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What's fermented honey? Get prepared for fall with these house recipes.

written by

Marie Reedell

posted on

August 25, 2023

I hope you've been enjoying the last of summer. And now, kinda similar to what farmers do, it's time to prepare for the fall and winter!

Since colds and flus are more common as the weather gets cooler and drier and we spend more time indoors, I start stocking my arsenal of natural remedies right now. You know, making elderberry syrup, harvesting and drying echinacea and boneset, making and stocking my freezer with bone broth, etc.

This year, I came across a new remedy to add to my arsenal -- fermented honey!

Fermented honey is exactly what it sounds like. It's raw honey that has undergone a fermentation process, kickstarted by the naturally occurring wild yeast, enzymes, and bacteria in truly raw honey. Under the right conditions, the living microbiology breaks down the sugars into alcohol and then into acetic acid. It produces carbon dioxide, too.

In addition to being uniquely delicious (think umami honey), there are numerous benefits to consuming raw fermented honey. It's a natural antioxidant, it can provide probiotics and better gut health, and it aids in absorption of minerals like calcium and magnesium. It contributes to general wellbeing. 

But today, let's pay special attention to fermented honey's ability to prevent and treat colds and flus. 

Raw honey on its own contains compounds with potential immune-boosting and antimicrobial properties. When you ferment honey, you are enhancing these properties by adding acetic acid, which is also shown to be an antimicrobial. And, you are increasing the level of probiotics consumed, which is an overall benefit to your body's functions.

So, if you regularly consume fermented honey, you can prevent illness from occurring. Or, if you consume fermented honey after getting sick, you can shorten your time needed to heal. Oh, and I should mention again that it's really tasty, too. So it's a great vehicle for getting in those not-so-tasty healing foods and herbs like garlic, echinacea, boneset, ginger, and cayenne.

All raw honey will eventually ferment. We talked about this recently in our blog post about how all raw honey will turn solid and crystallize. But, you can also make it ferment on purpose. It's really easy to do.

Basically, you need to create a certain level of moisture. Then let it sit at room temperature for a couple weeks. 

Fermented honey typically has a tangy or sour flavor due to the presence of acetic acid and other fermentation byproducts. It can have a frothy or bubbly texture and might even produce a small amount of carbonation. The flavor profile and characteristics of fermented honey can vary depending on the type of honey used, the specific strains of microorganisms present, and the duration of fermentation.

It's important to note that the quality of the honey matters A LOT, especially when it comes to using it for healing and wellness.

Not all honey labeled as "organic" or "natural" or "raw" is created equal. How far and what the bees forage for, what's used for mite treatment, whether extra ingredients are added, and whether it's strained or heated at all matters a lot. And now, there's that new mRNA vaccine for bees that we need to worry about, too.

This is why we work exclusively with Welsh Mountain Apiaries. We offer both their honeys as well as our own house honey, made by all-natural bees that live on our biodiverse pastures! Right now, we have 8 raw honey options to choose from.

Today, I'm happy to gift you 3 amazing recipes:

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Fermented Honey Recipes

fermented-honey.jpg

Plain Fermented Honey

Ingredients

  • (1 Part) Water
  • (8 Parts) Honey

Directions

  1. Pour the honey into a clean and sterile mason jar. Stir the water into the honey.
  2. Put the lid on the jar loosely, and place it in a cool dark spot.
  3. Every day: tighten the lid on the jar and flip it upside down. Loosen the lid when you return it to the upright position.
  4. The honey should start to bubble/foam after two weeks and have a sour smell. The honey will be sweet and tangy, and will likely have a whipped texture.

*Recipe adapted from: www.myfermentation.com

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fermented-garlic-honey.png

Fermented Garlic Honey

Ingredients

  • (1 cup) Whole garlic cloves, slightly crushed
  • (1 cup) Honey, or more to cover garlic cloves

Directions

  1. Add the slightly crushed garlic cloves to a sterilized wide-mouth mason jar. Add the honey, and completely cover the garlic cloves. Make sure they are completely covered and coated in honey.
  2. Put the lid on the jar loosely, and place it in a cool dark spot.
  3. Every day: tighten the lid on the jar and flip it upside down to coat the garlic cloves with honey. Loosen the lid when you return it to the upright position.
  4. Within a few days to a week, you should see small bubbles start to form on the surface of the honey.
  5. The honey garlic will ferment for about a month, but you can eat it at any time. The flavor will continue to develop over time, the garlic will mellow, and the honey will have a thinner consistency.
  6. Store in a cool place for many months or even a year, if not longer.

Notes: Once the garlic is fully coated, you no longer need to turn the jar over every day. You can do this from time to time.

Some say honey garlic must be fermented for at least one year to develop the real deal umami flavor. We say it’s ready when your taste buds say it is!

