----- Original Message -----
From: "mark berninghausen" <[log in to unmask]>

>      What we need is an end customer who is willing to pay more for our
product.  If you want to keep bees and then gripe about not getting enough
income to cover the cost of doing business, well you might be a farmer.

Mark,
At the risk of heaps of ire raining down on my head, I, a mere hobbyist who
has had the bees for about 25 years, would like to (timidly) express an
opinion.

I find that so much honey tastes terrible, so sharp and unpleasant in the
back of the mouth. I love the flavor of my honey, and it's not simply a
vanity thing (after all, I simply stole it). But I never heat my honey (a
big advantage for a hobbyist I guess). And to me, the honey that always
tastes best, with lots of lingering layers of flavors, is raw honey (not to
mention its medicinal properties). Honey that is treated is a distortion of
the real thing, and of course, it is precisely this kind of honey that most
consumers taste. It does not surprise me that consumption figures are low.
When the Greeks called honey the nectar of the gods they surely meant raw
honey. Most of the stuff on the supermarket shelves is something else
entirely. I don't write this to ruffle feathers; it is simply my observation
of a possible reason for the lackluster enthusiasm in this country for
honey.

Jeffrey Hamelman
Hartland, Vermont

-- Visit www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l for rules, FAQ and  other info ---