I love honey. In particular, I love honey from New Zealand. As a child growing up in Warkworth, my family would stop by Mr Sharp’s honey stand en route to Omaha and Matakana. Mostly we bought it in a large metal canister but, as a treat, we sometimes bought wonderfully oozy comb honey. For a while, my brother J also kept bees so we had a domestic supply.
I still buy honey in bulk when I am back in New Zealand – the restorative anti-bacterial properties of manuka honey fetch high prices outside my budget but pohutukawa ( huey huey to the Laundry King); rewa rewa; tawiri and even plain clover appeal.
By contrast, Australian honeys typically are more bitter and astringent. Just the same, to stop by a roadside stall with a motley collection of recycled jars, prices scrawled on the lids and to place my payment in a honesty jar. That is sweet indeed. Long live the bees.