Fresh Honey from Lemon Myrtle Blossoms
Autumn 2017 has brought our first harvest of lemon myrtle honey from our 3 hives. Many thanks to Meg Platte from the Bunyip Beekeeping Group for setting up and maintaining the hives for us. The honey does have a distinctive floral taste due to the large crop of lemon myrtle flowers that the bees have been feasting on. We plan to serve the honey in a range of dishes at the Schoolhouse Café such as drizzled over these fresh figs from our neighbour’s old tree.
Because our honey is raw and not heated it retains a long list of nutrients and enzymes said to provide a variety of health benefits and medical uses. Raw honey contains:
- antioxidants to keep your cells healthy,
- antibacterial and antifungal properties that can kill unwanted bacteria and fungus and has been used to treat wounds ,
- phytonutrients that are anti – inflammatory and assist with gut health.
So, a couple of teaspoons a day of this nectar should keep us healthy!
Raw honey is a popular treatment for a sore throat and to treat coughs (see an earlier post here for a Lemon Myrtle and Ginger Tea recipe that would work well with some raw honey). However unpasteurized honey should not be given to babies under 1 year old as it may contain the bacteria that causes botulism.
My father had 70 hives that he managed when I was a child and I have good memories of the delicious honey, however my mother had less happy memories as Dad sometimes processed the honey in our large country kitchen leaving a sticky mess that she was often left to clean!
Have you tried honey made from lemon myrtle blossoms? Do you prefer the taste of raw honey?