Mint, ginger and lime combine with honey to add a bit of refreshing but tangy sweetness.
Mist rose up from the lake in the cool early morning; later this Ozark camp setting turned wicked hot.
Last week Roy and I had the privilege of working at a church camp in Lebanon, Missouri to help pay the tuition for one of our Sunday School kids back home. As we have always found, when we volunteer, we are the ones who seem to reap benefits. We loved the beautiful setting, the wonderful people we worked with, and the experience that an angel would whisper a solution in our ears when we didn't quite know how to fix something!
One of the families we worked with was from Florida. Besides working and raising a busy family of three daughters, they also raise bees, harvest and package the honey, and then sell it. Thaddeus, the dad, held a little tasting and explained some things to us about honey.
Not all honeys were created equal! Notice the difference in color?
I was surprised to learn that most of the honey we buy in stores comes from China but it can also contain honey from the Ukraine, Argentina, and Brazil. But what really shocked me was that the Chinese honey is so filtered that every bit of pollen is gone from it and up to 12% of it is allowed to be corn syrup. That means that all the health benefits that it is supposed to have are gone from the honey bought from a regular store like Walmart.
Thaddeus said that honey really does vary in taste according to what kind of flowers the bees are located around. He had some amazing tasting honey he called "Fire Tower Palmetto". He moved some of his hives to an area that had a recent wild fire and the only plants that had blooms were palmettos.
Now I understand why buying local honey from small batch producers is so important. However, Thaddeus told us that labeling honey as organic is really a falsehood. No one can tell where exactly a bee will fly off to before returning to a hive and bees often travel several miles more than bee keepers realize.
After tasting five different kinds of honey we bought a couple of jars and I had to post this yummy fruit salad which uses honey in its zesty dressing.
A Taste of Honey Fruit Salad
Ingredients:
6-8 cups fresh fruit, cubed (mango, cantaloupe, red or green grapes, blueberries, watermelon, pineapple)
2 tablespoons fresh ginger root, minced
2 tablespoons lime juice
1 teaspoon lime zest, finely grated
¼ cup honey
¼ cup fresh mint leaves, chopped
A sprig or two of mint leaves
Directions:
Whisk ginger, lime zest, lime juice, and honey in a small bowl. Set aside. Mix assorted fruits and chopped mint in a large bowl. Add dressing and toss to coat. Garnish with mint sprigs.
