ABOUT THE HONEY
The word “honey” comes from the Old Norse word hunang, or in Old English huneg, meaning ‘golden’. Honey exists in a spectrum of colours, from near transparent and watery to white, from yellow to gold, from red to chestnut, green or black. These reflect the flowers from which the nectar is taken, thus mirroring the seasons. In Spring, the honey is light — that’s acacia; by late summer it is deep brown — that’s chestnut. Sometimes bees collect aphid secretions, called honeydew, making a rare honey with medicinal properties. Honey does not exist on its own — bees must produce it, just as cows don’t make cheese and squirrels don’t save Nutella for the winter. And bees don’t make honey alone. It takes twelve bees to make one teaspoon. It takes the whole hive days, to turn nectar into honey, passing it from bee proboscis to proboscis, mixing it with enzymes from their stomachs and sealing it with wax. Edible honey has been found in the Great Pyramid of Giza.