Red Raspberry Honey

Red Raspberry (Rubus idaeus) is a sweet, tart compact berry that grows on a cane like stem similar to blackberries. This domesticated cane is not a berry at all but is an aggregate fruit that is now grown commercially for fresh market and commercial processing such as jellies, jams and sauces. The commercial growing of raspberries produces an ideal opportunity to gather the honey from its floral source. Raspberries are a major honey nectar source that produces a wonderful gourmet honey.

Although raspberries will grow in most areas of the northern hemishere, the huge commercial raspberry fields are located in the Pacific Northwest, Atlantic Northeast and some central northern sates. Raspberry honey like most monofloral honey must be harvested immediately as other flowers blooming at the end of the raspberry bloom could mix with the raspberry nectar causing another taste entirely.

Raspberry has another unique quality that is a delicious bonus. Raspberry honey will cream (turn solid with honey crystals) in a very short time after harvest. This wonderful creamed honey is marvelous on muffins, toast or in tea. If you prefer raspberry honey to return to a liquid, this can be accomplished by setting the honey container in warm water for about 30 minutes. The microwave can be used to reverse the creaming of honey as well. Take off any metal or plastic caps, set the timer on short intervals of no more than 20 seconds, watch that the honey does not boil or overheat as it will overflow the container.

Raspberry gourmet honey is seldom tasted by the connoisseur because of the scarcity of this honey harvest. Once you have experienced this delight, you will seek out this gourmet honey and claim it as a pantry “reserve”. Early fall is the best time to find the “new crop” of raspberry honey. When you find a retailer that has raspberry honey, let them know you want this gourmet honey as soon as it becomes available, as it sells rapidly and after supplies are sold will not be replenished until the next year.

If you are looking for the best gourmet gift, consider Raspberry Honey! If you taste it first, you may not give it away. If you give raspberry honey as a gift you can rest assured that the gift will be well received, remembered, but most of all, enjoyed!

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 27th, 2006 at 9:26am and is filed under Raspberry Honey. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.