*Recipe courtesy of: www.growforagecookferment.com

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fermented-peach-honey.jpg

Fermented Peach Honey

Ingredients

  • (1 cup) Peeled and sliced firm peaches
  • (1 cup) Honey, or more to cover the peaches
  • (1 inch) Peeled ginger, slightly crushed, optional

Directions

  1. Add the peach (and ginger if using it) to the mason jar. Add the honey, and completely cover the peach (and ginger). Make sure they are completely covered and coated in honey.
  2. Put the lid on the jar loosely, and place it in a cool dark spot.
  3. Every day: tighten the lid on the jar and flip it upside down to coat the peaches with honey. Loosen the lid when you return it to the upright position.
  4. Within a few days to a week, you should see small bubbles start to form on the surface of the honey.
  5. The honey peach will ferment for about a month, but you can eat it at any time.
  6. Store in a cool place or in the fridge once you reach a flavor you enjoy.

Note: Fermented fruit honey, such as peach, can be eaten in a day or a few weeks. You should sample it from time to time to see how the flavors develop and change. If, after two weeks, you no longer want your honey to ferment, you can place it in the fridge to stop the fermentation process.

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Have you fermented honey before, either by accident or on purpose? What do you do to treat cold and flus at home?

More from the blog

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Warning: Fat Holds Toxins. Carnivore and keto folks should watch out.

Aaron, myself, and a couple other team members went to Tennessee to participate in Meatstock 2025 last weekend. It's a carnivore/keto party in the Smoky Mountains. Boy, we learned a lot and met a lot of wonderful people, both people who healed through food as well as doctors and experts that help people heal.  One person we had the pleasure of meeting was the amazing Dr. Kiltz. He's a carnivore. He's also a doctor who specializes in fertility. And can you guess how he helps many of his patients? Yup, through food. He's a big supporter of the carnivore and keto diets. He suggests getting 70-80% of your calories from fat, 15-30% from protein, and 0-10% from carbs. Dr. Kiltz spoke at a dinner we attended. And something he said shocked us -- "Don't worry about grass fed, regenerative, and all that natural stuff. It's the fact that you're eating fat that matters." 😳 Woah woah woah. Hold up a sec. We, of course, had a conversation with Dr. Kiltz about this.  I mean, why are people having health issues in the first place? Sure, some of it could be genetics. Some of it's definitely environmental. But, a lot of it is likely the food we're eating. It's processed food laden with seed oils and carbs and sugar and yucky additives... but also the farming practices that result in toxic stuff hidden in plain old ingredients. Dr. Kiltz agreed and elaborated on his statement. What he's saying is that, if you're eating a standard American diet, the biggest and fastest impact you can make comes from altering your diet on a macro level - fat, protein, and carbs. But the granular stuff you can't see or count matters too, especially once you're making progress. OK, I get it. But then I thought some more... Toxins accumulate in the fat. So, if you eat animal-based foods (especially the fattier ones) and are looking to limit (or eliminate) that awful toxic stuff, farming practices matter. Like a lot! So, unsurprisingly, I went into research mode. Here's what I learned. Which toxins accumulate in fat and why? Not all toxins accumulate in fat. Some are stored in bone, muscle, organs, etc. But, there are certain toxins that a body stores specifically in fat. They include: Dioxins and furans (PCDDs/PCDFs) - These are persistent pollutants, resistant to breakdown, that are generally creating by burning things like plastic and chemicals and garbage. They can also be created as byproducts of industrial processes.PCBs - That's short for polychlorinated biphenyls, which are synthetic chemicals that were used to make various consumer products, from paint to glues to lubricants to coolants to batteries. They were banned in 1979, but because of their inability to breakdown, they remain as toxins in our environment.Pesticides & Herbicides - This includes previously banned pesticides (like DDT) that are still present in our environment. This also includes pesticides used today, like organochlorine and organophosphate pesticides. Certain Toxic Heavy Metals - Mercury, lead, cadmium, and aluminum are known for accumulating in fat. The reason the above toxins collect specifically fat (AKA adipose tissue) is because they are lipophilic. Liophilic is when a substance is "fat loving" and can bond with or dissolve in fat.  Other toxins are hydrophilic, meaning they are "water loving" and can bond with and dissolve in water. These include bentazone, glyphosate, imidacloprid, flouride, and arsenic. They do not accumulate in fat. What can an overload of toxins do to your body? I like to think about toxic overload like a cup. Our bodies can process a little of it. But, when the cup is overfilled with stuff like pesticides, toxic heavy metals, mold, carcinogens, etc, that's when problems happen.  Our bodies are pretty good at handling stress. That's why toxic overload can be confusing. It may take a long time - months, years, or decades - for the problem to arise. Then, once the problem happens, it's hard to pinpoint the cause. And then, healing time is often lengthy (and sometimes the damage can't completely be undone).  When it comes to toxins, the response really depends on the body. The list of issues that can arise is exhaustive. They include fatigue, headaches, digestive problems and leaky gut, brain fog, anxiety and depression, increased risk of cancer, cardiovascular disease, hormone imbalance, mast cell overreaction, histamine responses, bloating and inflammation, trouble sleeping, skin conditions, liver damage, obesity, and more. Where can toxins in animal-based foods come from? When it comes to farming, there are few places that toxins can be introduced to animals. This can be from toxins resistant to breaking down from decades ago or toxins being used or produced today. This can be on the actual farms or in the facilities that prepare food for sale: Air: Toxins can vaporize and float in the air. Animals can breathe it in or it can settle on top of soil or water. Water: This is especially true with city water, which often has chemicals added to it or may run through old pipes. But, as we all know, water pollution varies from area to area.Soil: This can come from the local area or a non-farming activity that happened on the land previously. This can also be from past farming practices or current ones. Slaughter and butchering: Did you know an antimicrobial is required by the USDA when processing meat? Processors can choose harsh chemicals like bleach or opt for more natural ones like citric or lactic acids or vinegar.Recipes: Think beef jerky or lunchmeat. They have ingredients. First off, anything that's less than 1% doesn't need to be listed on the package. And then, of course, there's the hidden stuff depending on the quality of the ingredient.Packaging: Even what our food comes in can leach chemicals into our food. I mean, think about microplastics in bottled water! When toxins enter your food, you can't see them. You can't taste them. You can't smell them. This is why knowing more about how your food is produced is important. How can farming practices decrease the levels of toxins? Well, there are bunch of ways toxins can get into food from farming. Here are some ways that farms can decrease toxins in the final food: Choose A Clean Location: If a farm is located right next to or downstream from a factory or city, toxin levels will likely increase. Farms should ideally be far from cities or factories. Have Clean Water: If contamination is persistent in your area, you'll likely know it. 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At Miller's Bio Farm, we try to reduce your toxic intake as much as possible. Here's a few notable things we do (among the many): All of our small farms are 60+ miles from any major city.Our pastures are never sprayed with pesticides or herbicides. We love the biodiversity!Our pastures are fertilized with manure and more manure!Our farms that raise our animals regenerate their soil year after year. The idea is to improve the quality of the soil, and that includes the microbes that can help break down toxins.Clean well water is used for the animals to drink and for processing our meat and all of our products. Our beef, pork, and lamb are washed with organic apple cider vinegar. Our chicken is air chilled. Our turkey is washed with water and only water.None of our animals are fed corn or soy. And, our feed is chemical-free.Our farmers do not vaccinate their animals. Our chicken and turkey and lamb is 100% vaccine free. The only way a vaccine could be given to a cow or pig is if the animal was bought in and previously vaccinated. We make sure that no animal has received an mRNA vaccine. None of our products have yucky stuff like nitrates/nitrites, additives, fillers, etc. It's simple natural food. We always vet our processors before working with them to make sure they're up to our natural standards. We'd love to supply you with clean foods and hope you join the movement! Do you eat a lot of fat? Whether you do or not, what toxins make you most worried? I'd love to hear from you. Comment below or contact us 😊 ----- References: Carnivore Diet Macros and How to Achieve ThemAdipose Tissue as a Site of Toxin Accumulation Pesticide residues in animal-derived food: Current state and perspectives Impact of pesticide exposure on adipose tissue development and function10 Powerful Nutrients Found Only in Meat

