Honey was as widely used in ancient cuisine as sugar is in modern cookery. A rock drawing in Spain dating to 15,000 BCE depicts two men climbing up cords to reach a nest of bees.

The oldest alcoholic drink known to man may have been discovered when honey, dripping from bee hives, collected in pools of rain water. Wild yeast would then consume the sugar, creating a beverage with a nice little “buzz”. 

Beekeeping was practiced along the banks of the Nile as early as 3000 BCE. Since spring arrives earlier to Upper than to Lower Egypt, beekeepers would place their hives on boats and descend the Nile in stages as the flowers and other plants bloomed. Later, Greek lyric poets often mixed honey with wine and the Romans left us various testimonials to the many preparations in which honey was a main ingredient.

The consistency, aroma and flavor of honey are all variable and depend largely on the vegetation in the area of the hive. Honey can be collected in both spring and fall, but the spring harvest is always better. The sweetest honeys are those made from the nectar of rosemary, orange, acacia blossom, and lavender. Colors range from transparent yellow to extremely dark brown. Acacia honey, for instance, is straw yellow, Chestnut honey is brown, and orange-flower honey is amber, with warm red tones.

•It takes 2 million flowers to make 1 lb of honey.

•Honey is 80% sugar 20% water. 

•Eating local honey is said to decrease allergies

and hayfever.

•Honey’s fluidity is determined by the amount

of fructose it contains.

•Alexander the Great was embalmed in honey.