Nature's Candy

Honeycomb...... I've seen it sitting in honey section at my local health food store. I always wondered how it was supposed to be used. I've had bee pollen (not much of a fan) and I have JUST started appreciating local, raw honey. I've always 'known' honey. You know, that vat of golden sludge your dad pours on his biscuits (*shudder*). I always hated the taste. Within the last year, I started purchasing raw honey from a farmer in a neighboring town. I had the opportunity the other night at a friends house to try honeycomb. She graciously cut out a wedge of the comb and passed it to me on a utensil. I looked at the golden, messy blob and pondered what to do. "Eat the whole thing.", she said. I tried to gracefully grab the dripping clump of gold from the knife, but as you'll learn, grace is not my strong suit. With only a minimal amount of honey falling to the ground, I placed the mixture in my mouth. With beeswax between my teeth I hesitantly began chewing, expecting a bee carcass, even some surviving bee to explode out of one of the sections and angrily sting my uvula. As fear subsided and no 'crunch' was found, I started to relax into the intoxicatingly chewy, sweetness of this treat.

Since having my first baby 8 months ago (I can't believe she's growing so fast), I've had to clean up my diet like I should have YEARS ago. I saw how my diet directly affected the quality of her life on a day to day and even hour to hour basis, I started whittling away at my diet, immediately carving out milk, which ends up taking out a bunch of other stuff as well, like ice cream, desserts (butter is used in most desserts or a fake butter alternative), breads, cheese (do you even REALIZE that cheese is in SO MANY meals). Now, eating healthy is great. I can't imagine being able to survive on so little sleep if I wasn't eating nutritious foods, but I've missed some things (textures) that are not easily replicated with say....an apple. This honeycomb gave me a chewy sensation that I can't even replicate with a good combination of walnuts and dates (I love a good chewy, raw vegan brownie). It was literally like eating candy. I craved this sensation so strongly that I tracked down a local producer of honeycomb and waited at their door for 10 minutes hoping they would arrive and feed my 'need' for some HC. The honey I'm talking about, to be clear, is NOTHING like the nasty stuff sitting at every table at Bob Evans Restuarants. I can't stand the taste of pastaurized honey. However, the taste of raw honey, especially in a honeycomb, is beyond compare. I can't believe I've missed out on this for 27 years! The next evening I broke down and made a trip to the local health food store, as I need ingredients for my raw veg brownies anyway. $10 for a pound of honeycomb. Did I miss something? I thought things that didn't have to be processed (ie less work involved) were supposed to be cheaper. It is true that you get what you pay for, and if it weren't for my fear of bees I'd raise my own hive in the backyard and eat honeycomb all the time.

I am so ecstatic about this new treat, I took it to work and basically forced half a dozen people to try it, even people who, like me, don't normally enjoy honey. I didn't get one complaint. Some even really enjoyed it.

So, if you're looking for a new treat, or maybe an old treat that you haven't had since childhood, find a local supplier or stop by your local health food store and buy some honeycomb (or comb honey). If you can't find some place local, there is always the online market, just know that the more local the honey source the better your body can utilize the honey to help your body with any seasonal allergies you might have.