are you saving a few jars for seeding again? what ratio did you use too?
Jez
I usually do manage to keep some back but ended up without any as the last of the fine set was used in the summer and this was the stuff which wouldn't set and when it did the crystals were like rock salt.
To get the seed for this batch I used a pestle and mortar to grind up a pound jar of the stuff with large crystals. It took some time as I could only do about two desert spoonfuls at a time. I then added this to 4 pounds of liquid honey and this was the first lot to set overnight. I didn't have the bulk of the liquid honey ready at that point as I had put the wrong bulb in the warming cabinet. I used a 25W and it needed a 40W to get the honey properly liquid and all the crystal disolved. After liquifying I put it back in the storeroom to cool down as it was too warm and might have melted the seed honey if it had been added at that point.
A couple of days later is where this story starts when I tried to mix the seed and liquid together, not easy when both are sub 10C! But it seems to have worked in the end - unlike I fear my cordless drill which was struggling mixing the viscous liquid and sounds as if it is on the way out.
Moral of story is making soft set honey needs low temperatures. I had watched jars in the summer taking weeks and weeks to do something which in the winter took just a day or so.
The "standard " ratio often heard is 10% but the ratio I used in this lot was 25% with the first batch, one pound into 4 making 5 pounds, then adding that to about 30 pounds of liquid. This larger ratio must have helped to achieve the rapid setting.
The texture of the honey is very good at the moment, with no discernable crystals on the tongue - a bit like butter although harder now it is so cold. I've taken a jar into the house to warm up a bit. Time will tell if the dreaded frosting appears later - when the honey shrinks with further crystalisation.
Chalkie - I suppose set honey in theory tastes the same as the liquid but the texture is so different it is like a different honey. The stuff in the picture is of course OSR, which I collected quite a lot of in the spring. I must get busy and make some more while it remains cool!
I will try for sections again this year. I've got two supers of Bee-O-Pac things which I took to the heather and got nothing, but the bees did at least make a start drawing out the wax. I shall give them back to the bees here in the town in the early sumer, after any OSR has finished in the surrounding fields. I get a nice honey which remains liquid for a long time here - I have a few buckets now which are still runny.
Boxing day is the acid test (forgive the pun), this is open house at Alderapiary when my extended family descends en bloc
