A Honey of an Idea


This time of year, my thoughts turn to pre-gardening. Ordering seeds, spreading all that compost I worked on this winter, starting plants indoors, preparing hotbeds, and more. Then, my thoughts naturally turn to the fruits of my labor, and how to best preserve that produce. I like to start counting (and buying, if necessary-it depends on how many jars I gave away over the holidays!) jars and freezer containers, and start buying lids for canning season. I also check my gaskets and other pressure canner parts, to be sure that they will be ready when I am. And, I start looking for sales on items such as pectin, sugar, and honey. (I buy my sugar on sale, and freeze it for future use. It doesn't work well for daily use after it has been frozen, but it's just fine for cooking purposes.) Last year, I used honey in place of sugar in a lot of my recipes, and was very pleased with the results.

Making Syrups with Honey

To freeze fruits in a syrup made from honey, rather than sugar, here are the measurements:

Light Syrup

1 C honey

4 C very hot water

Medium Syrup

2 C honey

3 C very hot water

Heavy Syrup

3 C honey

2 C very hot water

Let the syrup cool to room temperature before pouring it over your fruit. One cup syrup should be enough for a quart container of fruit.

You can pour straight honey over the fruit, as you would sugar (for example, with Blackberries, I just sprinkle the sugar over the berries, stir, and put in containers to freeze), but you should use about half as much honey as you would sugar. If a recipe calls for 1 C sugar per quart of fruit, you would use ½ C honey per quart of fruit.

Be sure to use only mildly flavored honey. Light-colored honeys tend to be milder flavored. Honey has a very distinct flavor, and will be noticed in your fruit.

If you find a great buy on honey at your favorite roadside stand, try flavoring the honey and canning it to use on pancakes, waffles, French toast, or just stirred into tea. Here's one of my favorite recipes:

Ginger Honey

1 small lemon

1 inch piece of fresh ginger root

2 2/3 C honey

Cut the lemon in 6-9 thin slices. Cut the ginger root into 6-9 very thin slices. Place all ingredients in a saucepan, and bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Remove from heat, cover and let steep for 10 minutes. Reheat gently, just to a boil. Ladle into half-pint jars, placing 2 or 3 slices of lemon and ginger in each jar. Leave 1/4 inch headspace, and seal

The copyright of the article A Honey of an Idea in Food Preservation is owned by Pier Jones. Permission to republish A Honey of an Idea in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Go To Page: 1 2

Articles in this Topic    Discussions in this Topic