Ever since I moved here to my house, I’ve been buying honey from my beekeeping neighbors, and what a treat! Local honey is good for more than just as a sweetener; it helps with allergies. I’m not sure why that is exactly, though it seems as if by ingesting the local pollen in the honey, a person becomes less sensitive to those pollens.
For the last month or so, I’ve had to ration the bit of honey I have left because the neighbors didn’t have any for me to buy. I tried to buy some at the grocery store, and it shocked me to see that even the trusted honey brands are no longer using just USA honey. They blend it from a multitude of countries, which seems strange to me. The honey gathered one location is different from the honey gathered at another location, and to mix them seems counter-productive. I’m sure the packagers do it that way to save money — apparently, at one time China almost put beekeepers in the USA out of business because they were selling it so cheaply. That it was mostly flavored corn syrup didn’t concern consumers. They preferred the cheapness.
Well, not me. I am now a local honey afficionado, and I would rather go without than deal with whatever foreign pollens (assuming there are any pollens in the over-pasteurized mass-produced honey on the grocery store shelves) would assail me.
Luckily, my neighbors finally got enough honey packaged that they could share with me. Yay!
I can tell already, this is going to be a very sweet year.
***
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Bertram's Blog 
January 3, 2021 at 12:04 pm
Ironically, a honey allergy runs in my family. It’s the kind of thing where it has to build up to have an effect: a little bit has no effect, but some makes my head feel weird, and a lot gives me hives.
Then again, I’ve been using store-bought honey, so I don’t know where the honey was manufactured. Maybe that’s the issue.
January 3, 2021 at 5:01 pm
After looking at the labels of store honey, I’ll never buy it again. You have no idea what you are getting, and even if the company is reputable, they have no real idea what is in the honey they buy. Unfortunately for me, honey only helps with pollen-related allergies, not all the rest of my allergies.
January 3, 2021 at 5:02 pm
That’s a shame.
January 3, 2021 at 12:56 pm
I am with you on the local honey. I bought 3 squeeze bottles last week. It is great in my tea, and yes it helps with allergies!