We have a local honey producer that we trade old barrels for honey with. Wendel, from Fourth Corner Farm in Ferndale makes the best honey and for an affordable price! We trade so much with him though that we're just a bit overwhelmed with honey and I think that all the staff have 3 or 4 bottles already.So, I've started researching different ideas for how to use our excess honey!Relaxing Honey Bath - Put 2 oz. of honey in a glass with 5 drops of Lavender Essential Oil. Add 1 or 2 Tbs. of the honey lavender to your bathwater to help you relax and to combat insomnia.
Honey can also be used as a dressing for wounds. Applied externally, honey is useful for healing minor cuts and abrasions by drawing excess water from tissues and reducing swelling. In addition, honey contains a germ-killing substances call inhibin which helps prevent infections.
Allergy help! Supposedly, if you eat local honey that has been harvested locally for 5 days, this will help you with your hay fever because of the grains of pollen in the honey. Remember, no unpasturized honey to infants because of botulism risks.
Honey can be used as a healthy snack after working out. The glucose and fructose in honey have been predigested by the bees that produced it and are easily absorbed by our digestive tracts.
Finally, honey in Cold Process soap helps to produce a moisturizing bar. Hint: If the soap gets too hot, the honey will scorch and turn brown so try to keep your temperatures below 120. Also, if you use the honey at more than 10% of your recipe, you will be more prone to heat tunnelling.
I use honey at a 3% usage rate and add it at thin trace, to a low temperature (100 degrees) soap and use less insulation than normal to help prevent the heat tunneling.
If you like to use honey in your soaps, be sure to plant many bee-friendly plants in your yard to do your part to support our flying friends. Bees are mysteriously dying in large numbers right now (the phenomenon is called Colony Collapse Disorder) which not only affects honey for soapmaking but food for humans to eat. Over 1/3 of the crop species in the US use bees to pollinate. Without the bee colony's health, we may soon find ourselves paying more for honey, fruit and almonds. So, when beautifying your yard, think of our flying friends too.
I use honey at a 3% usage rate and add it at thin trace, to a low temperature (100 degrees) soap and use less insulation than normal to help prevent the heat tunneling.
If you like to use honey in your soaps, be sure to plant many bee-friendly plants in your yard to do your part to support our flying friends. Bees are mysteriously dying in large numbers right now (the phenomenon is called Colony Collapse Disorder) which not only affects honey for soapmaking but food for humans to eat. Over 1/3 of the crop species in the US use bees to pollinate. Without the bee colony's health, we may soon find ourselves paying more for honey, fruit and almonds. So, when beautifying your yard, think of our flying friends too.European Honey Bee Touching Down
Originally uploaded by autan
