"What's interesting about honey is that it's a paradox. It is produced by bees, a non-kosher animal, but is itself kosher. And not only is it kosher, but it has been lauded as a special food from the patriarch Jacob's time until today.
How can a product of a non-kosher animal be kosher? It is said that honey is kosher since it is produced outside of the body of the bee. But in fact, this is only partially true. Bees produce honey by collecting nectar from flowers, and storing the nectar in the honey sac, which is part of their digestive system.
The field bee returns to the hive, and as the partially processed nectar is passed from bee to bee, water evaporates from the nectar. The bees add an enzyme to the nectar to break down the complex sugars (predominantly sucrose) into simpler sugars (fructose and glucose). The nectar is then deposited into a cell of the honeycomb and the bees continue the processing by beating their wings vigorously. The flow of air inside the dry hive causes more evaporation to occur until the thickened and chemically altered nectar becomes honey."
Here’s the buzz on honey, Judaism’s sweet standby
by MIRYAM Z. WAHRMAN
You can buy your very own kosher honey at The Bees' Knees Country Store.
How can a product of a non-kosher animal be kosher? It is said that honey is kosher since it is produced outside of the body of the bee. But in fact, this is only partially true. Bees produce honey by collecting nectar from flowers, and storing the nectar in the honey sac, which is part of their digestive system.
The field bee returns to the hive, and as the partially processed nectar is passed from bee to bee, water evaporates from the nectar. The bees add an enzyme to the nectar to break down the complex sugars (predominantly sucrose) into simpler sugars (fructose and glucose). The nectar is then deposited into a cell of the honeycomb and the bees continue the processing by beating their wings vigorously. The flow of air inside the dry hive causes more evaporation to occur until the thickened and chemically altered nectar becomes honey."
Here’s the buzz on honey, Judaism’s sweet standby
by MIRYAM Z. WAHRMAN
You can buy your very own kosher honey at The Bees' Knees Country Store.
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