar, make more honey and store it in combs to nourish them through the winter.
Honey is a universal sweetener, and throughout history has been central to ceremonies and celebrations around the world. Fermented honey, or mead, was an intoxicant long before grapes were pressed into wine. And wax from the honeycombs became candles for light.
Honeybees arrived in North America from Europe in the mid-1600s, along with apple and plum trees that were planted in Jamestown, Va. Native Americans dubbed them "white man's flies," for they had been collecting honey from the nests of wild bees. Within a century, Indigenous people, too, began practicing the art of beekeeping.
The northern heartland is the highest honey-producing region in the United States, yet yields are declining as crops of corn and soybeans have replaced flowering plants, small grains and vegetables. Farm chemicals also have had a negative impact on the health of our bees, both domesticated and wild. Bees are known as the angels of agriculture, and are critical to pollinating alfalfa, sunflowers, fruits and vegetables.
The most interesting and flavorful honey is unprocessed or "raw" honey. Raw honey differs from commercially produced honey, which is blended from different sources and then pasteurized using high heat for consistency and stabilization. Many of our region's independent beekeepers sell "single-source" honey that reflects the flavor of the nectar the bees feast upon. Identified by the flower that defines the flavor of the honey, single-source honey can range greatly in color and flavor. Not all local honey is single-source: Some is collected from fields and forests with diverse plants; these honeys taste of the different regions where the bees thrive.
Color is most often the best indicator of the honey's flavor. Pale golden honeys, such as basswood, sweet clover and locust, are among the mildest, most delicate of our local varieties. Buckwheat is at the other end of the color and flavor spectrum. It is distinctly dark and bold with notes of cherry and plum, and slightly bitter. It's fabulous in glazes for meats, in barbecue sauce and in rich, spicy baked goods. I prefer it to molasses for its rich flavor.
Honey is far sweeter than sugar and it does have a distinct taste. In savory recipes for vinaigrettes, bastes, glazes and sauces, it brightens and heightens the flavors of spices, fresh herbs, tangy vinegar, lemon and lime. As a sweetener, it adds far more flavor than white sugar to breads, cakes, cookies, dessert sauces and puddings.
If you want to incorporate more honey into your cooking, here are a few general rules for replacing white sugar with honey in baked goods:
