Words: Jocelyn Doyle
The Ancient Greeks thought of honey as food for the gods. The Ancient Egyptians accepted it as currency, and sealed containers found in Tutankhamun’s tomb still contained edible honey after 3,000 years buried deep beneath the desert sands: it is, in fact, the only food that doesn’t go off. In the 11th century, it was so important in German society that peasants were required to pay their feudal lords partially in honey and beeswax. The production of mead, a fermented honey drink, long pre-dates that of wine, and the medieval Irish tradition of newlyweds drinking mead for one month (or moon) after their nuptials gave us the word “honeymoon.” Even Winnie The Pooh loved it so much that it was worth getting his head stuck in a tree for.
This November 2nd sees the return of the Dublin Honey Show, celebrating bees, their keepers, and honey, the viscous gold they work so hard to make by hand (well, wing.) This is the beekeepers’ annual chance to show off their best sticky-sweet honeys, while entering a veritable swarm of homemade honey-based wax, cakes, biscuits, mead, photographs, candles and much more into fierce competition. The Show is also your chance to meet the beekeepers, and learn about the fascinating world of beekeeping.
Humans have been beekeeping for around 8,000 years, and there’s evidence of human collection of honey from wild bees stretching back to 13,000B.C. In some places, apiculture even predates agriculture. We’ve been friends with honeybees for a very long time, and not solely because they’re useful to us; the more you learn about bees, the more intriguing they get. Did you know that it takes an estimated 150,000km of flight to make just one kilo of honey? Sounds exhausting. Or that honeybees partake in an intensely over-dramatic mating ritual, culminating in sexual suicide? A queen will mate just once in her lifetime, flying high into the air, pursued by up to fifty drones. Once a lucky fella has beaten back the competition and done the deed, he’s rewarded with exploding genitals, followed by certain death. Hardly seems worth it. During this single sexual adventure, a queen will mate with at least a dozen drones, heartlessly leaving their bodies in a macabre trail behind her. (Deadly buzz, if you’ll pardon the pun.)
Aside from the gruesome, but entertaining,nature of bee bonking, there is a more sombre issue at hand: that of the dwindling honeybee population across the globe. The poor bees have been struggling to survive for years now, and it’s past time that we all sat up and took notice, especially considering that it’s our own human activity that’s killing them off. Our modern food system relies ever-increasingly on pesticides, and the new generation of these chemicals has been estimated to be around 1,000 times stronger than those of the ‘70s.
Neonicotinoids and fipronil may have replaced DDT as the environmental threat of choice, but I’m still with Joni Mitchell: I’ll take spots on my apples every day of the week, if you’ll just leave me the birds and the bees. (Please.) Honey is a truly amazing product, and we are privileged to have it: our sweetener of foods, soother of throats, alleviator of allergies. It’s a natural antiseptic and anaesthetic… and it’s damn good in a hot whiskey to boot.
Honey is, however, just a minor part of what bees are actually worth to us and our environment. Bees provide a reliable indication of how “happy” our planet is, and their continuing malaise is symptomatic of other problems. Their wide-ranging pollination is crucial for plant production, and therefore critical for ensuring the availability of food for a growing global population. It is no exaggeration to say that tens of thousands of plant species could be lost in coming years unless efforts to protect the bees are significantly increased. It’s vital that we preserve the highest possible genetic diversity in plant species the world over, and we can’t do that without happy, healthy honeybees.
So what can we do about it? Well, the most obvious answer to to invest in a hive and keep some bees. Urban beekeeping is fast becoming standard across the world, and the County Dublin Beekeepers Association (CDBKA) can give you plenty of information. Not everyone fancies flailing about in full beekeeping costume, however, and there are plenty of other small lifestyle changes we can adopt which will make a big difference to the little fellas. Don’t use pesticides in your garden, for a start, and make sure to add flowering plants where possible. Eat a little less meat (your body will thank you anyway) and when you do buy some, try to make it organic, and therefore chemical-free.
If you’re lucky enough to keep your own bees, the Honey Show is your chance to show off your best honey-based products, with competitions to find the best cakes, biscuits, candles, meads and of course honeys; the returning “dark jar” contest involves a blind tasting, where only the taste and smell of the honeys can be judged. Altogether, there are 28 different classes to participate in, although entry to some of them is limited to CDBKA members. There are also two lectures scheduled: Master beekeeper Gerry Ryan from Tipperary will discuss “The Beekeeping Year,” and later, Joe and Annette Kelly from Dublin will give a talk entitled “Plants – Bees – Food For Thought.”
The Honey Show might also inspire you to use more honey in the kitchen, where it can be an invaluable ingredient. It makes a great glaze, or a perfect addition to a spicy-sweet marinade for pork ribs or chicken wings. Pour honey over carrots before roasting them, add some to cakes as a natural sweetener, or drizzle some over slices of hard, aged Irish cheeses like Coolea Extra Mature, for a great sweet and savoury contrast. The following is my Mammy’s recipe for her prized honey and mustard dressing, which is perfect over salads; sometimes I also like to pour a splash into the pit of an avocado for a quick, healthy, tasty snack.
The Mammy’s Homemade Honey Mustard Dressing
Grab these:
50ml white wine vinegar
150ml Irish rapeseed oil
2 heaped teaspoons of honey
2 heaped teaspoons of wholegrain mustard
½ a red chilli, finely chopped
1 clove of garlic, crushed
Salt and pepper
Now do this:
Mix all ingredients together, whichever way is easiest for you; the best way is to pop everything into a clean bottle, and shake it up baby.
Dublin Honey Show, November 2nd, 10.30a.m. – 4p.m., Christ Church Rathgar, €2.
