Tag: local honey

Crystallized Honey 101: It’s Actually a Good Thing …

If you use local honey, you may find that it has crystallized and that is a good thing. It's proof that the honey has had minimal processing.

Some people even wonder if the honey is safe to eat. It is. Crystallization is a sign that your honey is not only safe, but also has not had some of its flavor and goodness removed.

Wired Magazine ran an article, What Do You Do With Crystallized Honey? that defends crystallized honey and explains why this happens. I agree with them when they tell you not to microwave an entire jar of honey. In addition to degrading the product, there are horror stories of melting plastic honey bears and tales of clean ups after honey was overheated.

This is the same advice I've had from beekeepers. I do as little as possible to this pure product after I buy it.

Making Crystallized Honey Easier to Use

When I bring home a still liquid jar of my favorite honey from Foppema's Farm, I transfer its contents into canning jars. If I get lazy and the honey crystallizes before I rejar it, I use a spoon and a silicone spatula to scrape it into a wide-mouth canning jar where it's easy to use by the spoonful. This jar becomes my honey supply for hot beverages and cooking. If I need a more liquid form of honey, it's easier to heat as much as I need.

Since honey is our primary sweetener, we normally buy it in large, tall jars which make it difficult to retrieve every last sweet bottom bit. But, if you only use a little, consider buying smaller jars. Then you can reach in with a butter spreader or dinner knife and gather what you need.

Your solid honey will quickly turn liquid when you spread it on toast or spoon it into a hot cup of tea. If you're mixing it into a cold drink, just melt it in a bit of hot water or microwave just as much as you plan to use. But, leave your main supply in its unadulterated crystallized form.

Want more kitchen tips like this one? Check these posts:

Sweet additions for your stews and soups

A great tip for fish chowder

Variations on a soup theme

How to keep artisan bread fresh

Begin all your Amazon shopping at BostonZest to support the site and keep information like this coming your way.

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Writer: Penny Cherubino

Photos: © 2010 Penny Cherubino

July 20, 2015
At the Market: Stocking Up for Winter

Carrying home farmers' market shopping bags can be a workout this time of year because Ed and I are toting a few extra items to fill our pantry for the winter months.

Local Honey

Honey is the number one item on our list. We buy the majority of the honey we eat from Foppema's Farm. We love the flavor and appreciate the fact that it's a local product, simply collected with all the phytonutrients and traces of local pollens.

Honey stores perfectly well in a cool dark spot and will last for years, so we never worry about buying too much. Our only concern is making sure we have enough to get through the months when we can't get our favorite.

Young, Fresh Ginger

Local, young ginger from Old Friends Farm is another fall favorite around here. Penny recently read this page on the Old Friends website about freezing this lively, full-flavored alternative to the dried-up ginger you often find in mainstream stores.

She tried it and is thrilled to know she can have a supply of great ginger until next September rolls around and it appears again at the corner of the Atlas Farm stand devoted to products from their neighbors at Old Friends Farm.

Maple syrup is available all winter but if you like to buy it at the market, you can stock up. This jug came from Boston Organics and we keep it in the freezer. Pure maple syrup has no additives or preservatives. It has a higher water content than honey, so it can and will grow mold if you don't use it quickly.

In the freezer, it never becomes solid so you can still pour out what you need and return the jug to it's chilly storage spot.

Pumpkins and Winter Squash

More cooks are discovering the golden goodness of winter squash, and pumpkin. Food sites like The Kitchn are showing us how to make the most of the harvest while it's in season. Here's a recent post they did on "Two Ways to Freeze Winter Squash."

What will you be taking home to store for winter use? How will you store it? How will you prepare it? Are you making jams and jellies? Apple butter? Hard cider? Tell us about your favorite stockpiles!

Click here to read more of our At The Market Reports.

PRIME
What do you know about Amazon Prime? We use it and love it. You pay once a year for free 2-day shipping delivery charges. Amazon throws in access to instant streaming movies and TV shows and they let you borrow a free ebook each month. They will even give you a one month free trial. Remember to click over to Amazon from here to support this site!

Join Amazon Prime – Watch Over 40,000 Movies

Details:

Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photography: © 2013 Penny & Ed Cherubino

Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers' comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often, those add great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you. We do reserve the right to edit ads and links out of comments.

October 24, 2013
At the Market: Stocking Up for Winter

Carrying home farmers' market shopping bags can be a workout this time of year because Ed and I are toting a few extra items to fill our pantry for the winter months.

Local Honey

Honey is the number one item on our list. We buy the majority of the honey we eat from Foppema's Farm. We love the flavor and appreciate the fact that it's a local product, simply collected with all the phytonutrients and traces of local pollens.

