The answer to the question of what honeydew is is quite complex. However, before we answer them, let us present the topic pictorially: you have probably seen tree leaves covered with a shiny, sticky coating. If any of you were curious enough about the world to try this coating, you learned that it has a pleasant, sweet taste. This is honeydew.
How is honeydew made?
But where does honeydew come from on the surface of tree leaves and needles? Pests that feed on these plants are responsible for this. These include families such as aphids, lungworts, and midges. They feed on the sap present in plant tissues. This juice contains large amounts of sugar, but is low in protein. To obtain the appropriate amount of the latter ingredient, insects must filter large amounts of cell juices. They take protein and only some sugars from it. The remaining amount is excreted on the surfaces of leaves or needles.
As you can easily guess from the above-mentioned paragraph, honeydew appears on both deciduous and coniferous trees. The most common trees that produce honeydew include fir, spruce, as well as maple, linden and oak.
Why is honeydew honey so expensive? How much does honeydew honey cost?
A partial answer to the above question can be found in the previous paragraph: both deciduous forests, spruce and fir forests are rare in most parts of the country. Most often, we are dealing with a classic pine monoculture (honeydew rarely appears on pine trees), possibly enriched with birch stands. A typical "honeydew" region is the Świętokrzyskie Mountains or foothill areas. The limited scope of production is therefore responsible for the relatively high prices of honeydew honey.
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Honeydew is also a difficult and unpredictable benefit. In fact, we cannot fully predict when and in what quantity it will appear. There are years when it does not appear at all. It is also a nutrient that is very sensitive to weather conditions: in a cold spring, the development of insects is slowed down, so honeydew may not appear at all. On the other hand, intense rains wash away the coating released by insects from the surface of the leaves, as well as the insects themselves.
The prices of honeydew honey clearly exceed the cost of purchasing nectar honey. Only the prices of heather honey are comparable to them.
A jar of honey with a capacity of 0.9 liters (1.25-1.30 currently costs PLN 50-70). In wholesale, honeydew honey costs even less than PLN 20 per kilogram.
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Bees on honeydew meadows
Honeydew is characterized by a specific chemical composition: in addition to the glucose and fructose common in other varieties of honey, it also contains more complex sugars, which are digested to a limited extent by bees. Therefore, bees should not be hibernated on honeydew honey – its consumption leads to faster filling of the intestine, which negatively affects the hibernation.
On the other hand, honeydew also has its advantages: it is not only a source of honey sought by consumers: honeydew berries are also characterized by impressive yields, which can reach up to 1,000 kg per hectare of trees. In the case of nectar benefits, this result is practically unattainable.
Properties of honeydew honey
In the trade we usually find honey from coniferous honeydew, honey from leafy honeydew, or nectar-honeydew honey. The latter – as the name suggests, is the result of the work of bees on both flower and honeydew berries.
The color and taste of honeydew honey largely depend on the source of the honeydew. To put it simply, it can be said that these are dark-colored honeys. Honeydew honey has a slightly yellowish tint, honeydew honey has a slightly greenish tint.
Honeydew honeys are honeys that crystallize relatively slowly. The process lasts from several months to even a year.
What does honeydew honey help with?
Both honeydew and nectar honey have numerous health properties. To describe them, we will refer to the study "Apitherapy – Treatment with honey and other bee products" (authors: Prof. Bogdan Kędzia, Elżbieta Hołderna – Kędzia). The book says the following:
- Honeydew honey is used to treat urinary tract problems, arthritis, diseases of the biliary tract, liver and intestines.
- Leaf honeydew honey is worth using in diseases of the heart and circulatory system, phlebitis, hemorrhoids. It is also worth using in diseases of the digestive system (diarrhea, enteritis) and the excretory system (cystitis, nephritis, or kidney stones).
- Nectar and honeydew honey can be used for heart and circulatory system diseases, as well as for digestive disorders.
The common feature of all three species (as well as all other honeys) is their high nutritional value. Therefore, it is worth using them in states of physical and mental exhaustion, as well as during convalescence after illnesses.
However, remember that all honey has a very high caloric value. Consuming it in excess can easily lead to overweight and obesity. So let's eat honey for health, but in moderation.
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