Fresh from the comb and redolent of lavender

[darkemeralds]

I was out in the back yard at dusk, working on Chapter 38 and listening to my fountain, when my sister and her son came over in a sort of triumphal march, bearing a small jar.





She's been beekeeping since early spring, and this evening she harvested her first honey. It was a pale, almost lemon yellow fresh from the comb, but it's darkening a little towards amber a couple of hours later.

There's a huge hedge of lavender just across the street from her hive, and the honey has a bit of a lavender flavor. It's complex and bright and intensely sweet. My nephew said, "It's so amazing. We didn't add sugar or anything--it just comes this way naturally."

Comments

[darkemeralds]

Kispexi doesn't like honey either. I can understand why, even though I love it myself. It's...odd. And you don't want to think a great deal about where it comes from, really. But it's amazing stuff. Never goes bad, natural preservative, etc.

Have you tried agave? Trader Joe's has begun selling it at a fairly reasonable price. It has a lot of sweetening power, but tastes very different from honey--a bit like golden syrup, a tiny bit caramel-y. It's good. I like it on pancakes, and I've been using it in my yogurt. Apparently the body digests it much more slowly than sugar, which is what makes it a good substitute if blood sugar is an issue.