Honey stores perfectly well in a cool dark spot and will last for years, so we never worry about buying too much. Our only concern is making sure we have enough to get through the months when we can't get our favorite.

Young, Fresh Ginger

Local, young ginger from Old Friends Farm is another fall favorite around here. Penny recently read this page on the Old Friends website about freezing this lively, full-flavored alternative to the dried-up ginger you often find in mainstream stores.

She tried it and is thrilled to know she can have a supply of great ginger until next September rolls around and it appears again at the corner of the Atlas Farm stand devoted to products from their neighbors at Old Friends Farm.

Maple syrup is available all winter but if you like to buy it at the market, you can stock up. This jug came from Boston Organics and we keep it in the freezer. Pure maple syrup has no additives or preservatives. It has a higher water content than honey, so it can and will grow mold if you don't use it quickly.

In the freezer, it never becomes solid so you can still pour out what you need and return the jug to it's chilly storage spot.

Pumpkins and Winter Squash

More cooks are discovering the golden goodness of winter squash, and pumpkin. Food sites like The Kitchn are showing us how to make the most of the harvest while it's in season. Here's a recent post they did on "Two Ways to Freeze Winter Squash."

What will you be taking home to store for winter use? How will you store it? How will you prepare it? Are you making jams and jellies? Apple butter? Hard cider? Tell us about your favorite stockpiles!

Click here to read more of our At The Market Reports.

PRIME
What do you know about Amazon Prime? We use it and love it. You pay once a year for free 2-day shipping delivery charges. Amazon throws in access to instant streaming movies and TV shows and they let you borrow a free ebook each month. They will even give you a one month free trial. Remember to click over to Amazon from here to support this site!

Join Amazon Prime – Watch Over 40,000 Movies

Details:

Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photography: © 2013 Penny & Ed Cherubino

Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers' comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often, those add great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you. We do reserve the right to edit ads and links out of comments.

October 24, 2013
At the Market: Stocking Up for Winter

Carrying home farmers' market shopping bags can be a workout this time of year because Ed and I are toting a few extra items to fill our pantry for the winter months.

Local Honey

Honey is the number one item on our list. We buy the majority of the honey we eat from Foppema's Farm. We love the flavor and appreciate the fact that it's a local product, simply collected with all the phytonutrients and traces of local pollens.

Honey stores perfectly well in a cool dark spot and will last for years, so we never worry about buying too much. Our only concern is making sure we have enough to get through the months when we can't get our favorite.

Young, Fresh Ginger

Local, young ginger from Old Friends Farm is another fall favorite around here. Penny recently read this page on the Old Friends website about freezing this lively, full-flavored alternative to the dried-up ginger you often find in mainstream stores.

She tried it and is thrilled to know she can have a supply of great ginger until next September rolls around and it appears again at the corner of the Atlas Farm stand devoted to products from their neighbors at Old Friends Farm.

Maple syrup is available all winter but if you like to buy it at the market, you can stock up. This jug came from Boston Organics and we keep it in the freezer. Pure maple syrup has no additives or preservatives. It has a higher water content than honey, so it can and will grow mold if you don't use it quickly.

In the freezer, it never becomes solid so you can still pour out what you need and return the jug to it's chilly storage spot.

Pumpkins and Winter Squash

More cooks are discovering the golden goodness of winter squash, and pumpkin. Food sites like The Kitchn are showing us how to make the most of the harvest while it's in season. Here's a recent post they did on "Two Ways to Freeze Winter Squash."

What will you be taking home to store for winter use? How will you store it? How will you prepare it? Are you making jams and jellies? Apple butter? Hard cider? Tell us about your favorite stockpiles!

Click here to read more of our At The Market Reports.

PRIME
What do you know about Amazon Prime? We use it and love it. You pay once a year for free 2-day shipping delivery charges. Amazon throws in access to instant streaming movies and TV shows and they let you borrow a free ebook each month. They will even give you a one month free trial. Remember to click over to Amazon from here to support this site!

Join Amazon Prime – Watch Over 40,000 Movies

Details:

Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photography: © 2013 Penny & Ed Cherubino

Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers' comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often, those add great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you. We do reserve the right to edit ads and links out of comments.

October 24, 2013
At The Market: Old Friends at Copley Square

Our once or twice-a-week visits to the Copley Square Farmers' Market are a combination of shopping and chatting with old friends. Penny has been shopping at this market for more than twenty years and some of the stands we frequent have been there even longer. During the past few years, Ed has joined this wonderful community.

Last week, Ann Starbard of Crystal Brook Farm and Penny chatted between customers and caught up on what's been happening in their city and farm lives. Over the years, Ann has added a great selection of flavors to her goat cheese selections.

