Benefits of Raw, Local Honey

Local honey is different than regular store bought honey. Learn the difference here! 

This past weekend I attended the Eat Real Festival in Oakland, California to discover new local favorites. If you’re not familiar with the Eat Real Festival, it’s an annual celebration of food that focuses on food craft, street food, handcrafted beers and local wines — all featuring sustainable local ingredients. They showcase food in all its different forms, and they have demonstrations showing you how to make food and grow it.

I was so impressed with the festival that I went for two days to chat with the local vendors and taste as much of the local food as possible. I approached the Marshalls Farm Natural Honey stand and tried a few samples of honey. I absolutely love honey, and I was excited to try several different varieties.

Before attending the festival I had never tasted local honey. I purchased honey from the store without realizing there were better options I hadn’t discovered. I was also unaware of the diversity of flavors among the different varieties of honey. I was accustomed to the standard store-bought flavor of honey. I tried three samples of honey that had very distinct flavors. I loved each one I tried and ended up walking away with a bear of Infused Lavender Honey. It tasted delicious and smelled like perfume. It’s safe to say I have made the switch from store-bought honey to local!

After chatting with the vendor at Marshalls Farm Natural Honey I learned that they specialize in Allergy California Honey and San Francisco Kosher Honey. Their honey is 100% natural, and you can see pollens floating in their honey because they don’t use pumps, pipes, or filters when extracting and hand bottling their pure San Francisco Natural Honey.

Raw honey is different from the average honey bought at the grocery store. Using the pasteurized honey from the average store is as unhealthy as consuming refined sugar. Raw honey is different because it has not been pasteurized, heated or processed in any way, and therefore contains many valuable benefits. It’s important that the honey is never heated above 140 degrees, which would destroy all of its beneficial enzymes. pasteurization is a heating process used to kill enzymes and microbes that spur the growth of harmful bacteria and extend shelf life. This process is unnecessary because honey is already naturally anti-microbial in its raw state. Raw honey is a living food full of minerals, vitamins, enzymes, and powerful antioxidants. It has anti-bacterial, anti-viral and anti-fungal properties. (Source)

Uses of Raw Honey

• Helps digestion
• Acts as a cough suppressant
• Eliminates allergies
• Stabilized blood pressure
• Balances blood sugar
• Calms nerves
• Strengthens immune system
• Relieves pain
• Treats ulcers, sore throats, colds and indigestion
• Contains phytonutrients, which have been shown to possess cancer-preventing and anti-tumor properties
• Source of vitamins B2 and B6, copper, iron and manganese

So why local raw honey?

Raw honey contains pollen that is specific to your area and can really help those like me with seasonal allergies. Taking a spoonful of raw honey once or twice a day is very helpful. It is also advised to begin taking local honey a few months prior to the allergy season; this gets the pollen introduced into your body and gradually builds up in your tolerance to seasonal allergies.