Cool Drinks for Hot Summer Days!!

Honey Lemonade with Frozen Fruit Cubes
- Makes 9 cups -

Ingredients
1-1/2 cups lemon juice
3/4 cup honey
9 cups water
28 small pieces assorted fruit
Directions
Combine lemon juice and honey in large pitcher; stir until honey is dissolved. Stir in water. Place 1 to 2 pieces of fruit in each compartment of 2 ice cube trays. Fill each compartment with honey lemonade and freeze until firm. Chill remaining lemonade. To serve, divide frozen fruit cubes between tall glasses and fill with remaining lemonade.

Tips: Makes 28 Frozen Fruit Cubes

Sparkling Honey Fruit Spritzer
- Makes 6 to 8 servings -

Ingredients
1/3 cup honey
1 cup frozen berries (strawberries, raspberries, etc.)
1 lime, thinly sliced
1 orange, halved and thinly sliced
3 cups orange juice
3 cups sparkling water
Ice cubes
Directions
Combine honey, berries, citrus slices and orange juice in pitcher. Using a wooden spoon, press down on the fruit to juice and to mix fruit with the honey. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours or longer. Add sparkling water and ice when ready to serve; stir to mix.

Recipes from the National Honey Board at www.honey.com

HEALTH BENEFITS OF HONEY

Honey, a most easily digestible carbohydrate compound, has been used by the mankind over 2500 years and has been known worldwide for its numerous health benefits. Even in modern medicine, research is going on in analyzing the benefits of honey especially its benefits in healing cuts and wounds.
The fact that it can be consumed very easily makes it popular. It can be taken directly as raw honey, mixed with juices and beverages instead of sugar, mixed with hot water and can also be consumed as a sweetener with bread or a bun. There are number of health benefits of honey and here is a quick brief of some of the most important health benefits. Honey is a natural energy booster
Research has proved that a single tablespoon of honey can provide 64 calories in comparison with natural sugar that produces only 50 calories. Unlike natural sugar which needs to undergo an inversion process during digestion, honey has already accomplished this process and hence it more easily digestible than sugar and thus produces more energy in a shorter time. It is because of this special benefit it is consumed by athletes as it helps them maintain blood sugar levels and muscle recuperation after a hard work out. It contains natural fruit sugars that help in preventing fatigue during exercise. Honey has two varieties of sugar, glucose and fructose. Glucose is more readily assimilated by the body and hence provides instant energy while fructose is assimilated more slowly providing sustainable energy. Honey and weight loss
Though honey has the capability to provide more calories than sugar, when consumed with hot water, it proves as a good weight loss agent by burning the fat stored in our body. Similarly honey can also be used with lemon juice and cinnamon that will help in reducing weight. Honey as antioxidant
Honey contains effective antioxidants named as nutraceuticals. Antioxidants are essential elements that are required to fight the harmful free radicals that cause aging and other health hazards.Thus honey helps in removing these free radicals and builds the immunity of our body. Honey and remedy for ailments
No one can deny the fact that honey has been used as natural medicine to heal cuts and wounds. People have been using honey to heal a wide range of ailments such as yeast infection, athlete foot and arthritis pain. Honey has antiseptic and antimicrobial properties that curbs the growth of certain harmful bacteria and helps to keep external wounds clean and free from infection. Honey for curing sore throats
One of the more popular health benefits of honey is its ability to treat sore throats. This is due to its anti-microbial properties it tends to soothe the throat and also helps in destroying the bacteria that cause infection.
Honey as a source of vitamins and minerals
Honey is a rich source of vitamins and minerals. The type of mineral and vitamin present in honey depends on the type of flower used by the bees.
Honey is also used in conjunction with milk to keep your skin smooth and young. Hence consuming milk and honey daily is a common practice followed in many countries for getting a smooth skin.
http://www.justhealthtips.com/health-benefits-of-honey.html

Feeding Bees

We had the bees come in from California in April. Once they arrive there is a lot of work to be done. These pictures were taken right after the bees arrived. Usually the bees arrive without a lot of feed to keep them until the flowers start blooming. We have to feed them to supplement what they have in their hive. Von smokes the hive to calm the bees down and opens up the hive. John then fills the feeders with syrup for the bees. On the right hand side of this hive is a feeder, they are the same size as the frames and simply replace one of the frames. This picture shows three of the hives with feeders like the one in the above picture and then the hive in the back on the left has a feeder in the bottom box.

John filling the feeders. John made our tank that carries the syrup. He is an incredibly talented individual.
There are some flowers out; the bees have been bringing bee pollen to the hive. Not all of it makes it in, sometimes it falls out of the pollen baskets on their legs. The various colors of little yellow "orbs" on the ground in front of the hive are pollen. Next they will have to "divide" the bees and place them on location.

The Benefits of Honey

Spring brings a picture-perfect day. You're enjoying yourself on a well-deserved vacation. Then you fall, a victim of loose gravel. Your leg is a mess. At the local hospital, you're given a cream to apply two times a day to keep infection at bay. Returning home after a week of pain and aches, your leg isn't healing as it should. A call to the local herbalist or homeopath and it's suggested that you apply honey to the wound. That's too simple. "How can honey do anything to help this?" you ask. The reply, "Honey not only can heal, it will improve your overall health."

