It’s that time of year again and with more cold weather fronts coming here’s a sweet tasting recipe to soothe those night time sore throats and coughs.  Take a cup of Balkan linden honey, 3 tbsp of lemon juice and a quarter cup of warm water.  Mix all together in a sterile jar and take up to 2 teaspoons full prior to sleeping. For those of you who like to feel it’s got to taste like it will do you good , many swear by an onion, garlic, oregano … [Read more...]

In 2007 an American hospital caused a sensation when it published a study that proved honey was more effective at relieving children’s night time cough symptoms than over the counter medicines. It pitted honey against two of the most common ingredients in cold medicines Destromethorphan and Diphenlydramine – two common ingredients in UK cough remedies.  The  study coincided with the withdrawal of 6 cough syrups from the market together with the … [Read more...]

Really depressing news from Wiltshire. We’ve lost half of our hives. Sadly, it’s the same everywhere. There’s a beekeeper with 1,000 hives nearby, who put in 300 new nucleus hives (normally a queen and about 200 bees) and he has lost the lot. We all know it rained this summer but probably don’t realise that it was so heavy that it washed out the nectar from the trees and it takes 2-3 days for them to re-fill, by which time it was raining again. … [Read more...]

As the nights get chillier, it’s time to reach for honey to help keep the sniffles at bay. Lots of people are talking about pine tree honey for the immune system, and we in fact we are looking at one from Greece - but the taste can be a little acerbic. We recommend our Balkan Linden, glorious flavour and with antiseptic, sedative qualities - Europeans have used the Linden tree for centuries for colds and bronchitis’s – it doesn’t hurt ours got 3 … [Read more...]

This morning's dull, blustery weather brightened up no end by the sunny honey musings on ilovemygrub in response to our competition - including a glowing bit of poetry - check it out on Facebook! posted: 19 Jan … [Read more...]

Check out this great competition at ilovemygrub.com, an excellent foodie newsletter that's worth signing up to, for a chance to win a full set of our honeys on http://www.ilovemygrub.com/competition/ogilvys … [Read more...]

Over the moon to be in Planet Organic and hope you can come and visit me on my whistle stop tasting sessions at all five branches between today and December 11. Check out the dates on the newsfeed.  Self professed honey haters especially welcome as I never tire of hearing the line, 'I never thought honey could taste like that!' … [Read more...]

In a little aside about beekeeping, now is the time to make sure your bees have easy access to water so they can rehydrate their honey in the cold winter months.  I’ve just made a little luxe pool for mine using an old sink I found in the garage – obviously you shouldn’t use anything with concrete so nothing unpleasant leaches into the water – fill it up with stones (so they don’t drown), cram it up with moss and fill to underside of the moss.   … [Read more...]

Honey and sugar have about the same calorific value but thats where all similarity ends.  Sugar is in fact a 'murdered' sweet whereas honey has a host of other benefits and is much more easily digested by the body.  Probably a great feature for a health magazine or even a national Julia ... … [Read more...]

Back in May we bravely submitted five honeys for judging in the2011 Great Taste Awards and still can't quite believe we won four awards - 3 Gold Stars for Zambezi Plains, 2 Gold Stars forHimalayan Highlands, and 1 Gold Star for both New Zealand Rewarewa and Balkan Linden varieties. … [Read more...]