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honey
unheated honey
temperature
food sourcing
[2009]
[Attendee]
And what's the true honey you told me about?
[Aajonus]
Well, I got a Filipino honey where we just went to a beekeeper and they gave me honey straight from the hive.
[Attendee]
How do you know if the honey's good, because they said if the honey crystallized, that means it's real honey, so I have honey that's just liquid. Stays liquid.
[Aajonus]
Yeah, well all honey will crystallize if it's raw. Sage honey can take up to a year, year and a half to crystallize. It depends upon the honey.
[Attendee]
So, how about if it doesn't crystallize in three months that's not sage?
[Aajonus]
It still depends upon the type of honey.
It could take anywhere from three months to a year and a half for honey to crystalize.
[Attendee]
Okay, so the question is how do I get to know that's real, honey?
[Aajonus]
You have to go to the place who makes the honey.
What brand is it?
It's gotta say unheated. We do not heat this honey at all in processing.
[Attendee]
It says raw.
[Aajonus]
Raw doesn't mean a thing. Raw they can heat it up to 170°. Honey can't be heated over 93°.
[Attendee]
Oh, so in the book says, just say raw honey?
[Aajonus]
In my book? No, it says we do not heat this honey in processing and it stays unheated.
And then you have to ask the beekeeper.
It's gotta say unheated, raw doesn't mean a thing. I say that in the book.
[Attendee #2]
Don't take his word for it. Go watch him take it out of the hive. That's the only way to know.
[Aajonus]
It's the only way to truly know. Small
[Attendee #3]
beekeepers won't heat your honey. Only the big ones do.
[Aajonus]
No, little ones will do it too to bottle it faster.
[Attendee #2]
They also heat it when it crystallizes, the water back it up to 120°.
And then I'll ask them, have you ever heated the honey? And they'll say, No. And then I ask them, what's your bell heater for your five gallon bucket or your water heater? What do you set the temperature at? And they'll tell me 120° - 140°, thank you very much for the information
[Aajonus]
You just have to go to 'em. You have to say, listen, when you spin some honey, I'd like you to bottle some for me right then and there and don't strain it. Because you want it completely unheated.
Cause what they do is they spin it, put it in cauldrons, it will set, it'll get very thick and then they have to heat it to pour it fast.
[Attendee]
But the guy in the store didn't want to give me the beekeepers address.
[Aajonus]
It doesn't say on the bottle?
[Attendee]
No.
[Aajonus]
Doesn't say a name on the bottles? Don't they have a name and address of the producer.
[Attendee]
No, he gets from a bulk.
[Aajonus]
Oh, then if he doesn't give it to you, I'd take it back to him.
Well, there's some honeys that are available here you get right out of the store and there's Y.S there's quite a few of them Really Raw, those brands.
There is Honey Pacifica, but they don't sell that in regular markets.
[At one point Honey Pacifica started feeding sugar in the winter, so Aajonus stopped buying. It may have changed since, I haven't checked]
