BUZZ Dandelion Sarah Wyndham Lewis, honey sommelier
TASTING NOTES for a creamed Italian dandelion honey Colour: Buterscotch/caramel with yellow tinge Nose: Floral, sweetly grassy (like chamomile), faintly unpleasant tang Mouth feel: Creamed to a soſt paste with no discernible crystals Flavour notes: Aromatic, refreshing, camphorous, enduring on palate
Poor old dandelion. A perfectly respectable herb, it was relegated by the Victorians to the status of weed and, ever since, subjected to constant assaults from gardeners. But we beekeepers know what valuable early forage the flowering dandelions offer our bees. While their pollen is relatively poor, lacking in some essential amino acids, they provide a substantial nectar income. Few UK beekeepers can take a honey crop off so early in the season, but it’s not hard to find monofloral dandelion honeys online, oſten from countries such as Poland and Italy.
Typically, high-percentage dandelion honeys are a vivid yellow and, being glucose-rich, crystallise rapidly. However, you’ll sometimes find them creamed, rendering the honey soſt and spreadable. This process also tames some of the more challenging flavour notes which I now love, but which surprised me at first.
Bee Craſt April 2020
These monofloral honeys are oſten the product of commercially grown dandelions, of which there are an increasing number. They are cash- cropped for many reasons: from the production of nutritious salad leaves (said to be one of the original biter leaves with which the Jewish faith celebrates Passover) to dandelion-leaf drinks and dandelion-root coffee, as well as medicinal oils (good for stiff muscles) and tinctures supporting kidney and liver function.
European, Chinese, Native American and Middle Eastern medical herbalists have used every part of the dandelion for millennia. And its French name, pis en lit (literally, wet the bed) is not fanciful; dandelion is a powerful diuretic. The honey is more appreciated for its unique flavours than its specific medicinal properties.
Europe’s most common dandelion is Taraxacum officinale; it is both the recognised medicinal herb and the so-called weed. There are, though, 34 different macro species of dandelion, including Russian dandelion, grown for its natural latex which produces a sustainable rubber. This property was first identified during the Second World War and now, because of fungal problems in South East Asia’s rubber trees, has been revived as a viable product. Dandelions are also being examined as a source of ethanol.
1 What is Vespa crabro? The Asian hornet The European hornet A James Bond character
2 What is the name of the straw globe-shaped hive that isn’t a skep but is favoured by some natural beekeepers?
3 What microsporidian fungal pathogen spores are these?
4 What British beehive is known by the initials of its designer?
5 How many of the 52 American states recognise the honey bee as a state symbol?
6 When worker bees form a dense mass around a queen, what is it called?
7 What is the International Federation of Beekeepers’ Associations, formed in 1893, beter known as?
8 What is the Latin name of this small, Asian honey bee?
BUZZ
BUZZ
IF YOU KNOW THE ANSWER
9 What muscular tube filters solids from the contents of a honey bees’ crop?
10 Where would you read these words: “Sit now to banquet, and unseal with mead, brave breast with warriors”?
31
ANSWERS. 1: European hornet. 2: Sun hive.
3: Nosema
apis. 4: William Broughton Carr, designer of the WBC. 5: 17 (could be 18 soon – Iowa is debating the issue). 6: Queen balling. 7: Apimondia. 8: Apis florea. 9: Proventriculus – it joins the crop to the true stomach of a bee. 10: Beowulf – they are the words in the Old English epic poem of King Hrothgar bidding Beowulf to enter Hart Hall
All photos on this page: Richard Rickit
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