Rather than constantly adding more varieties, she tries to suggest matches with current seasonal products from other farms at the market. Last week, she was suggesting her chive cheese with the strawberries that were adding a deep, red pop to the market tables.

We love to offer guests her ginger goat cheese with a fruit platter for snacking or dessert. Last weekend, we enjoyed it spread on an Iggy's baguette with a glass of rosé wine from the South of France.

Ed and Poppy (our Westie puppy) often sit on a bench next to the Cook's Farm and Bakery stand while Penny backtracks through the market to purchase what we spotted on our initial walk around. Simeon Cook welcomes us and supplies Ed with the oatmeal raisin cookies that keep his sweet tooth under control.

This was a much better maple syrup season than last and Cook's has jugs of Grade B syrup on the stand. Penny loves the deep, rich flavor of Grade B syrup and it's one of the secrets of her meltingly delicious lamb shanks in chipotle sauce recipe.

The Word from the Farms

Lily Carone from Atlas Farm said, "Cukes are not far off – cabbage, carrots, peppers, and eggplant too…" "What few plant starts are still making appearances at market will soon be put to rest – so take this opportunity to plant some basil in a window box – or slip some tomatoes in the ground for a late season treat!"

Marshall's Farm tweeted, "Sweet Peas started last week and hopefully Green Beans are right behind them."

In Season, Right Now!

Foppema's Farm/Keown Orchards had the first cabbage we've seen this season. Time to make some cole slaw! They also have some of the best tasting honey we've had from any farm. It's our choice for our daily dose of local honey for allergy relief.

Micro-Greens were at both the Atlas stand from Old Friends Farm and at Silverbook Farm.

Eggs, meat, and fish are always in-season and available at more markets.

We also saw: strawberries, tatsoi, cut herbs (cilantro, parsley, basil, and dill), hakurei turnips, fennel, broccoli, mushrooms, garlic scrapes, salad mix, lettuce, arugula, radishes, beets, scallions, kolrabi, rhubarb, bok choi, chard, small onions with green tops, snap peas, sweet peas, herbs, hot house tomatoes, and honey.

Get Some Before It's Gone!

Strawberries! Enjoy them now. Some farms lost a portion of their crops due to the rain in June.

Coming Soon!

Blueberries and early raspberries – Barbara Hamilton from Hamilton Orchards hopes to have ripe berries around the Fourth of July.

Follow all our Local Food/Farmers' Markets and At The Market reports:

We heard talk about some early hothouse tomatoes. Curtis Stillman said Stillman's Farm would soon have kale and their first peas.

What's on your Food Lover's Shopping List? Shop Amazon for all your Kitchen & Dining needs and support this site!

Details:

Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photos: ©2013 Penny & Ed Cherubino

Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers' comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often, those add great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you. We do reserve the right to edit ads and links out of comments.

June 27, 2013
At The Market: Old Friends at Copley Square

Our once or twice-a-week visits to the Copley Square Farmers' Market are a combination of shopping and chatting with old friends. Penny has been shopping at this market for more than twenty years and some of the stands we frequent have been there even longer. During the past few years, Ed has joined this wonderful community.

Last week, Ann Starbard of Crystal Brook Farm and Penny chatted between customers and caught up on what's been happening in their city and farm lives. Over the years, Ann has added a great selection of flavors to her goat cheese selections.

Rather than constantly adding more varieties, she tries to suggest matches with current seasonal products from other farms at the market. Last week, she was suggesting her chive cheese with the strawberries that were adding a deep, red pop to the market tables.

We love to offer guests her ginger goat cheese with a fruit platter for snacking or dessert. Last weekend, we enjoyed it spread on an Iggy's baguette with a glass of rosé wine from the South of France.

Ed and Poppy (our Westie puppy) often sit on a bench next to the Cook's Farm and Bakery stand while Penny backtracks through the market to purchase what we spotted on our initial walk around. Simeon Cook welcomes us and supplies Ed with the oatmeal raisin cookies that keep his sweet tooth under control.

This was a much better maple syrup season than last and Cook's has jugs of Grade B syrup on the stand. Penny loves the deep, rich flavor of Grade B syrup and it's one of the secrets of her meltingly delicious lamb shanks in chipotle sauce recipe.

The Word from the Farms

Lily Carone from Atlas Farm said, "Cukes are not far off – cabbage, carrots, peppers, and eggplant too…" "What few plant starts are still making appearances at market will soon be put to rest – so take this opportunity to plant some basil in a window box – or slip some tomatoes in the ground for a late season treat!"

Marshall's Farm tweeted, "Sweet Peas started last week and hopefully Green Beans are right behind them."

In Season, Right Now!

