so I'm starting off by just showing you
couple pots of penny this honey of
course is the liquid runny honey which
is the honey as it comes out of the comb
honey that's crystallized it's the same
floral source that's fiber actually but
you've got one honey that looks so quite
or creamy and this one here it's looking
very much like gold your bees will be
doing a similar job to my bees there's
no difference there but there's a lot of
difference in the way that honey is
prepared from the time it's harvested to
the time it gets on the shelf and I want
to show you a few steps to do the best
you can to present it for the shop shelf
or for your own table here is I'm
actually mixing some honey together this
is liquid clover and I'm mixing it -
clover that's crystallized already and
this clover it's been here a few days
now I can still move it with the
stirring rod the stainless steel
steering rod I'm going to mix now some
liquid honey to it so what I'm doing is
I'm extending the honey I'm actually
eating the liquid to the crystallized
honey which now becomes the starter
hanging and I'm going to blend the two
together
so this is part of the the artistry or
the craftsmanship that goes into
preparing a quart of honey the honey at
the bottom of the pail here is my
starter added the liquid to it mixing
the two together so that the whole batch
becomes crystallized so I'm just quietly
gently stirring it like this bringing up
the crystallized honey from the bottom
stirring it in with the liquid and my
aim is to get a nice even color perfect
blend of the two it's gonna take a few
minutes so what I'm doing this I'm going
to do a little bit of chatting with you
I'm not adding anything more to the
honey to make it white some people think
that you add icing sugar anything else
to make the difference between the
liquid honey and the creamy looking
honey but now it's just a natural
process of crystallization now it it it
works out really well if the
temperatures are what I call chilled
temperatures not not as cold as the
French and not too hot not about 20
degrees for example but there's a middle
range of temperatures that the
crystallization
perseus works really well and the
crystals that form are just fine very
fine crystals so that when you open a
pot of honey it's a smooth texture in
your mouth that's why some people call
it a creamed honey but it's really not a
proper Tumen in big keeping ways the
proper term here is crystallized honey
or even granulated honey because what's
happening is that crystals are forming
it's strata honey
the spring right through the bench and
the whole batch crystallizes around the
very fine crystals that are already
there pretty well that's mixing up
pretty well so far I'm going to just
keep going later
I try always to get it as perfect as I
can because what I'm doing this I'm
actually judging a time so I'm sort of
thinking well is there anything wrong
with there to see or anything basically
not right yet going on water
so I'm stewing it so that it's a perfect
blend of the two a crystal has to form
around a nucleus that's what I learned
when I was in my student days a crystal
is formed around a nucleus and the
nucleus that I'm giving us the
crystallized honey that's already there
and in these cool conditions the process
of changing the process of those
crystals forming it's a slow process and
it gives you that nice smooth texture in
the mouth on the time when a judge opens
a pot of honey and he takes a sample out
of the
just to check it he's not really
checking it for flavor or color or
anything like that that that's just
according to nature and according to the
nectars at the bezel gathered what he's
trying to see is how that honey has been
presented and he's looking for a very
smooth textured honey it's one of the
one of the points that he's looking for
to judge when honey against another so a
lot of that is just in the craftsmanship
of the beekeeper how he handles the
honey from the Tommy harvested out who
gets it out of the extractor into the
honey pot