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27.6.13

HONEY OR HONEY?

Most people think of honey as that mixture of nectar and bee-spit produced by bees to feed their babies and subsequently stolen - sorry, collected - by humans.

On the Canary Island of La Gomera another kind of honey is harvested - Miel de Palma - Palm Honey. The raw ingredient is guarapo which is collected from the Canarian Date Palm by the bucketful and boiled to reduce it by 90% to a syrup. It is used in cooking, or drizzled over desserts, and can be useful medicinally, just like bee honey. It is highly prized in Europe and Asia for its flavour and high mineral content.
http://palmhoney.com/
Follow this link to read more about it.

In the local paper today I read that the authorities are trying to make the Gomeron guaraperos stop using the word 'honey', claiming that word should only be used for the bee product.
The farmers say they have been calling it 'honey' since before the Conquistadores arrived - there is documentary evidence of this fact - and they see no reason to change the practice of centuries.
Quite right too.

There is no butter in peanut butter.
Laverbread is seaweed.
Lemon curd contains no curds.
Damson cheese is made of fruit and sugar.
Ginger beer isn't beer.
Soya milk doesn't come from animals.
... and there often is little trace of chicken in 'Chicken nuggets' or of fish in 'Fish cakes'.

Are the Word Police going after those products next?

4 comments:

  1. I hope not and I agree with what you said. Too much political corectness in the world today.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Indeed there is, Bill - and you missed a chance to say how much you hate lemon curd!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Posting on my Facebook page...my son has started raising (is that the right term) bees.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Some people like to make a fuss, don't they?

    ReplyDelete

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