Does varying yolk color affect the flavor of honest eggs?

As you know, we don't add any color to our feed. This is why our pastured corn & soy free eggs are called "honest yolk eggs". "Color" includes unnatural stuff like dyes as well as natural stuff like marigold and paprika. Nearly all egg farmers nowadays do this... even the natural ones. Why? People demand consistent color yolks, thinking it means a certain quality. Little do most know, yolk color is superficial now. At Miller's, we know this for a fact. Curiosity made us to send our eggs for testing, and there was zero nutritional difference in our orange vs yellow yolk eggs. What mattered most was the farming practices and quality of the feed, and our eggs came out on top for most tests. We really love having varying yolk color. It's an indicator of what the birds are eating.  It tells our farmers how their pasture is doing. If the plants are too mature, not diverse enough, it's too wet or dry, or if chickens aren't eating the pasture, we'll see that with the yolk color! Now, we've had an array of responses since we removed the color from our feed. One baffling one is --- the light colored yolks don't taste as good as the dark colored yolks. Is this true? I mean, removing the color is only a superficial change. It shouldn't affect the flavor. Well, we needed to find out. So... we did a blind tasting on the farm a few weeks ago. Here's what that looked like: The results? The whole team agreed -- all eggs tasted the same! The biggest factor affecting egg flavor was the yolk to white ratio. The more yolk, the more flavor.  It's spring, and our hens are out on pasture 100% of the time. An egg develops for about 6 weeks inside a chicken, so it takes some time. But... you should start to see darker yolks now. Have you noticed a change in yolk color? Have you noticed a flavor change? Would you prefer consistent colored yolks or honest yolks? I'd love to hear from you. Comment below or contact us 😊 PS: The egg shortage is 100% over, and we have plenty of eggs now!! That means egg bundles are back!