Not just any honey...

[Vanterrier]

My wife saw this in M&S and could not believe the price...
£1.45 for a 340g jar!

How?

 

[Garry R]

How?

More than likely adulterated from abroad. It's not just M&S honey it's likely not even 100% honey

 

[Vanterrier]

That's my point I suppose. I just expected something better from M&S


To be fair, it tastes pretty good

 

[enrico]

That's my point I suppose. I just expected something better from M&S


To be fair, it tastes pretty good

Probably a good seed for your own

 

[Vanterrier]

Probably a good seed for your own

I wondered about that but worried that an adulterated honey ( if that's what it is) would not necessarily be a good start for a seed..
And I do have some soft set from the local Northumberland Honey Co.
K

 

[Penninetrader]

That's my point I suppose. I just expected something better from M&S


To be fair, it tastes pretty good

Food chemists could make poo taste good so not a good reference

 

[pargyle]

More than likely adulterated from abroad. It's not just M&S honey it's likely not even 100% honey

'A blend of Non-EU honeys packed in the UK - Says it all really. Disappointing when only recently M & S were crowing about their range of real honeys from UK beekeepers ...

 

[Penninetrader]

'A blend of Non-EU honeys packed in the UK - Says it all really. Disappointing when only recently M & S were crowing about their range of real honeys from UK beekeepers ...

Undermines their credibility and business model, the profit from such a product would be small, rather silly

 

[pargyle]

Undermines their credibility and business model, the profit from such a product would be small, rather silly

https://www.ocado.com/products/m-s-...rganic_shopping&utm_campaign=organic_shopping

 

[JamezF]

There's the cost of the jar, lid, label(s), shipping/distribution, paying someone to package it, etc., etc. I wonder what the actual cost of the alleged "honey" is?

Since the issues with honey (and other food) fraud have become more widely known it's become a more common topic of conversation during meals in our household as to what information appearing on food labels is actually verifiable fact and what is just marketing ******** (for want of any more accurate term). Labels that say "Chickenstrangler Farm", for instance, intended to give the impression that the heavily processed poultry thus labelled came from an identifiable location when in fact it's just the product of a marketing manager's imagination. For lunch today we had some cheese that, if it were made the way that the label was intended to suggest, we couldn't possibly have afforded to buy. It's a sorry state we've got ourselves into.

I also had a chuckle to myself the other day when I noticed that some "smokey bacon" flavour crisps were labelled as vegan. I know full well that the flavour is all made in a lab, but the mere idea of trying to market smokey bacon crisps to vegans is one that bends my brain just a little.

James

 

[JamezF]

https://www.ocado.com/products/m-s-...rganic_shopping&utm_campaign=organic_shopping

I think there was a link posted a month or so back for a youtube video about a beek who runs a few thousand of colonies across the south and sells to M&S? One of Laurence/BMH's, perhaps?

James

 

[Jimmy]

M&S British honey is supplied by Wainwrights, I don't know who provides the wider range.
The video was by Gwenyn Gruffyd (apologies if I've mangled the spelling).

There's at least a couple of videos looking at their set up
Wainwright video

The honey jarring set up was simultaneously impressive and surprising at what was done by hand (labelling iirc) and automated.

 

[Ely]

I wondered about that but worried that an adulterated honey ( if that's what it is) would not necessarily be a good start for a seed..
And I do have some soft set from the local Northumberland Honey Co.
K

I made my own seed from a teaspoon of my granulated honey in a pestle and mortar. When it was ground down totally smooth (took ages and made my arm sore), I added it to half a jar of runny honey, then the half jar to an icecream tub of honey, then that to a half bucket (letting it set each time) to use in future. I wanted it to be totally my own otherwise it wouldn't feel right to me.

 

[Vanterrier]

I made my own seed from a teaspoon of my granulated honey in a pestle and mortar. When it was ground down totally smooth (took ages and made my arm sore), I added it to half a jar of runny honey, then the half jar to an icecream tub of honey, then that to a half bucket (letting it set each time) to use in future. I wanted it to be totally my own otherwise it wouldn't feel right to me.

Thanks for that, I do have a couple of jars of last springs honey that has totally crystallised so I could do as you have done and start with some of that, my own...
K

 

[Ely]

Thanks for that, I do have a couple of jars of last springs honey that has totally crystallised so I could do as you have done and start with some of that, my own...
K

When it is ground down, take out the smooth honey with a teaspoon. Try not to included coarse grains that may still be on the sides of the pestle and mortar

 

[alancooper]

When it is ground down, take out the smooth honey with a teaspoon.

I tried grinding with a pestle and mortar a few years ago but had no reliable standard against which to judge when the honey was fine enough (rather like the guidance on hefting to gauge hive stores weight) - mostly pot luck.I bought a jar of commercial soft set to do a tongue texture test.
There must be a better way? Anyone?

 

[Do224]

I made my own seed from a teaspoon of my granulated honey in a pestle and mortar. When it was ground down totally smooth (took ages and made my arm sore), I added it to half a jar of runny honey, then the half jar to an icecream tub of honey, then that to a half bucket (letting it set each time) to use in future. I wanted it to be totally my own otherwise it wouldn't feel right to me.

Really intrigued by this method. I’m going to try it. I’ve never made soft set honey. When you add the ground down honey to the half jar of runny honey are there any further steps… or do you just stir it in a bit and then leave it for a while? How long does it take to turn into soft set honey?

Edit: I’ve just had a go. Jar on the left was the seed (last year’s crystallised spring honey). Jar in the middle is runny honey. Jar on the right is the rest of the runny honey from the middle jar, which I added 3 teaspoons of crystallised honey to after battering it in a pestle and mortar (I used 3 teaspoons as thought it had to be about 10% of total volume). No idea what if anything to do next

 

[Ely]

Really intrigued by this method. I’m going to try it. I’ve never made soft set honey. When you add the ground down honey to the half jar of runny honey are there any further steps… or do you just stir it in a bit and then leave it for a while? How long does it take to turn into soft set honey?

Edit: I’ve just had a go. Jar on the left was the seed (last year’s crystallised spring honey). Jar in the middle is runny honey. Jar on the right is the rest of the runny honey from the middle jar, which I added 3 teaspoons of crystallised honey to after battering it in a pestle and mortar (I used 3 teaspoons as thought it had to be about 10% of total volume). No idea what if anything to do next

View attachment 42171

I just made sure the seed was totally smooth before thoroughly stirring it into the runny honey. Return to it every now and then to stir it and leave in a cool place to set. It will need a gentle warm once set to add to any more runny honey. But don't warm it too much, you don't want to warm it back to liquid. Just enough to stir it in to runny honey. Also the runny honey needs to be totally runny and not have any of its own sugar crystals.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I find about 32°C is a good temperature, the seed only needs to be at that temperature for an hour or two to soften, the clear can stay longer - it also helps then, after mixing, to get the whole lot down to about 13°C as quickly as possible.
A quick few seconds zap in the microwave will also get the seed to a mixable consistency.