The Secret Life of Bees

[dropcap]H[/dropcap]oney — porridge, tea, cheese, yoghurt, toast, basted onto the Sunday roast or simply off the spoon. One of the oldest, and sweetest, self-preserved delicacies, it has found a loving home in virtually every kitchen cupboard. While ten years ago the humble jar or squeezy-bottle sufficed, with acacia served with a twizzler being something of extravagance, recent trends show more niche produce. Mānuka honey, the monofloral honey originating from New Zealand is now peaking along with other super-food pantry must-haves such as coconut oil and quinoa with wide availability in discount supermarket chains. Harrods this year began stocking Malitheon honey, tipped to be the “Champagne” of the honey world. Originating from Greece, this 100% raw golden goodness comes from the pollen of Vanilla Fir trees (which feature a Protected Designation of Origin, like a fine wine) in limited quantity from the Arcadia region.

While ten years ago the humble jar or squeezy-bottle sufficed, with acacia served with a twizzler being something of extravagance, recent trends show more niche produce.

Most of us can vaguely recall an afternoon in Senior Infants listening to the simplified process: bee collects nectar, other bees turn the nectar into honey, with a queen involved in the middle… somewhere. Although it may seem a subordinary process, bees work in a harmonised, complex and unbelievable fashion. There’s also a massive public lack of appreciation with regards to the honey industry.

Wayne O’Connor is a beekeeper based in Laughanstown, just outside of Cabinteely. Set on the edge of roughly four hundred acres that were zoned for apartments and compact housing during the Celtic Tiger, the recent financial crisis has left the native flora of dandelion, clover, willowherb and blackberry unspoilt. Following a background in horticulture and a fascination with social insects from an early age, O’Connor’s hands-on relationship with apiculture began when his wife signed him up for a beginner’s course with the Foundation of Irish Beekeeper’s Association (FIBKA) as a gift five years ago. He now manages a home apiary — much to the fear of his terrier, Bubbles — as well as other hives in Wicklow. He hopes to scale up from selling through local businesses in the forthcoming years, because he feels “if [he] had a thousand jars, [he] could sell them quite easily” as those with an appreciation for local honey are left hooked.

While most highly commercialised honey is pasteurised, Lehaunstown Honey is a raw product. It is lightly centrifuged to separate contents by weight and then filtered with absolutely no heat treatment. Pasteurisation allows for guarantee of stability from an aesthetic point of view, preventing crystallisation, but also “loses the esters and other volatile compounds in the honey which gives it its unique bouquet,” O’Connor explains. “Following pasteurisation, you’re left with a sugar syrup, often times untraceable and undistinctive. All honey will eventually crystallise, which can often give it character”.

Irish honey allows for a huge scope of terroir via the working bees — different flowering patterns throughout the year and different bees honing in on different plants allow a unique product both in taste and colour by the batch.

Irish honey allows for a huge scope of terroir via the working bees — different flowering patterns throughout the year and different bees honing in on different plants allow a unique product both in taste and colour by the batch. Comparison of different jars show cloudy to clear and golden to amber in colour. The most likely Irish monofloral honey would require sixty per cent from one floral species would be that of rapeseed or apple, which would be rather weak or insipid. While a honey made from bees sucking from the dandelion flower is rich in flavour and light in colour, one predominantly from a blackberry source has heavier, muskier tones. Heather honey is what Ireland is most famed for and can be ideally sourced from the Wicklow mountains. Pre-crushing and pressing prior to the centrifugal step is needed due to its vast viscosity, oozing strong toffee flavour.

The Dark European Honeybee is what is resident to this apiary and native to Ireland. Docile in nature, these wasp-looking creatures are absolutely fascinating to watch, with the worker bees shooting in and out continuously under the hive out to seek and collect nectar. They communicate in fascinating ways such as the “waggle dance” where a worker bee will fly in the shape of an eight figure, where the distance and positioning along with the release of chemicals from the bee can signal where a water or pollen source is nearby. The generation of the comb comes from the wax secreted by a gland in a four to five week old bee, where the vibration of neighbours’ wings form a wax ball due to scraping action from the abdominal glands as well as from heat generation of up to 36ºC, which can make the wax more pliable to shape. Foreign bees have been imported for use in Ireland but following the subsequent entry of an Asian mite which is resistant to treatments with catastrophic effects on hives, lobbying has called for its cease. Dark European Honey Bees are also the most adapted to the Irish climate as opposed to those imported from Italy for instance, which would have little to no preparation for a cold winter and die out much quicker.

Apart from honey as a food product, Wayne believes that the work products from the humble bee are something of a “medicine chest that we haven’t explored”. Honey has shown antiviral, antibiotic and hygroscopic properties, which have questioned the capability of the most sophisticated wound dressing systems following recent research. The production of honey in honeycomb cells involves the evaporation of nectar along with secreted enzymes. Trace hydrogen peroxide is also generated by the bees which keeps the product sterile, along with the high sugar content contest any microbe by the simple powers of osmosis. Honey from various locations in the UK is being screened as a possible source from which to develop novel antibiotics to treat MRSA and Clostridium Difficile, potentially lethal illnesses. A spoon of raw local honey a day can present pollen antigen on a gradual basis — much akin to expensive frozen grass pollen therapies — introduced to desensitise the immune response in hay fever sufferers. The use of honey as medicine, known as apitherapy, has also delved into the use of bee venom, hypothesised to aid inflammatory conditions such as arthritis as well as being a major hit in the cosmetic industry, with predicted anti-ageing properties.

Understanding and observing the process of a local honey’s manufacture is a truly fascinating experience. The differences in viscosity, colour and taste from one beekeeper’s apiary depending on the season or local botanical habitat in comparison to another in Ireland are vast. Although our climate may not be ideal for many an agricultural delicacy, a local Irish honey offers a taste of what the Emerald Isle can do best.

 

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