HOW SWEET IT IS!

Just in time for the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashonah, Congregation Beth El-Keser Israel Synagogue in New Haven offered the community an in depth look into the fascinating world of the honey bee.  The sweetness of honey is indelibly tied to the greeting for a Good and Sweet New Year.

September is national Honey Month, making the presentation doubly timely.  Beekeepers Richard Moore and Bob Kaiser, from Canton and Madison, both raise bees as a hobby and shared such facts as:

There are 300 kinds of honey (we got to taste several, including wild flower, cranberry, blueberry and crème);  honey bees are a great nurturer of life and fertility, dating back to ancient India, Persia, Egypt and Babylonia and Greco-Roman civilizations;  a jar of 2000 year old honey was discovered in King Tut’s tomb and was still edible (honey is the only food that can’t spoil);  honey bees were brought to this country by the colonists (black German bees that have since died out); honey has healing and beneficial ingredients (minerals, nutrients and silica);  there are 200,000 beekeepers in the United States (1000 in Connecticut, with 8000 registered hives);  the average hive has 75,000-100,000 bees at its peak (worker bees live only weeks, while the queen bee lives two years until she stops producing eggs);  to get one pound of honey, bees must visit a million flowers, flying thousands of miles in the process (the average bee produces 1/10 of a teaspoon of honey);  bees are being infected with a mite that carries Cripple Bee Syndrome and makes flight impossible;  scout bees “dance” or “waggle” to share a new source of food and the direction it is (like a magical GPS locator) and, bees create an organized community or society that is quite amazing.

In ancient times, Hippocrates praised the virtues of honey and it was used as an effective antiseptic and antimicrobial ointment to treat cuts, skin conditions, battle wounds and even burns.  Who knew?

The morning also included movies, a demonstration of a beekeeper’s outfit and tools, honey being extracted from a honeycomb, a colony of live bees, tasting of various honeys and recipes made with honey.  HOW SWEET IT IS!

Wishing you a sweet and honey-dipped New Year!