Greetings Lords and Ladies;
Allergy season has begun for those with sensitivities to such matters. I have written before about the benefits of ingesting a teaspoon to a tablespoon of locally grown honey, daily, as a tool to ward off many ailments...but I have not written extensively as to why. With so many of you asking for help...I thought I'd discuss more of this plant by-products' history and it's many uses.
First of all..I must dispel the myth that all honey is equal. Honey's are classified according to what plants they are collected from. Therefore, each honey has different medicinal values. Our well known, available, clover Honey,though good for aiding sore throats and colds..is just a beginning for an herbalist's medicinal chest. For bronchial infections, use honey from sage plants; for bladder infections and weaknesses, honey from thyme; for strength-oregano, etc.
What is honey. Honey is a plant by-product. Most folks know that bees play a vital roll in the honey process. Collecting the nectar from the plants nectaries, filling their stomachs from them, flying back to the hive where they regurgitate the nectar into the empty honey comb cells. A different class of bees take over, fanning the combs of fresh honey to evaporate the water contained in the nectar down to one fourth of its original water content. Thereupon, another class of bees produce wax and seal the cells.
When you eat honey, you are ingesting the nectar of flowers...essentially...a captured form of the sun's power. Along with the sugars produced, one picks up the characteristics of the individual plant species. Tulip honey is dark, clover honey is light, orange blossom honey smells like orange blossoms, garlic blossoms honey has a garlic taste, etc. Honey is composed of the same sugars found in fruit, dextrose and levulose ,which do not require the complex digestive process cane sugar does. Cane sugar is sucrose, which can harm a diabetic..honey will not. It is already partially digested, an inverted sugar which can enter the body instantly as energy.
Prehistoric cave dwellings in Spain show man with his hand in a hive with rather large, out of scale bees flying around him.
Earliest written records from about 4,000 B.C. show the Egyptians loading Bee hives onto boats and sailing up the river to where the flowers were blooming. Egyptins viewed the bee as their symbol of power and health. Pharaoh had a bee stamp that he placed on official documents next to his signature. It was an important item in religous rites. A pot of honey was part of the dowry. Lovers exchanged a pot of honey as symbol of their enternal devotion while the bride got a pot a year according to her social standing.
When Queen Tiy's tomb was excavated, they discovered 3,000 year old honey. Honey does not go bad...Bacteria cannot grow in honey. (It's great for cuts)
Ancient Greeks and Romans utilized honey daily as a tonic. The gladiators had the best honey of the land at their disposal. Greek bees still produce some of the best honey in the world.
During the middle ages, straw hives were kept on the walls of castles and fortified cities. From there, the bees could collect honey from the surrounding areas. They were also hurled at any intruders incase of an attack. They were the excitable bees of northern Europe. Once an armor-clad knight had a dozen or so of them inside his helmet, he was one ineffective soldier until he got them out again.
Throughout the centuries, Honey has been used to preserve health and to treat numerous ailments; the list is far to long to include here. No one can explain how God and the bees do it, but one thing is for certain..honey is a product we all should include daily in our diets.
Enjoy in good health,
In His service,
Rebekah