Bill Truesdell wrote:
 
>Curiosity question- After you extract the canola honey, how do
>you keep it from crystalizing in the container? Heat it to...?
>And then does it still crystalize fairly early after heating or
>stay liquid for some time?
 
Yes, this honey does cause some handling problems.  We pack honey for sale
in tourist outlets and grocery stores.  Honey that candies on the shelf
meets consumer resistance (yes, I know the arguments that say the only good
honey is an unheated honey but there is also an argument that the customer
is always right).
 
We find that all the annual flowering plants that produce honey in spring
are very fast candying honeys - this includes canola, cape weed, clovers.
 
We do a creamed honey which gives a lovely soft texture, probably because we
are using a starter which has been creamed continually for several years.  I
have read that creamed honey from canola is very hard, but this is not our
experience.
 
However we have a surplus of these honeys that are sold as liquid honeys and
to pack them we raise the temperature of the honey in a water bath to 77
degrees C. and remove it immediately from the heat for filtering through a
nylon cloth. The temperature of 77 degrees C. was suggested in the ABC and
XYZ.  Other honeys we do not heat to this temperature.   Filtering does not
remove the pollen which is skimmed from the top after 24 hours.  This
produces a lovely clear honey.  However, if kept in an airconditioned store,
candying will commence again sometimes within 4 weeks.
 
I would appreciate any suggestions as to how we can extend the shelf life of
canola honey, remembering we have no control over it once it has left our shed.
 
Betty McAdam
HOG BAY APIARY
Penneshaw, Kangaroo Island
J.H. & E. McAdam<[log in to unmask]
http://kigateway.kin.on.net/hogbay/hogbay1.htm
 
Why not visit the South Australian Superb Websites Ring?
http://kw.mtx.net/sawebring/sawebring.html