All About Honey - Honeybee: Lessons from an Accidental Beekeeper - page 110

is prohibited in order to qualify for an organic certification of your honey. Finally, bee-
hives must be painted with nontoxic paints.
Besides adhering to these strict requirements, beekeepers need to file a potentially
costly formal application to certify their honeybee hives as organic. They are also re-
quiredtokeeprecordsandbeinspectedeachyear.Honeythatisproperlylabeledorgan-
ic could be traced to the honeybee hive it was harvested from. As a result of all of these
rigid standards, truly organic honey is nearly impossible to find in the United States.
F AIR T RADE H ONEY
Fair trade is a movement that promotes paying farmers fair prices for their products,
especially when those products are exported from developing countries to more deve-
loped countries. This policy makes fair-trade honey a wise and responsible choice. The
money makes a huge difference in the lives of the farmers and their families, especially
in poorer countries. Criteria like healthy working conditions, sustainable farming, and
fair-trade terms are strictly regulated. Fair-trade products are not necessarily organic,
buthigherpricesarepaidtothosefarmerswhointegratesustainabletechniques,likere-
cycling and composting. Fair-trade organizations forbid the use of genetically modified
(GM) seeds, and the organizations enforce this regulation as best they can.
K OSHER H ONEY
The Torah refers to the ancient country of Israel as “a land flowing with milk and
honey.” Honey is a quintessential part of the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashana. Apples
and challah bread are traditionally spread with honey. Although honeybees are not
kosheranimals,honeyisconsideredkosher,becauseeventhoughbeesbringhoneyinto
their bodies, honey is not a product of their bodies; in other words, honey is stored in
bees'bodies,butnotproducedthere. Forhoneytobeconsidered kosher,itneedstofol-
low the same stringent preparation methods as all kosher foods.
S TYLES OF H ONEY
Besides the ubiquitous liquid form, honey comes in other forms and consistencies. By
understanding each different style of honey available, you will know what you are pur-
chasing. Here are the most common styles of honey found in the marketplace.
VARIETALS/MONOFLORA/SINGLE-FLORAL honeys are made from a single species of
flower. Because each variety of flower has a particular type of nectar, the honey made
from the nectar of that flower has a distinctive flavor. For example, honeybees that col-