honey flavouring recipes

[hedgerow pete]

i have been suffering the net tonight after we have finialy rebuilt the main house computer, ( dont ask)

does anyone apart from poly hive , i all ready know he does.

does any one else flavour there honey.

I was thinking lavender honey( honey with added lavender flowers)

honey with lemon balm leafs to give lemon honey

or how about honey with lemon zest
or honey and elderberries
or honey and black currants whole in the jars

i am not talking adding E numbers etc, just what is the concensus on additives to the honey jars to bump up the prices

 

[broandy]

looooooooool to bump up the prices

more dosh hey Pete dat lovley juppley stuff

 

[BobH1]

I'm no expert but I would think you would need to be careful when adding soft fruit, I would have thought that their liquid content would dilute the honey which then might lead to fermentation and other problems. Adding dried fruit might be a possibility, dried cranberries, black currents etc. Dried banana might work.

I would agree with your lemon peel and how about ginger?

 

[hedgerow pete]

yes people , i want to charge SILLY prices this coming year if possible.

just been reading a book manly for farmers about adding value to products to make more dosh. so thats were the idea has come from.

the thing is , i am a little bit hesitant about full blown home made recipes and realy making stuff to sell on. but the ideas of sticking a few lavender flower stems in a jar before filling it with honey or as you so rightly said dried fruit, seams easy enough almost for me.

now where did i leave that 25kg bag of monosodium glutamate

 

[thedeaddiplomat]

I wonder if you could add some juniper berries - and perhaps just a light dusting of quinine?

 

[hedgerow pete]

i was thinking of all the stupidly priced foodie stuff at the shows where the fill a jar with some vinagar and then slip in a few whole herbs and some whole pepper corns etc and a ribbon around the top and ad an extra zero to the prices

 

[rowbow]

When l was in Austria some arias have lot of walnut tree's, the local beeks sold honey with walnuts added.

John

 

[BobH1]

The question for me here is: are they selling walnuts preserved in honey or honey flavoured with walnuts? In the first, you would fill the jar with walnuts and add honey in the second you would add a couple of walnuts to a jar of honey. It's bit more complicated than that, I would guess you would probably heat the walnuts in the honey in the first option for example.

Pete is suggesting flavoured honey rather than a preserve made with honey. I would be looking for a robust flavour - as suggested already, lemon, lavender - then there's cinnamon and I think a chilli might be worth an experiment.

How about a honey, sage and crab apple jelly to go with your (or your customer's) roast pork, or honey and mint for your lamb.

 

[victor meldrew]

What about good old whisky or even whiskey? it seems to sell well at inflated prices in garden centres farm shops etc

John Wilkinson

 

[hedgerow pete]

poly hives beaten you with that idea, i left it out incase he comes around and bobs me on the nose for letting his trade mark product out of the bag, lol

BobH1 is on the money.

yes i could go down the route of actualy making some thing edible or even nice but that will open a whole new area of training and expertise that my simple little brain cell wont cope with yet.

what I am trying to play with is the idea that whilst you lot and i do mean most of everyone on the forum is flogging to death squatt jars of plain honey for a fiver and being happy with that, and fair play i have done that for 20 odd years .

where i want to go is to sell honey with bits added easily for me to do and then to sell it for stupid money where ever posible.

the difference is squatt jars 4.50 a jar. hedgerows added value products 8 pounds plus

it does slightly increase ones profit lines for little out lay.

ok i do know that the recession has killed alot of the very stupid townie farmers market bespoke hand crafted foodie prices. but theres no harm trying

 

[BobH1]

The best addition is, of course, a bit of comb!

 

[hedgerow pete]

comb honey in a flat plastic pot is well catered for in smethwick as its the favourite for the polish and romanians, so it goes for nect to nothing. i can buy that for £2 per half kilo but its all either turkish or such like

 

[BobH1]

Vanilla would be good in a mild honey

 

[hedgerow pete]

yep already playing with that one. best outcome so far is two drops of vanilla essance, from lakeland, and i think the idea of sticking a whole vanillia pod in the jar to , it will help it make it more sellable??

 

[Baggyone]

20lb of as low a moisture content honey as you have with the zest of 20 lemons left overnight and back through the strainer.

As told to me by a bee inspector in Chesterfield.

Baggy

 

[Nic Rhodes]

I do a line of Vanilla flavoured honey (5 types), subtle but nice. Generally I am not a fan of flavoured honeys..but for me.

 

[psafloyd]

yep already playing with that one. best outcome so far is two drops of vanilla essance, from lakeland, and i think the idea of sticking a whole vanillia pod in the jar to , it will help it make it more sellable??

Yeah, but vanilla pods are dear, Pete. Better to get proper vanilla essence as it tastes like th real thing. If that is what you are using, it should taste pretty good.

John's whisky idea is good, especially if you go to Aldi and get their cheap malt whisky.

Alternatively, make some marmalade (my mentor shifts loads of this apparently) and you could have marmalade with honey and whisky. And if you only buy fruit in bulk from a trader looking to shift stuff that is second grade but perfect for jam, you'll save a few quid.

 

[Nic Rhodes]

vanilla essence is just a chemistry set variant that really is the last thing you want to add to natural product like honey. It is just a single chemical. Vanilla bean or extract (extracted into about 35% alcohol generally) have a complex blend of upto 250 different chemicals to product that 'vanilla' flavour. I rarely pay more than 1 pound a bean for the best quality (which aren't needed here). 1 lb of vanilla beans are much cheaper than you think...

 

[African Queen]

How about sticking a recipe onto the jar of pure honey. That usuallly sells well for people looking to use old things in new ways. For Example Christmas Gammon Glazed with Honey and poked with Cloves. Or some Stir fry recipe that uses honey and nuts.