and then there’s me
Taking a short hiatus while I get chapter six ready to go. Hopefully I can go back to twice a week updates, but until I’m done with Family Pets, I can’t make any guarantees. Thanks for reading!
I frequently get asked, “how can I get into comics?”
The answer I always give is, “Draw comics. Draw them now, and draw them every day.”
I read your slideshow & I've always wondered how it is bee people know specifically which plants their bees make honey from. How do they know their bees don't go too far afield & stray from those wildflowers or clover fields advertised as the source on the label? Just wondering b/c I'm allergic to corn & everything that comes from corn. I have a generic clover honey from the grocery store which I use to cook but have always wondered at the safety of it. How do they know their bees don't stray?
Well, you can’t control bees, but there’s a few things we can do in terms of strategic beekeeping. First of all, a bee will never go more than 3 miles from her hive under normal conditions, and 6 miles under starvation conditions. So you can control what they eat by placing the hives in certain areas.
Also, we know that honeybees practice something called Flower Fidelity (or plant fidelity), meaning they will exhaust their nectar sources one at a time. That’s how monofloral honeys are obtained.
And lastly, honeys can be tested by an organic chemist to see what the nectar sources are, since all nectar has distinct chemical signatures. Hope that answers your questions!
I AM BACK WITH MORE QUESTIONS (hope I'm not bothering you) Because Honey never goes bad can it be used as a preservative? Got any sites for ordering good quality honey? And is honey from bees other than honey bees(wild bees or Africanized bees, thought I wouldn't go near that) safe to eat?
- No, honey isn’t a preservative. In fact, the only way to make honey go bad is to add another food to it.
- You can order from the Savannah Bee Company! I work for this company and the owner, Ted, is an amazing human who has devoted his life to the bees. Also, look up websites for independent beekeepers. A lot of them sell their honey online nowadays.
- Africanized bees are still honeybees - and they’re actually some of the best honey producers in the world. What’s dangerous about them is that unlike most honeybees, Africanized bees are aggressive and will sting much more often. So yeah, you can totally eat that honey. Just stay away from the actual hives.
I've never had honeycomb. What does it taste like if it's all bees wax and honey? And id it cheaper/more expensive than just honey?
It can be more expensive, depending on where you get it. Beekeepers have to make a sacrifice in how much honey crop they get in order to sell honeycomb. It’s going to taste like the honey that’s in it. Beeswax doesn’t really have a flavor. But you can feel super fancy while you eat it!
Hullo so how do you take your honeycomb? I always have a lot left over, and not enough honey to go with it.
If it’s just leftover beeswax, sometimes pair it with other honey and eat it with crackers. Beeswax has vitamin A and helps slick up your intestinal tract so everything moves along nicely. My favorite way to eat honeycomb is with peaches and ricotta cheese on graham crackers, but you can pair it with cheeses, salty meats, herbs, fruit, breads, crackers - whatever. Experiment!
Hey, Pickles! I've got a honey question! I really like honeycomb but after foraging around locally, I can't seem to find anyone selling it, even at farmers markets. Is honeycomb safe to ship? Does SBC ship it? Will having it sit in a hot mailbox pasteurize the honey?
Most of the time, shipping honey is fine. I ship honey all the time, and all over the place. It should be alright, especially honeycomb, because you can’t pasteurize the honey inside the comb without melting the comb itself. So it’s really easy to tell if it’s gotten too hot.
Head the the farmer’s market and ask the beekeepers about honeycomb. A lot of them don’t sell it as much, because most folks I meet have no idea that it’s edible. And yes, SBC ships honeycomb :D
If you guys don’t want to see my rambles about honey, I’m going to start tagging it as “pickles talks honey” so you can TS that if you want.
That said, feel free to ask me any honey questions you want! I’m really really in to honey you have no idea.
I have a few questions about honey: can it be used in the same amounts as other sweeteners(Sugar, corn syrup), do people with pollen allergies get affected by it in any way, and what exact type of bees do they use for producing honey(and are they fluffy)?
- Conversion for honey is a little more than half. So a recipe that calls for 1 cup of sugar will need a little more than 1/2 cup of honey, plus a little extra flour and baking powder to compensate. When in doubt, just find a recipe that already calls for honey. (I do this. I’m lazy.)
- Pollen allergy sufferers often benefit from eating lots of local honey. Honey contains trace amounts of pollen from the area it’s made, so ingesting it in small amounts over an extended period can help you build up a natural resistance. The honey needs to be raw and local for this to work.
- All honey is made by the good old honeybee. A lot of beekeepers prefer to use the Italian Honeybee, which is a docile but hardworking variety. Also, fun fact: all worker bees are female. Male bees don’t do shit in the hive.
- Bees are extremely fluffy, covered in tiny little gold hairs that looks like bee fur. It’s actually how they pollinate flowers.
So, wait... Pure honey =/= raw honey??? *looking at the honey I bought just a little while ago* It's Publix brand... the kind in the little bear. All it says is Pure Clover Honey...
“Pure Honey” does not always equal raw. Raw is a really weird word in the USA - people are afraid of it. I’ve seen a lot of beekeepers leave the word off their bottles, even though the honey is raw, because people might freak out and think it’s dangerous to eat. It’s one of the reasons that honey is pasteurized all the time.
Always look for the word “raw” on the label, or buy direct from beekeepers. You also want to buy from the source to support local beekeepers, because they’re doing really important work! That being said, you don’t have to throw away your Publix honey. Just be aware that it may not have any actual nutrition, and treat it like it’s just sugar.