Easy Honey Uses
Antibacterial: Apply honey to cuts, scrapes or burns and cover with a clean bandage. Change dressings one to three times daily, as needed. Note: excessive heat or prolonged exposure to light can rob honey of its antibacterial properties. Always store in a dark, cool place.
Disinfectant: Take several tablespoons of honey daily for internal disinfection.
Nursing salve: Nursing mothers, try covering cracked, sore nipples with honey-soaked gauze to prevent infection.
Sore throats: Many opera singers add honey to a glass of warm milk and sip slowly. This helps soothe the throat.
Insomnia: Mix a half glass of warm water with 2 tablespoons of honey and the juice of a lemon and an orange. The darker the honey, the better this works.
Honey pick-me-up: Combine 2 tablespoons honey, 2 teaspoons pollen, a teaspoon of ginseng, and dried orange peel. Take with a spoon. Asian healers believe that this creates a feeling of total rejuvenation.
Diarrhea: In 8 ounces of water, mix 4 large tablespoons of honey. This works well for bacterial diarrhea. Those with diabetes should be cautious about taking so much honey at one time.
Dieting: Honey's double action (providing instant energy boost, while maintaining sugar levels for along time) satisfies the hunger for sweets and may keep you feeling fuller longer. For some dieters, this may be good news.

Follow this link to read the rest of this article:
http://www.motherearthnews.com/Natural-Health/1999-02-01/Honey-Benefits.aspx

Can Eating Honey Shorten Colds?

A sticky remedy: Eating honey shortens colds by two days
The buzz: Eating honey could cut your cold time by up to two days

Honey can help reduce the duration of colds.
Two ounces a day reduces the length of the common cold by up two days, according to a new study.
In the trial, believed to be the first of its kind, men and women were recruited within 24 hours of catching a cold.
All 60 patients were given traditional therapies - such as decongestants and anti-pyretics (drugs to lower a temperature) - but half of them were also given a dose of honey - two ounces (around four tablespoons) - every day.
The researchers, from Jahrom University of Medical Science in Iran, monitored a range of symptoms including a runny nose, muscle pain, fever, coughing and sneezing.
The researchers did not know who had been given the honey.
At the end of the study, which was reported in the Archives of Medical Research, the researchers found a significant difference in duration of all symptoms, with the honey group faring much better.
It's thought that this is due to compounds in honey such as phenolic acid and flavonoids.
It is not the first time that honey has shown beneficial effects against viruses. In a recent trial at the Dubai Medical Centre, 16 adults with a history of recurrent cold sores were told to apply honey within one hour of the first sign of a cold sore.
Patients firmly pressed the affected area with honey-soaked gauze for 15 minutes, four times a day, until completely healed.
Results showed that the length of an attack, pain and healing time were all reduced by two-thirds.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/diets/article-1180641/A-sticky-remedy-Eating-honey-shortens-colds-days.html#

Honey and Salad Dressing Study

I read this article online and thought you might find it interesting as well. Oh, the many things we can do with honey and honey can do for us!!

Honey adds health benefits, is natural preservative and sweetener in salad dressings
Antioxidant-rich honey is a healthy alternative to chemical additives and refined sweeteners in commercial salad dressings, said a new University of Illinois study.
…Engeseth's study substituted honey for EDTA, an additive used to keep the oils in salad dressings from oxidizing, and high-fructose corn syrup, used by many commercial salad-dressing producers to sweeten their salad dressing recipes.
"We chose clover and blueberry honeys for the study after an analysis of the sweetening potential, antioxidant activity, and phenolic profiles of 19 honeys with varying characteristics," said the scientist.
The dressings were also compared to a control dressing that contained ingredients found in current commercial salad dressings, she said.
When the researchers found that enzymes in the honey broke the emulsion by attacking the starch that was used to thicken the dressing, they came up with a new formulation that used xanthan gum as a thickening agent, which they then used in all the dressings, she said.
"After nine months of storage, both types of honey were as effective as EDTA in protecting against oxidation or spoilage. Blueberry honey performed slightly better than clover," she said.
Source: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Honey Rhubarb Bars

It's SPRING!! Time for rhubarb. I picked mine for the first time yesterday. I made a dessert that my mother, Bessie, really seemed to enjoy. I hope you will as well. It always gets two thumbs up at our house!! Honey Rhubarb Bars
4 C. chopped rhubarb
1 1/4 C. honey
1/4 C. water
2 T. cornstarch
2 tsp.vanilla
1 1/2 C. flour
1 1/2 C. oatmeal
1 C. brown sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1 C. shortening or butter

Dissolve cornstarch in water. Add rhubarb, sugar and vanilla.
Cook until thickened.

In a separate bowl:
Mix oats, flour, brown sugar and baking soda.
Cut in shortening as if for pie crust.
Place a little more than half in a greased 9 X 13 pan.
Pat down.
Spread rhubarb filling.
Sprinkle topping over rhubarb filling.

Bake at 350° for 30 minutes

Cool. Cut into bars.
Is really good with ice cream!!