Foppema's Farm/Keown Orchards had the first cabbage we've seen this season. Time to make some cole slaw! They also have some of the best tasting honey we've had from any farm. It's our choice for our daily dose of local honey for allergy relief.

Micro-Greens were at both the Atlas stand from Old Friends Farm and at Silverbook Farm.

Eggs, meat, and fish are always in-season and available at more markets.

We also saw: strawberries, tatsoi, cut herbs (cilantro, parsley, basil, and dill), hakurei turnips, fennel, broccoli, mushrooms, garlic scrapes, salad mix, lettuce, arugula, radishes, beets, scallions, kolrabi, rhubarb, bok choi, chard, small onions with green tops, snap peas, sweet peas, herbs, hot house tomatoes, and honey.

Get Some Before It's Gone!

Strawberries! Enjoy them now. Some farms lost a portion of their crops due to the rain in June.

Coming Soon!

Blueberries and early raspberries – Barbara Hamilton from Hamilton Orchards hopes to have ripe berries around the Fourth of July.

Follow all our Local Food/Farmers' Markets and At The Market reports:

We heard talk about some early hothouse tomatoes. Curtis Stillman said Stillman's Farm would soon have kale and their first peas.

What's on your Food Lover's Shopping List? Shop Amazon for all your Kitchen & Dining needs and support this site!

Details:

Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photos: ©2013 Penny & Ed Cherubino

Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers' comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often, those add great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you. We do reserve the right to edit ads and links out of comments.

June 27, 2013
At The Market: Old Friends at Copley Square

Our once or twice-a-week visits to the Copley Square Farmers' Market are a combination of shopping and chatting with old friends. Penny has been shopping at this market for more than twenty years and some of the stands we frequent have been there even longer. During the past few years, Ed has joined this wonderful community.

Last week, Ann Starbard of Crystal Brook Farm and Penny chatted between customers and caught up on what's been happening in their city and farm lives. Over the years, Ann has added a great selection of flavors to her goat cheese selections.

Rather than constantly adding more varieties, she tries to suggest matches with current seasonal products from other farms at the market. Last week, she was suggesting her chive cheese with the strawberries that were adding a deep, red pop to the market tables.

We love to offer guests her ginger goat cheese with a fruit platter for snacking or dessert. Last weekend, we enjoyed it spread on an Iggy's baguette with a glass of rosé wine from the South of France.

Ed and Poppy (our Westie puppy) often sit on a bench next to the Cook's Farm and Bakery stand while Penny backtracks through the market to purchase what we spotted on our initial walk around. Simeon Cook welcomes us and supplies Ed with the oatmeal raisin cookies that keep his sweet tooth under control.

This was a much better maple syrup season than last and Cook's has jugs of Grade B syrup on the stand. Penny loves the deep, rich flavor of Grade B syrup and it's one of the secrets of her meltingly delicious lamb shanks in chipotle sauce recipe.

The Word from the Farms

Lily Carone from Atlas Farm said, "Cukes are not far off – cabbage, carrots, peppers, and eggplant too…" "What few plant starts are still making appearances at market will soon be put to rest – so take this opportunity to plant some basil in a window box – or slip some tomatoes in the ground for a late season treat!"

Marshall's Farm tweeted, "Sweet Peas started last week and hopefully Green Beans are right behind them."

In Season, Right Now!

Foppema's Farm/Keown Orchards had the first cabbage we've seen this season. Time to make some cole slaw! They also have some of the best tasting honey we've had from any farm. It's our choice for our daily dose of local honey for allergy relief.

Micro-Greens were at both the Atlas stand from Old Friends Farm and at Silverbook Farm.

Eggs, meat, and fish are always in-season and available at more markets.

We also saw: strawberries, tatsoi, cut herbs (cilantro, parsley, basil, and dill), hakurei turnips, fennel, broccoli, mushrooms, garlic scrapes, salad mix, lettuce, arugula, radishes, beets, scallions, kolrabi, rhubarb, bok choi, chard, small onions with green tops, snap peas, sweet peas, herbs, hot house tomatoes, and honey.

Get Some Before It's Gone!

Strawberries! Enjoy them now. Some farms lost a portion of their crops due to the rain in June.

Coming Soon!

Blueberries and early raspberries – Barbara Hamilton from Hamilton Orchards hopes to have ripe berries around the Fourth of July.

Follow all our Local Food/Farmers' Markets and At The Market reports:

We heard talk about some early hothouse tomatoes. Curtis Stillman said Stillman's Farm would soon have kale and their first peas.

What's on your Food Lover's Shopping List? Shop Amazon for all your Kitchen & Dining needs and support this site!

Details:

Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photos: ©2013 Penny & Ed Cherubino

Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers' comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often, those add great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you. We do reserve the right to edit ads and links out of comments.

June 27, 2013