We are seeing more and more news about bees and honey–honey adulterated with substances like high-fructose corn syrup. This review of what you might really be getting in that jar from the supermarket is excellent–with good supplemental links. Please read this so you know what might (or might not) be in that jar labelled honey.
Did your honey come from bees? from YayYay’s Kitchen is a great article. After reading this, I hope you’ll find a local beekeeper or a farmers’ market and buy your honey there.
If you want to be really sure that your honey hasn’t been processed in any way, look for honey in the comb (cut comb or chunk honey)–still just as the bees packaged it. If you want honey extracted from the comb your best bet is still a local beekeeper who can tell you about how the honey was processed during and after extraction from the comb.
This is a photograph of one of the frames from my Rosemary hive–lots of honey stored here. At the right are cells of honey that are capped. This means that the bees have evaporated moisture from the nectar to a level where fermentation will not take place, then sealed the cells. At the bottom center of the photograph, you can see cells that are open and being filled with nectar. These have not had enough moisture removed for capping.
When you buy comb honey the cells will be closed or covered with beeswax (capped). You know that honey is just as the bees made it.
Let’s hear it for the bees and the beekeepers!
a-single-serving.com 
Thank you for sharing a link to my article. After researching that piece, I’m ready to hunt for honeycomb honey at the Farmer’s Market. Thanks for the tips about sealed cells.
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Thank you for doing all the research to write that article!
I personally prefer comb honey to “chunk” that is surrounded by extracted honey. Each piece of comb honey will have its own special flavor–like the terroir of a particular vineyard since the nectar is collected over time maybe even from different flowers. I think comb honey has a much more complex flavor than extracted honey, and definitely than honey that’s “blended” to keep a consistent sameness that’s not particularly remarkable.
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I agree. We had comb honey a a child. It tasted so good! Although we children weren’t too thrilled with picking out the comb bits that somehow never got strained completely out. : )
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When I was a kid the comb stood in for chewing gum. It softens so easily on warm bread. I haven’t really gotten a taste of the honey that my girls are producing. I’m looking forward to that soon.
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I didn’t voluntarily make the split–they swarmed very early in the season. I just considered myself very lucky to get the queen and be able to hive them.
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I agree , Natural , directly from source is the best.
Last year I did not harvest any because I was so worried about the winter. Will see what this summer my Bees will offer.
The comb in your picture looks beautiful. Wishing you Happy Bees and Joyful Harvest later in the Summer.
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I didn’t harvest honey last year either for the same reasons. This year, I won’t harvest from the split, but I’ve put on a honey super for cut comb–and I need to open the hives and see how the girls are doing–if I need to give them more space to store honey.
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I see we are thinking about them in the same way.
I was even afraid to make a split this year. I feel Andromeda needs less interference for now.
I am hoping I catch a swarm.
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