Be sure keep your honey jar lids tightly closed to keep out moisture!

The great thing about honey is that it lasts and lasts. This hearty food staple will stay fresh and delicious with little effort. Proper storage is especially important when keeping a large honey supply. Just follow these simple honey storage tips to keep your honey’s quality at its best.

HONEY STORAGE: Tips & Tricks

♦ Honey keeps best when stored in a cool, dry area away from direct sunlight. A pantry is usually a great location. No refrigeration is needed!

♦ Honey’s worst enemy is moisture which can compromise its quality. So, make sure your honey containers are tightly sealed while stored!

♦ If left uncovered near other foods during storage, honey may absorb their smells.

♦ Has your honey gone cloudy? Don’t worry! This is called crystallization and does not affect the quality, flavor or nutritional value of the honey!

♦ If your honey has crystallized you can easily dissolve the crystals by gently heating your honey in a warm pot of water.

All it takes is a little effort to make sure your honey is properly stored and you can be sure to enjoy it for years to come. That is, if it all doesn’t get eaten first.

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Anna’s Honey Comb is now available. Fresh honey in its purest form.

Honeycomb is here! We are very excited to announce the arrival of this popular honey product. All the natural goodness of honey fresh from the hive is wrapped up in each package of Anna’s honey comb.

Throughout the years honeycomb has delighted people with its natural sweetness. Many people refer to it as “Nature’s Candy,” and rightfully so. Traditional comb honey contains pure honey along with the original wax casing made by the bees themselves! This waxy container even doubles as old fashioned chewing gum!

Click here to buy honeycomb from Anna’s Honey!

Each package of Anna’s Comb Honey weighs in at 8 ounces of pure, fresh honey goodness straight from the hive. You’ll enjoy the natural beeswax filled with raw honey in its pure form, just as nature intended. Our happy honeybees work hard to create this all natural honeycomb treat.

If you enjoy the sweet taste of fresh honey, then you better act fast! We only produce a small batch of our honey comb each year – this means our supply is limited. This popular product won’t last long, so make sure to get yours today!

Anna’s Honey Comb, a delicious all natural treat straight from the hive to you!

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It’s official, summer’s here! Can you tell we’re happy? Being based near Seattle, the city notorious for rainfall, we don’t mess around when our sunshine-filled days finally arrive. It’s the season Seattleites live for and we’re so happy it’s finally here.

That warm summer sun has a funny way of bringing people together – not just here in Washington State, but all across the country. And when you have great company paired with great food, things just can’t get much better.

We’d like to share two tasty summer recipes from our friends at Honey.com. These delicious dishes are sure to add just the right amount of flavor to your summer gatherings. Whether it’s your next family get-together, barbecue with friends, or just a lazy Sunday at home, give these a try and let us know how they turn out! Make sure to choose your favorite Anna’s Honey varietal to use in these great recipes!

Honey Vinaigrette Salad 

Fresh salad drizzled in homemade honey vinaigrette - a refreshing side dish!
Makes 4 Servings

• 1/4 cup raspberry or balsamic vinegar
• 1/4 cup Anna’s Honey
• 1 Tablespoon olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh oregano, basil or thyme, chopped
• 8 cups mixed lettuce greens
• 1 cup fresh berries of your choice

Combine vinegar and honey in small bowl; mix well. To serve, drizzle 2 to 3 Tablespoons vinegar-honey mixture, oil and oregano over lettuce greens. Toss to coat. Garnish with fresh summer berries.

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Smokey Honey BBQ Chicken

Crispy, tender chicken with that sweet, smokey flavor.
Makes 2 Cups BBQ Sauce 

• 1 cup of your favorite Anna’s Honey
• 1 cup chili sauce
• 1/2 cup cider vinegar
• 1 teaspoon prepared mustard
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
• 2 to 3 drops liquid smoke
• Chicken breasts, bone-in

Combine all ingredients except liquid smoke and chicken breasts in meduim saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring frequently, 20-30 minutes. Remove from heat, add liquid smoke to taste.

Rub room temperature chicken pieces with salt and black pepper, grill for 35 minutes. Brush on the honemade honey BBQ sauce you just made and cover for another 10 minutes.

Add in some buttered corn on the cob, your favorite potato salad and fresh watermelon for a simply sweet and delicious summer meal!

What ways do you plan on using honey this summer?

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You may have come across different types and colors of honey while browsing at the grocery store. This is because honey comes in a wide array of varieties, also known as varietals.

As the busy honeybee goes from flower to flower gathering nectar, the honey varietal is being determined. The honey type is named after the bloom from which it’s nectar was derived. This means that the always popular, Clover Honey is made from the nectar of clover flowers.

Sometimes bees will frequent the same type of flower, resulting in single source honey, or honey that is made from the nectar of one distinct flower class. Single origin honey often has a unique taste, color and aroma that can be attributed to its particular flower type. When bees visit many different flowers, such as wildflowers, the honey created is a delicious floral blend.

