Honey

Honey is an ingredient many of us use on a daily basis. Kids love it on sandwiches, (heck! even adults love it on sandwiches, or on a hot piece of bread right out of the oven), you may use it when baking bread, cookies or other such recipes. There are many reasons we use honey and for that reason, a lot of people will buy bucket loads of it during a case lot sale.

Storing: Stockpiling honey is fine, however it may crystalize on you. This is totally normal, you just need to know how to get it back to normal and usable for your particular recipe, sandwich, etc.

De-crystalize: If honey crystalizes completely or even get a little cloudy (not a cause of concern), all you need to do is re-liquify, it in some hot water in a pan. It is not a good idea to de-crystalize a large container over and over again. If you do plan to buy a big container, or even bucket of honey and store it, you may consider putting it in separate glass jars (mason jars work wonderfully). If worse comes to worse and you can't heat your honey-you can put it in your hot car with the windows rolled up-like a sauna in your car. It'll be ready in an hour or so:).

Where to buy: Cox Honeyland right off the highway and 800 west sells honey if you bring in your own mason jars. I have never done this, but Tiffani Buck from our ward was who told me about this. (It's been a couple years since she told me this). She mentioned it being a cheaper and yummier option than store bought. You can also buy honey either at Smiths or Maceys during their case lot sales. (**Side note on case lot sales- I prefer Maceys for the case lot sale over Smiths. Maceys allows you to buy 1 can or 1 case of the particular item you are looking for where Smiths doesn't. At Smiths, you have to buy the entire case to get the 'case lot sale price'. Because I don't want to buy 12 cans of every type of canned bean out there (which you'd have to do at Smiths) I can get 4 of each can at Maceys and still pay that cheap case lot price. Maceys might have a couple cents higher on their prices (on some things-not all) I am ok with that because I feel like I can get a better variety for the money I spend).

Storage: If honey is stored in an air-tight container in a dark cook place, it can store your whole life and possibly your children's lives as well. I have read on some accounts of 2000+ year old honey found in tombs that is still edible.

Cooking with Honey: You can switch out honey for sugar interchangeably (with the exception of meringues). However you will want to use just a little less honey than sugar because of the liquidity of it. 1c. sugar = 3/4 c. honey.

Health Benefits of Honey:Oh this is good. I should've put this all first because DANG! It's good stuff. I copied and pasted some of this article from this site because it was just too good to summarize. Read the whole article! It's good! Here goes: Honey is much more healthy and nutritious than cane or beet sugar. Honey has 15 nutrients whereas refined sugar has essentially none, other than "empty carbohydrates". Honey contains healthful enzymes, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. The minerals in honey include zinc and selenium, which could play a role in preventing the spread viral infection. The enzymes in honey include glucose oxidase, invertase (sucrase), diastase (amylase), catalase and acid phosphate, which help predigest our foods, lessen the work of digestive organs and relieve the stress on the digestive glands. Honey is an aid to digestion when taken in the raw state because of its enzyme content while sugar interferes with digestion. Honey enters the bloodstream slowly, at about 2 calories per minute. In contrast, sugar enters quickly at 10 calories per minute, causing blood sugars to fluctuate rapidly and wildly. Sugar causes calcium leakage from bones, contributing to osteoporosis while honey does not.
While sugar is produced in only a few states, honey is produced in every state. So it makes sense to get used to using and storing honey, since that will be the form of sugar that will be most commonly available after the balloon goes up.