Whether you consider honey to be an appropriate accessory
for a slice of toast or a long-neglected medicine, chances
are there’s a jar of it on your kitchen shelf. The world’s
most popular sweetener has been around a long, long time.
Honey was mentioned in Sumerian, Babylonian and cuneiform
writings and in the ancient texts of India and Egypt. As long
ago as 4,000 BC it was highly valued as a tribute and fed
to sacred animals. In the Roman Empire, honey was sometimes
used instead of gold to pay taxes. And, like gold, it could
be stashed for long periods of time; honey never goes bad
(although it can ferment into an interesting beverage used
recreationally in northern Europe since medieval times).
Its medicinal properties, long known by the ancients, are
only now being researched in controlled studies in New Zealand.
Pure honey, it turns out, is the dressing of choice for wounds,
burns and ulcers. Generously applied, it reduces scarring
and speeds healing. Having a very low pH of 3.2 – 4.5,
it releases natural hydrogen peroxide very slowly into the
fluids released into the wound by the body, maintaining an
antiseptic environment. Dressings don’t stick to it
and it is said to reduce pain.
Always a pleasure to eat, honey and its pollen contain enzymes
that aid digestion. A spoonful of honey will soothe a cough
or sore throat. But it can also harbour bacteria that make
it unsafe for immature digestive systems; never feed honey
to babies under 18 months old. In Bali, honey is mixed with
eggs and fed to the elderly as a tonic.
Honey has been used as a preservative for thousands of years,
most notably in India’s wild northeastern mountain state
of Meghalaya, where those who died during the torrential rainy
season were embalmed in vats of honey until they could be
buried. I can’t help wondering what they did with the
honey afterwards…
When purchasing honey, you get what you pay for. One authority
claims that the cheap Chinese honey sold in plastic pots has
been produced by a rapid method where sugar and water are
added, and has been found in the US to contain high levels
of insecticides. Honey should be sold and stored in glass
jars.
Producing honey in the tropics is problematical. The high-volume
honey bees developed in Italy, which now produce much of the
world’s honey, are prone to disease in this climate.
The tropics also offer a more limited range of flowering plants
and more competition from indigenous insects. The types of
plants that produce large amounts of honey nectar are found
in places that are either near the edge of deserts, get very
cold and/or have short growing seasons.
The bees do thrive in the highland and semi-desert areas of
Indonesia, where they produce good honey. “The true
honey producers in Indonesia are all in locations with large
open spaces,” says expert Don Wells. “In Java
they do well in the cooler areas like Malang, where three
types are produced. One is Ceiba tree honey, mild and delicious
but limited in supply. Fruit tree honey is collected by bees
in litchi, longan and rambutan plantations when the trees
are in blossom, and has a fruity flavor. The desert areas
of Eastern Indonesia, especially Timor, produce a particularly
nice blend of honey. Then there is real forest honey, which
is the most expensive. ”
In the mountains two hours east of Makassar in South Sulawesi,
I bought a bottle of forest honey in a tiny village shop.
It was tawny and frothy, and the old arak bottle it was stored
in was plugged with a roll of dried banana leaves. I balanced
it upright all the way down the twisting mountain road, to
the Makassar airport, on the plane, through baggage collection
and up the hill to Ubud, where my staff welcomed the bottle
with something approaching reverence. It tastes wild and dark,
with a bitter after bite.
Pollen, a honey by product rich in enzymes, is sometimes available.
“The Indonesian pollen is far nicer than the Chinese,
though not as sweet as American pollen from the high desert
or Australian pollen, the sweetest of all,” explains
Don. “The Indonesian pollen I use here is dried slowly
in shade, which preserves the natural enzymes. Pollen that
is force-dried by heat contains no enzymes.”
When dealing with a natural product as difficult and expensive
as honey, of course there are temptations to cut corners.
Adulteration with sugar and water is not uncommon, and imitation
honeys made from flavoured sugar syrups are not unknown. In
an attempt to establish a benchmark of professionalism, the
members of a beekeepers’ association now formed in Java
have pledged not to add sugar to their honey.
From ancient times the people of Asia have collected wild
honey from hollow log hives. In Bali, the forest honey is
very difficult to find and costs at least Rp 150,000 a litre
on the rare occasions it’s available. Borneo’s
forest bees produce small volumes of honey in this way, building
inner combs from waxes collected from wild plants and filling
them with seasonally collected nectar which has a strong,
distinctive flavour.
This honey is now available in Ubud through Sayu, a member
of Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFP), an Indonesian NGO. This
organization is dedicated to helping people living near forests
earn their livings in ways other than cutting down the trees.
In Borneo, one of the projects gathers wild honey from the
forests. It is filtered but otherwise unprocessed before being
sent in bulk to Bali. This honey is zesty and sweet, with
a slight tang of bitter oranges.
Sayu sells the honey for Rp 100,000/litre (bring your own
bottle), and also has NTFP Sumbawa honey at Rp 75,000/litre.
She sells these and other ethical products from her small
shop Alami in Pengosekan. Contact Sayu at 085 2371 53280 or
sayu_km@ yahoo.com