Honey varietals are very similar to wine varietals in that climate plays a huge role. A honey flavor made from the same flowers and the same locations may change slightly from year to year due to climate change. Temperature and rainfall can affect the nectar flavor which in turn, will affect the flavor, aroma and color of the honey.

At Anna’s Honey we offer up to five honey varietals at any given time throughout the year. These are Wildflower, Clover, Blackberry, Raspberry and Fireweed. Currently we have four varieties available, as our Fireweed Honey is out of stock.

Our Wildflower honey is our floral blend honey created with nectar from wildflower blooms. All of our other honeys are considered single origin. Each of our honeys has a distinct color and flavor ranging from light and mild to dark and bold. Check out the picture above to see the range of honey colors.

In the coming weeks I will highlight each of our honey varietals and give a little more insight into their unique characteristics. Until then, let us know what your favorite honey varietal is and why!

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Our honey offerings are Grade A quality and free of preservatives, which means they are a premium, all natural product. What makes Anna’s Honey even more special is that during the bottling phase of our honey processing, we are very careful to keep the honey in it’s raw state, without harming all of its natural benefits.

To qualify as raw honey, the honey must not be heated beyond temperatures that would naturally occur in the hive. When honey is overheated, many of its natural enzymes are destroyed, thus ruining the potential health benefits. While we do heat our honey minimally, it is only to improve manageability during packaging. The heat levels are carefully monitored and regulated to never exceed the natural hive temperatures. This is how Anna’s Honey is able to retain all those wonderful healthy enzymes.

Honey straight from the hive contains pollen, honeycomb pieces, as well as lingering bee parts. When producing a gourmet quality raw honey, such as ours, we believe that the wax honeycomb remnants and bee parts are detrimental to the purity of the honey. We filter our honey at 200 microns to remove any wax pieces and bee parts that interfere with the honey’s clarity. This level of filtration allows the natural pollen to come through unharmed. What you get is pure honey with a smooth, flowing consistency.

Anna’s Honey is gourmet quality raw honey. Our honey is full of the beneficial enzymes and natural pollen that raw honey is known for. What’s more, our honey is free of preservatives, additives and artificial ingredients.

So, when you spread Anna’s Honey on your morning toast you can rest assured that along with its delicious flavor, you are also getting quality honey with great nutritional benefits.

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Among all of the amazing benefits of honey, probably its most celebrated quality is it’s natural sweetness.

Other sources of sweetener, sugar cane or corn for example, need to undergo processing before they are in a ready-to-use sugar form. But, with honey this is not so. You could literally walk up to a beehive, extract a spoonful of honey (watch out for stingers!), mix it into your piping hot mug of tea and – Voilà! You’re once bitter tasting tea is bursting with an exquisite sweet flavor.

That’s the beauty of honey. It is a naturally occurring sugar that’s ready to be used to sweeten a seemingly endless variety of recipes. Honey is a low fat substitute for cane sugar and a chemical-free choice over artificial sweeteners.

Did you know that honey can be used in place of granulated sugar for virtually any recipe? It’s true! But, what’s even better is that because honey is about twice as sweet as cane sugar you end up using much less honey than sugar. This means that to achieve the desired sweetness, you simply substitute honey for half the amount of sugar that’s called for.

Here are some more great tips on using honey in your cooking, baking and everyday life:

• Use honey to naturally sweeten your favorite beverages; tea, coffee, cocktails, etc.

• Add a few scoops of honey to sweeten your morning smoothie and add a natural energy boost. Honey is a natural source of the carbohydrates glucose and fructose, which help to fuel our energy levels. Glucose gives a quick energy boost, while fructose takes longer to be absorbed into the body, thus sustaining energy levels. More on this in a future post.

• When baking with honey instead of granulated sugar, add 1/2 tsp. baking soda for each cup of honey. This will help neutralize the acidity of the honey, while also helping the food rise.

• Instead of reaching for a candy bar, try sipping on a Honey Stick, or chew on some natural comb honey to cure that sweet tooth.

What’s your favorite way to use honey as a sweetener?

To learn more about honey’s nutritional value, visit our friends at the National Honey Board.

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Hello there and welcome to our blog. We are excited to share our Honey World with you and hope you enjoy our weekly posts. Our goal is to open our doors and let you have a glimpse of what Anna’s Honey is all about.

We welcome your input and interaction. Leave a comment, send us an email, give us a call. We believe that part of becoming better is listening to what you, our fabulous customers and fans, have to say. Your voices are valuable to us!

I look forward to sharing honey recipes, product tips and more with you, our readership. If you want to become a part of the Anna’s Honey community you can subscribe to our RSS Feed and receive new posts directly via email or your preferred RSS reader.

If you love honey, you’ve come to the right place! Goodbye for now!

~Vicky

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