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WFAEats
Welcome to WFAEats — a fun adventure where we explore all things tasty and interesting in the Charlotte food scene. We want to share stories, recipes and culinary escapades and hear about yours!

Tasty Truths About Honey

woman in a bee suit
Amy Rogers
/
WFAEats
Amy in a bee suit.

That buzz you hear isn’t just the honeybees – it’s the interest in keeping and gathering honey from “apis mellifera” that’s growing in the U.S.

Right now, we’re suiting up in protective gear so you don’t have to, and we’re smoking out the stories and lore to share with you next week.

But why wait? Here are some thoughts to whet your appetite until then.

  • Avocado, blueberry, eucalyptus, tupelo, sourwood, orange, and sage are just a few of the more than 300 varieties of honey available in the U.S.

  • Honey is fat-free and cholesterol-free.

  • Unadulterated honey will last almost forever, or at least a few thousand years. Honey is very low in moisture and its pH is acidic. That and a few other factors will squelch the life out of most any bacteria that try to grow, according to Smithsonian magazine.

  • When a couple embarks on a honeymoon, they’re honoring an old tradition. It stipulates that they drink mead, wine made from honey, for a month after they wed to assure a pregnancy.

  • Vegans can be adamant in their refusal to eat honey, since it is an animal product. While bees make honey regardless of whether or not humans take it from them, beekeeping utilizes man-made hives and manipulates the bees’ behavior.

Bees can – and do – DANCE. It’s the way they tell the others how to find the flowers.

Come back to WFAEats next week for all the fun – plus recipes. We’ll mind the hive for you until then!

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Amy Rogers is the author of Hungry for Home: Stories of Food from Across the Carolinas and Red Pepper Fudge and Blue Ribbon Biscuits. Her writing has also been featured in Cornbread Nation 1: The Best of Southern Food Writing, the Oxford American, and the Charlotte Observer. She is founding publisher of the award-winning Novello Festival Press. She received a Creative Artist Fellowship from the Arts and Science Council, and was the first person to receive the award for non-fiction writing. Her reporting has also won multiple awards from the N.C. Working Press Association. She has been Writer in Residence at the Wildacres Center, and a program presenter at dozens of events, festivals, arts centers, schools, and other venues. Amy Rogers considers herself “Southern by choice,” and is a food and culture commentator for NPR station WFAE.