The Praises of Honey

As I sat in my office today after a morning filled with phone calls, e-mails and my giving of good service, I swiveled around in my chair to face the tall tinted window and eagerly peeled back the foil seal of my highly anticipated lunch of Greek yogurt and honey. As many of you know, honey is one of my favorite foods. No, not just one of my favorite foods, but rather one of my favorite things. I tout the good news of honey to almost anyone who will listen. I am almost as obsessed with honey as I am with Snowville Creamery Milk (of which I have been accused on more than one occasion). Thinking about honey this way then led me to another grand observation, made with spoon in hand gazing out at the bountiful hills over lunch. What exactly was I eating for lunch? Honey? Yes. Greek yogurt, which is made from milk? Yes. I was lovingly consuming two of my favorite things, and two things that have a long history together—milk and honey. Upon making this observation, I decided to delve into the world of honey and it’s more than casual association with milk. I wanted to find out exactly what the centuries old Biblical connection meant, surely there had to be more to it than just a general abundance of all things good, and more so, why do I harbor such strong feelings of love, that extend beyond taste alone, for honey?

When I think about honey beyond it’s literal function as a form of natural sugar, my mind likes to wander into the world of metaphor. It should not go unnoticed here that the word "honey" itself has innumerable uses in the world of both love and sex. If you've ever called your significant other your "honey," then you know that culturally, honey is more than just a sweet, sticky syrup. There are some foods, and some of you have heard this from me before, that to me are inherently sensual. Some foods provide a sensory experience that is so much like a sensual experience that they in fact are sensual, passionate, romantic foods. Honey is one of those foods, and I am apparently not the only one who thinks so.

As I dug into the history of milk and honey, all signs began leading to the same place—the Song of Songs. The Song of Songs, also known as the Song of Solomon, is a part of Judeo-Christian biblical text. In my past experience, the more one reads and learns about the Song of Songs, the more one begins to wonder why exactly it was included in the final cut of what we know today as the Bible. It is a love poem, a beautifully written work of devotion, passion and sensuality. It is the subject of a round table of discussion on it’s intended meaning, it’s possible metaphorical meaning, and it’s place in Judeo-Christian teaching. Milk and honey are referenced more than once in this book, not always together. The book details the progression of a passionate, sexual partnership between a man and woman, and honey's presence does not go unnoticed in the context of their story.

I found a very interesting article by an author named Jonathan Cohen called “Why Milk and Honey,” which connects the promise of God to God’s people “…a land flowing with milk and honey,” to the Song of Songs and in turn connects that to even older civilizations and devotees of the power of honey. While I don’t want to forge or copy any of Mr. Cohen’s words or ideas, I have provided above a link to his entire article, which I highly encourage anyone who is intrigued by this topic to consider reading. It has some wonderful ideas about honey, sensuality, sex, love, God and the divine feminine.

In the meantime, for my little old food blog, however, I just want to pull a quote from the Song of Songs which Mr. Cohen uses in his article. It says, “Your lips distil nectar, my bride; Honey and milk are under your tongue.” Honey can be used metaphorically to represent so many things, and many of these things relate back to sensuality and sexuality. As Mr. Cohen says, honey (ideally) is community property. There was a time when bees weren’t farmed, when we didn’t incur a cost to produce honey, and when we didn’t profit from it. We simply found it, in nature, and collected it for our own use. It is the quintessential symbol of natural abundance, and being that it is also decadent and possesses healing, nurturing properties it is also the quintessential symbol of health, wealth and all things fertile, including our own bodies. It is a metaphor for indulgence and desire, as well as vigor and strength given its medicinal qualities. It oozes, flows and drips with sweetness. A smear of honey on our fingertips will always subsequently end up on our tongues where our sense of taste sends tidings of joy to our brains—not unlike a kiss. Honey is nature’s feel good drug, in more ways than just theoretical and historical metaphors.

Honey is also an antiseptic, full of anti-oxidants, and is a source of natural sugar which can be more easily digested by our bodies. It is used to treat wounds, it is combined with milk to improve the health of our skin, and to soothe an aching throat. Now, it is produced almost everywhere in the world and buying a jar of local honey is in turn sending your hard earned dollars right back to your community, to the farmer up the road even. For my readers in Southeast Ohio, I highly recommend the Dark Honey from the Athens Bulk Food Depot. Local honey doesn’t get much better than that. For my Northeast Ohio readers, I recommend the Ohio Honey Company’s Strawberry Blossom Honey (made from the pollen of strawberry flowers), which can be found at the Geauga Fresh Farmer’s Market on Saturdays.

I am mad for honey. I am drunk on honey. I hope you’ll buy a jar and fall for it as hard as I did.