Long story short. Liguria is the coastal region of north west Italy, and is famous for a type of bee that would produce impressive honey. In the early 1800's the Ligurian bee was introduced to Kangaroo Island in South Australia. Since it is an island about an hour off of the main land, it was too far for local bees to travel too. Over time the Ligurian bee in Liguria began to mix with other strains of bee's and currently no longer exist in Liguria.
The Kangaroo Island bee population is believed to represent the last remaining pure stock of this Italian bee race found anywhere in the world. The Australian government decided to name Kangaroo Island a bee sanctuary, and it is now the oldest bee sanctuary in the world.
Because this was unique to Kangaroo Island we decided to visit the honey fields and little tourist shop where they sell honey. There was not much to see, but I did learn quite a bit and I got to sample the different kinds of honey, which I found quite fascinating!
I learned, the liguria bee will only travel about 10 minutes from its hive. They place the hives near different plants on Kangaroo Island and depending on what the hive is near, the necture of that plant will affect the flavour of the honey the bee's produce. For instance, one flavour of honey was produced from the necture of a gumtree or eucalyptus leaves, another had peppermint bark. Another batch was made of wild flowers, specifically: banksia, hakea, melaleucas and flowering annuals, all local to Australia. The colour of the honey, texture and flavour would all be unique from the others.
As a child, I remember watching Winnie-the-Pooh and thinking, I would LOVE to eat honey like Pooh-bear! However, whenever I would eat honey, I would find it overwhelmingly sweet. Currently, I use honey often as a sweetner, since I am stearing clear of refined sugars but, it's still not something I would fill a spoon up with and eat straight...
until NOW!
Stan and I bought some tubs of honey, and when we got home from our holiday, Mary, Thomas and I were dipping spoons into the tub of honey we bought and just eating in raw. Gum Tree Honey from the Liguarian bee was our favourite. It is not too sweet, light on the density scale and a golden brown in colour compared to the darker options.
It is so yummy!
We were so happy with our discovery that we bought a couple of tubs of honey (all different varieties) for family and friends for Christmas. It sounds like a weird present, but seriously it is the purest most enjoyable taste-treat I have experienced in a really long time and I want to share it with EVERYONE!
ps. Here is a movie Olivia made while at the honey farm. She put it to music and did all the special effects- cute hu?
2 comments:
Honey, your honey information was so educational, fun, and interesting! Always something new to learn on your blog. Thanks!
Love the pictures. The scenery is gorgeous and the children are, of course, beautiful. What fun y'all are having! I will look forward to tasting this special, rare honey. Love you
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