07/06/2021
MedNa, how not to remember a cup of fragrant herbal tea with healing honey on a winter evening? And what could be more delicious than freshly pumped sweet nectar, stretching in bright threads, like molten gold? And beekeepers say: if there is a product that can be said "worth its weight in gold" – it is only flower honey. Sweet history Content: Sweet history What is honey Varieties and types of honey Monoflora honey: what are and what are the useful Types of polyflora honey Chemical composition and nutritional value Benefits for the body Is it possible for pregnant women Honey in cosmetology Honey in folk medicine Honey drinks of Ancient Russia How to choose the most delicious honey Store honey: what is under the lid How to store the daily rate Possible dangers It is impossible to say exactly how long there is bee honey on the planet. It seems that this product has always been there. Rock paintings found in Spain and dated to the seventh millennium before Christ depict beekeepers. And some sources claim that the oldest fossilized remains of honey bees are almost 150 million years old. Written memoirs of bee breeding in hives were found on the walls of the Temple of the Sun near Cairo. This record is considered one of the first written memories of bees. The ancient Egyptians often used honey as a sacrifice to their gods, and also used this product to make embalming liquids. Honey is also mentioned in the records of the Sumerians, Babylonians, Hindus, and Chinese, and there is a name for this product in the scrolls of the East, the Talmud, and the Koran. In the Old Testament, Israel was called " the land of honey and milk." The Bible also says that John the Baptist ate wild honey. In the Qur'an, sweet nectar is mentioned as an incredible product that has healing effects. The example of honey sacrifices was borrowed from the Egyptians and the ancient Greeks. But in addition, they used nectar as a useful product and a healing agent. Back in the V century BC, Euripides described a recipe for walnut cheesecakes made from cottage cheese and honey. There was a place for this golden product in the ancient Roman culinary tradition, especially since beekeeping was one of the most popular crafts in the empire. There, honey was not only eaten, but also sacrificed to the gods, and the warriors healed their wounds with this sweet product. After the popularization of Christianity, the demand for honey and beeswax increased even more: people learned to make church candles from them. It is also known that in the XI century in Germany, peasants paid tribute to the feudal lords in the form of honey and beeswax. And throughout the tenth century, English monarchs used wine made from fermented honey. This drink was called mead. During the Renaissance, when sugar appeared in the gastronomic arena, the popularity of honey, used until now as a sweetener, declined significantly. Meanwhile, respect for the bees has not disappeared. It is known that Pope Urban VIII chose this amazing insect as his coat of arms. Several millennia earlier, the Pharaohs of Lower Egypt also used bees as their symbol. And around the third century BC, these insects decorated the money of the Greek Ephesus. And Napoleon's flag was embroidered with swarms of bees. Interestingly, the ancient Greek goddess Artemis and the Roman god Eros were also associated with bees. The Greeks believed that Cupid dipped his arrow in honey before sending it at any mortal. Honey is a sweet product that bees produce from nectar collected from flowers. This viscous and flavorful product has been used by mankind for many centuries as a natural sweetener. Its taste, color and consistency vary depending on the flowers from which the nectar was collected. As a rule, the darker it is, the stronger the aroma. What is a honey bee, you will have to visit about one and a half thousand flowers to collect 70 mg of nectar. This is how much a special honey "bag" inside the insect can hold. And by the way, it is not a stomach, as many believe, but a goiter. Then the bees carry the collected nectar to the hives, in which, under the influence of enzymes from the salivary glands, cane sugar turns into grape sugar. Insects spread the substance in the wax honeycomb, then begin to intensively flap their wings over them to speed up the evaporation of excess liquid from the fermented nectar. Do this until the honey thickens. After the bees release a little of their venom into the liquid, which actually prevents the fermentation of honey. And only then do these amazing insects seal up the honeycomb. At this stage, we can already talk about the maturity of honey. By the way, if you collect honey before the excess moisture evaporates from it, it will contain too much water, and the natural yeast cells will cause fermentation, which will eventually affect the taste (it will become like vinegar). Bees are the hardest-working creatures on earth. They literally work themselves to death (until they sting someone). For 6 weeks of this work, one bee produces slightly less than 1 teaspoon of honey. A typical honeybee colony consists of 80,000 insects and 1 queen. But still, why would bees produce honey? In fact, honeycombs with honey are bee stocks for the winter. They consume honey and pollen as a source of carbohydrates, proteins, fats, and vitamins. If you take all the honey from the hive, it means that the swarm will not live until spring. Varieties and types of honey Varieties and types of honey for the systematization of honey use a variety of parameters. First of all, all types of products called honey are divided into 2 groups: natural and artificial (food industry product). Bee honey can be floral and honeydew (from honeydew or honeydew of animal origin). But bees will never produce honeydew in the presence of flowers with nectar. Natural honey is very diverse. It may differ in color, which depends on the mineral composition, the presence of pollen and phenol. Also, some types of product may be cloudy due to air bubbles, pollen, and other components. The smell is determined by the acids that are part of the composition. But the taste of honey depends on a variety of conditions, including hives and weather conditions. In the form of natural honey, there are: honeycomb – this is the so-called raw product, it is considered the purest of all forms, beeswax in its composition is edible; raw-in addition to wax, it may contain pollen and other components; liquid-filtered, often pasteurized (this reduces the likelihood of crystallization); dry-in the form of powder, granules or flakes, is quite rare, usually contains additives; in a piece-usually a liquid product with a piece of honeycomb; crystallized-a thick candied substance.