Celebrate National Honey Month Every September
Raise your hand if you love honey! Is your hand up? Then National Honey Month is for you.
All during September we enjoy that delightful, sticky sweetener the bees work so hard to make. And we celebrate the honey bees, too. Because without the bees there’d be no honey!
And how boring would life be without honey? It sweetens things like tea & baked goods. And it even enhances the flavors of savory dishes.
But it’s good for more than just food. It can also moisturize your skin & help heal wounds!
Talk about a wonder food.
The National Honey Board created this month back in 1989 to recognize both the bees and their important product. We celebrate in September because that’s when the honey collection season is winding down as the bees get ready for winter. And it’s also the time of year when beekeepers harvest the most honey.
Although we celebrate both the bees and the honey for this month, bees also get love other times during the year:
- World Bee Day happens in May
- Don’t Step on a Bee Day comes along in July (technically it’s more about avoiding a sting than about the bees … but we prefer to think it can be both!)
- World Honey Bee Day arrives every August
The Buzz on Bees
So you probably know bees help pollinate a lot of different plants. Some of those are important food crops for us humans.
But did you know that there are around 4,000 different bee species buzzing around the US? And around 20,000 in the world. But most of those are not honey bees.
In fact, the bees we call honey bees aren’t even native to the US. We imported them from Europe.
Each member of a honey bee hive has his or her own job to do.
- The queen: Of course, this is the most important job! She lays eggs so there will always be bees to keep the hive alive. She also runs the hive by making chemicals that tell other bees what to do.
- The drones: These bees are all male and their only purpose is to mate with the queen. Gotta fertilize all those eggs!
- The workers: These are the bees that make all the honey. They’re all female, and they work incredibly hard. In addition to collecting nectar and pollen, they protect & clean the hive. These are the honey bees you see buzzing around your flowers.
Those worker bees only live about 5-6 weeks. And each bee’s lifetime of hard work creates about 1/12 of a teaspoon of honey.
But honey bees aren’t making honey for us! They’re making honey for their winter food supply. Their hard work can benefit both them and us because they make much more honey than they actually need. So we can take some and they’ll still have enough to make it through the winter.
Except many hives don’t make it through the winter. For more than a decade now scientists have been trying to understand the situation called colony collapse disorder. There doesn’t seem to be one simple answer to this problem. It looks like a combination of things—including a changing climate, human pesticide use, and mites—are making survival hard for the bees.
Now back to all those different bee species for just a minute. Lots of them do also make honey. Even some bumble bees make honey! But most of them don’t make enough for us to harvest. At least not in large amounts.
A Taste of Honey Trivia for National Honey Month
Humans have apparently been collecting honey to eat for at least 5,500 years. Scientists discovered honey residue inside ancient jars unearthed in the country of Georgia a few years ago.
The average consumption of honey in the US is about 1.3 pounds per person. Are you average? Or maybe above average?
We don’t just cook & bake with honey. We also make wine (mead) & liqueur (Drambuie) with honey.
And honey belongs in both your beauty kit and your first aid kit!
- It makes a great moisturizer for both lips and face. Smooth it on, leave for a few minutes, then rinse off. Or buy a moisturizer containing honey.
- Honey can help cuts heal. People have actually used honey on wounds for thousands of years. So if you don’t have your usual antibiotic on hand, smear some honey on your bandage & cover that cut. Or ditch the antibiotic entirely and just keep a jar of raw honey on hand to use for … well, everything!
- Burns heal faster when treated with honey too!
- Banish your cough with a couple of teaspoons of honey.
Honey also gives you an energy boost because its natural fruit sugars are easy for your body to digest.
And the best part? Honey lasts forever! It doesn’t go bad or expire. It might crystallize, but a little heat melts it right back to liquid form. So money spent on honey is never wasted.
Scroll down for some ideas on celebrating this sweet unofficial holiday.
Celebrating National Honey Month
Clearly your life will have to revolve around honey for September.
Individuals
Now that you know what a wonder-substance this stuff is finding ways to use it shouldn’t be hard at all.
So …
Enter to win honey!
And when you win, use your bounty to make your life a bit more flavorful. And even if you don’t win (or the contest is over), the honey in your cupboard (you do have honey on hand, right? Right?!) will work just as well.
Cook with honey:
- Honey Cups with Brie, Walnuts and Cranberries: Delightful little appetizers.
- Sweet & Sour Chicken: Replace most of the sugar many recipes use with honey.
- Baked Salmon with Honey-Mustard Sauce: The perfect sauce to dress up your salmon.
- Orange-Honey Glazed Carrots: A beautiful side for your salmon.
Bake with honey:
- Brown Butter Honey Cookies: Brown butter & honey? Sold!
- Honey Breakfast Cake: A warmly spiced loaf drizzled with more honey. A delicious way to start your day.
- Bacon Cheddar Chive Scone with Honey: Who could possibly resist?
Companies
If you sell honey you’re obviously going to have to have some specials on the stuff for this month. Buy one/get one sales are always popular. And the “get one” doesn’t have to be free; a reduced price can work just as well.
Or if you sell different honey products, maybe have a tasting event so people can try before they buy. And create special gift baskets with different combinations of items, available just for this month.
If you’re a restaurant, highlight any dishes that use honey. Maybe use them as nightly specials. Do you have your own hives? Emphasize that fact!
How will you be celebrating National Honey Month?
