If you purchase our Raw Unfiltered Clover Honey in liquid form you may see a thin layer of white at the top of your jar. Beekeepers call this foam but what it is is tiny pieces of bees wax from the capping of each honey cell in the honey comb. During the extraction process, only the tops of the comb are removed so that most of the comb is saved and re-used by the honey bees. These tops of the comb, also called cappings, are broken into teeny tiny pieces that float to the top of the liquified honey. It is COMPLETELY edible and simply a testament to how natural our honey is. Though we filtered our liquid honey to remove larger particles from the extracting process, we never ultra filter it. That means we never use what is called a micron filter which would remove the tiny bits of pollen, propolis or bees wax that make the honey complete in taste and in-tact with its beneficial properties. It's like the difference between whole foods and refined foods. We all know the whole food carries the most nutrients.
LET'S TALK ABOUT HONEY BEES & BEES WAX
Did you know that bees wax is only made by honey bees that are 2-3 week old? These young bees eat nectar and honey which they are able to then turn into wax by excreting it from small glands on the underside of the young worker bees' belly. This is an incredible process that humans don’t really understand and cannot replicate. The male honey bees (called Drones) and the queen bee don’t have these glands so the production of bees wax is left up to the young worker bees. As the worker bee gets older her glands degrade and she is no longer able to make the wax. She then moves on to other essential jobs within the hive such as gathering nectar, pollen, propolis and tending to the queen and the brood (baby bees). It is still a little bit of a mystery to us but it is estimated that it takes 8 to 16 pounds of honey to produce one 1 pound of wax!
HAVE YOU ENJOYED A JUICY BITE OF HONEY COMB?
This was a favorite treat of mine as a kid. That juicy bite of wax cells bursting with fresh honey! We would chew on the bees wax like it’s gum and then swallow it down. Bees wax is safe to eat, it is essentially just a type of fat, and may even have benefits for your body.
ABOUT BEES WAX CAPPINGS
Bees wax is a complex and magical mystery comprised of around 300 different components gathered and created by the honey bee. When the nectar is flowing, flowers are blooming and the bees are busy bringing it in and making their honey, the young worker bees are busy capping each full cell with fresh bees wax. This wax is the cleanest wax there is, it is light in color and fresh. This is the capping that become tiny pieced of floating wax at the top of your Raw Unfiltered Clover Honey and looks like “foam” at the top of our liquified honey.
WHY WE KEEP ALL OUR HONEY RAW
Honey Bees know their trade! Honey is naturally full of a multitude of beneficial ingredients put there by the honey bees. Raw Unfiltered Honey is full of minerals, enzymes, beneficial bacteria, propolis, pollen and bees wax. When we liquify honey we never over heat it so that we maintain all the beneficial properties of the honey. Our liquified honey is run through a filter fine enough to remove foreign debris like grass or wood bits from the comb frames that can be introduced in the extraction process. But we never want to heat it high enough or run it through what is called a micron filter which removes the beneficial properties that are so beloved to the health minded honey lover. These are the properties that make honey a healthy choice for a sweetener.
That is why all our honey is raw! When honey is overheated it changes the properties of the natural sugars and their beneficial partners so the honey simply becomes sugar, without the complete, balanced nutrient rich content of true raw honey. When honey is raw and intact it's more than just sugar. As we said earlier, it is similar to the difference between whole foods and refined foods, when honey is raw and unfiltered it is a complete/whole food and it has many beneficial properties. Raw Unfiltered Honey not only tastes better, its better for us when its raw and in-tact, just the way our beloved Honey Bees make it!!
All of our honey is Raw, Unfiltered and Natural. From our Liquified Honey to our Virgin Clover Honey to our Infused Honeys!
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