September is a Sweet Time of Year!
Honey — it’s a sweet and delicious substance that adds great flavor to morning toast, creates decadent desserts, and even packs some serious nutritional benefits.
Here at The Storage Inn in Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey, we even keep honey on hand for sweetening our morning coffee!
The other day, just as I finished opening the storage rental office, in walked one of our storage customers, Mrs. Xander. She needed to purchase packing supplies before making her way back to her storage unit.
“ Are you celebrating?” she asked.”
Celebrating what?” I replied.
“Well, I saw that you put honey in your coffee, and thought that maybe you were celebrating National Honey Month. My friend is a beekeeper and he has been telling me all about honey and it’s history!”
“I did not know September is National Honey Month.” I replied. We chatted about honey for a little while before she headed back to her storage unit.
I sat down to my desk and began to think about how much I love honey, and how little I know about what it takes to make it. Where did the idea of honey as a food even come from? I started my research…
A Concise History of Honey
2400 BC
Ancient Egyptians leave hieroglyphs about beekeeping in an ancient Sun Temple near Cairo.
2000 BC
The Ancient Chinese used honey because of its spectacular medicinal properties.
1000 AD
Honey was used as a form of currency in places throughout Europe.
1638
European settlers introduced beekeeping to the New England colonies.
1926
A.A. Milne created the lovable honey-loving bear, Winnie the Pooh.
How to Celebrate!
Take a beekeeping tour
You’ll get up close to beehives and find out what an effort it takes to make a jar of honey.
Host a honey tasting party
Gather up a few different high quality jars of honey, invite a few friends over, and indulge your sweet tooth.
Whip up a honey-themed dessert
Baklava, flan, cupcakes, and ice cream. All of these sweet treats lend themselves to becoming delicious honey-flavored desserts. There are a ton of excellent recipes out there for honey desserts, so the possibilities are endless.
5 Sweet Facts About Honey
Bees try harder
The average worker bee only produces about one-twelfth of a teaspoon of honey throughout its entire lifetime.
That’s a lot of flowers
For every pound of honey, honeybees must tap over two million flowers.
Insect chefs
Bees are the only insects that produce a substance that is edible by humans.
Honey isn’t just for bees
Mexican honey wasps are also known for producing honey.
Not Created equally
There are different variations of honey. Depending on the type of flower used during production, honey will have different colors and flavors.
Why We Love Honey
Honey is a health aid
Dating back to ancient times, honey has been used for its medicinalpurposes. The next time you have a cough, try reaching for a jar of honey. Honey is even known to help heal wounds and relieve dry skin.
It’s Naturally Sweet
Honey is excellent for curing almost any sweet tooth. Unlike some highly processed sugars and sugar-like substances out there, honey is chemical free and found directly in nature.
Honey Helps You Sleep
In short, honey causes insulin levels to rise, and when this happens, serotonin gets released throughout the bloodstream. Serotonin gets converted into melatonin, and melatonin has been known to aid in getting you off to dreamland.
Wow! Who knew that something that tastes so good could also be so healthy!?!
As for me, I will continue to put honey in my morning coffee, strictly for health purposes, of course. Happy Honey Month from the crew here at The Storage Inn!