I don’t know where you got this jar of honey. Apparently it’s been hanging around for a long time. The label is frayed and the plastic lid says “$3.50,” so the price is at least five years old. You hardly get candy bars for that price anymore.
An 8 oz jar of honey doesn’t last long in my house. I love honey so I don’t know why I kept it for so long without consuming it. But I had this in my cupboard, and I tried it in my tea the other day, and I thought, wow, this is great.
I called the phone number listed on the “Bailey Hill Honey” label. The owner’s name is also on the label, and when Ed Chapman answered the landline, I spent some time trying to figure out where I learned about his honey. He lives near Ellicottville and at least eight years ago I went there to take his grandchildren camping. He said he sold honey at a farm stand near the campground back then, so I must have picked it up there. But 8 years ago? I can’t imagine that jar of honey sitting in a cupboard for eight years, but just as your memory deteriorates as the years go by, so do I.
Even old honey tasted good, but that’s the good thing about honey. Honey never dies. There was something about it that felt like home, pure Western New York. Ed says he’s been making honey for a long time and it’s pure local honey, but Ed doesn’t ship it, advertise it on Facebook, have a website or sell it to direct sales outlets. I’m sure you’ve never heard of him since there aren’t any outside of his town. He thought it was quite strange that I suddenly called him from far away and asked him about a jar of honey he had bought a long time ago. I asked him if he could send me a few bottles and he said he would have to look into it. Shipping is not his job. Until now.
I love this story. Because it’s so refreshing to meet someone who has the old ways of doing things from a better time. Ed Chapman didn’t know anything about his Instagram at first, but that’s why I like him. I like supporting small businesses, especially those that still think it’s his 1954. If he’s making money without using cell phones or the post office, hats off to him.
Our state has a lot of delicious honey. Panama honey is also a favorite, but I’ve never had a jar of honey from this region.
I drove to Florida a few years ago and stopped at the Florida-Georgia border to buy tupelo honey. Tupelo honey is one of the rarest honeys in the world, and for centuries it has been an inconspicuous delicacy eaten only in certain areas of Georgia and Florida, where the white Ogeechee tupelo tree blooms 10 days a year. did. That was until the 1970s, when rock star Van Morrison released his album Tupelo Honey. Since its stardom, honey has been coveted by eaters and prized for its buttery flavor and floral spice.
The interesting thing about wildflower honey is that it can come from anywhere in the world. This name simply means that the bees sucked nectar from local plants. Tupelo honey, on the other hand, can only be harvested from the flowers of the tupelo tree, which grows in certain areas along the Apalachicola River in Florida and Georgia.
We should all become big honey lovers. It’s in our genes. The Egyptians were also fans, but its history is as old as writing, with mentions in Sumerian and Babylonian cuneiform as early as 2100 BC. Its name comes from the English word “hunig” and is the first and most widespread sweetener used by humans. Honey was highly valued and was often used as currency, tribute, or offerings. In the 11th century AD, German farmers paid their feudal lords in honey and beeswax. This is a business model that I can appreciate. Honey rental.
I always buy a jar of honey when I travel. The best food I tasted was from Greece. There are lots of wildflowers there. The truth is, honey aside, we need bees. These make up one-third of America’s food, including apples, peaches, lettuce, pumpkins, melons, broccoli, cranberries, tree nuts, blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, plums, clementines, tangerines, sunflowers, pumpkins, and alfalfa for beef. Contributing directly. The problem is that they die. The number of U.S. colonies is 2.7 million, less than half of what it was in the mid-20th century, and has remained flat since the early 2000s. Let’s pray that we will win this battle.
If you’re ever near Ellicottville, be sure to stop by and pick up a jar of honey from Ed Chapman at Bailey Hill Honey. He made a 600-pound piece this year. I would like to tell you that even after 8 years, it is still delicious.