The Beauty of Beeswax!

The beauty of beeswax. The smell, the colour, the light and the natural heavenliness. Beeswax is often talked about as being the byproduct of honey but it is the building frame of the hive. A material made by the bees, holding the honey and bee larva in thousands of hexagonal cells, leaving no wasted space and being able to hold 20 times its weight in honey.

Beeswax has been long noted in history for uses from lighting (most importantly), cosmetics, healing, medicine and religious ceremonies. Beeswax was a lucrative product costing 10 time the value of honey and has often been used to pay land taxes and debts. Now, in our times, beeswax is still used for many of these products, however we now have cheaper ingredients that are taking its place e.g. in candle making – soy/ paraffin wax. We often wonder though, at what cost.

We use our beeswax in: candles, skin care products and in furniture polish.

Unlike centuries past, where we used candles for lighting, we still use candles but for more atmospheric purposes. We are seeing a resurgence in the use of beeswax candles over other candle, particularly in yoga classes, beauty salons and in the home, because when burning beeswax as candles it has many benefits. These include:

– Being a 100% natural and environmentally friendly non toxic.

– Longer burning times (up to 10 time longer than other candle waxes)

– Emit negative ions to purify, cleanse and improve air quality

– Smell delicious with out over powering fragrance.

– Bright and strong burning – burn more brightly with age

– Hypo-allergenic – helps with environmental allergies, sensitivities

Beeswax Candles used in a Blessing Way for a Mum to Be!

Beeswax is one of the oldest ingredients in cosmetics/skin care. Today you’ll find it in lipsticks, gloss, cream for face and hands, foundation, hair products and more. We use it in our Beeswax Moisturising Cream, which we have been making for over 25 years. We have many happy return customer for this cream and they use it for skin allergies, rash, nappy rash for babies, and to purely moisturise dry skin both on the face and hand but also all over. We have a lot of gardeners, motor mechanics and workmen who use it too. As beeswax is naturally waterproof, once applied, it helps repel water when washing hands a lot yet it locks moisture in the skin, which is great for this type of work.

This year we are expanding this range of products – we are looking at introducing a lavender balm, natural insert repellent and more. If you sign up to our newsletter you’ll be the first to know about these products.

We’d love to here from you. Share your favourite beeswax products. Plus, if you liked this post, follow us on Facebook, Instagram and sign up for our weekly newsletter and share this with your friends.

The beekeepers dauthger – cooking memories as a kid.

For me, I have grown up with honey, bees and a beekeeping business.Since my parents have ran Blue Mountains Honey for 30 years, you could say, Honey is in my blood. The things that Dad learnt the hard way, I instinctively know. The recipes Mum slaved over, are just a part of my being.

Many years ago Blue Mountains Honey supplied David Jones. I’ll never forget the meetings that I attended, sitting quietly in the corner taking everything in, they where a different business back then. They had honey weeks where Mum and Dad would head into Sydney Food Hall, doing tasting and talking about their fabulous product. I have found memories of doing kids cooking with honey, with our chef hats and aprons. Honey cakes, Honey jumbles, Honey Crackles and many more. Cooking with Honey can be a lot of fun and very tasty, especially those sweet recipes.

I thought with the School holidays coming that I would share with you 2 of my favourite recipes that I remember making as a kid, growing up in Blue Mountains Honey.

Honey Crackles/ Joys

These are always a hit, best bit though, is you can use Natural Honey or any of our Gourmet Honeys – Cinnamon, Mango, Vanilla or our new Choc Honey being the best options for the Kids.

Recipe

Ingredients (makes 12 )
2 cups Cornflakes
2 tbs Honey
40g Butter
12 patty cake covers (i didnt have covers so I used baking paper)

Method
1. Preheat oven 160deg and line patty cakes.
2. In a saucepan melt butter and combine honey in and stir until bubbling. Remove from heat and fold in corn flakes.
3. Serve into prepared cake pans and bake for 10 minutes. Allow to cool before serving – otherwise you might burn your tough, trust me!

Blue Mountains Honey Honey Crackles

Honey Cupcakes – Gluten Free!

These are beautiful sweet gluten free (mainly so I can eat them) recipe is great for a treat or even birthday parties.

Ingredients
2 cups all purpose gluten free flour (we use organs)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup milk to your choosing, at room temperature
84 g butter, melted and cooled
1/4 cup honey
2 eggs at room temperature, beaten
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Method
1. Preheat your oven to 180°C. Grease or line a standard 12-cup muffin/cupcake tin, and set it aside.
2. In a large bowl, place the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and sugar, and whisk to combine well.
3. In another bowl mix together milk, butter, honey, eggs and vanilla. Create a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and add wet mix, mixing. The batter will be thick and smooth. Divide the batter in prepared tin.
4. Place the tin in oven and bake until lightly golden brown on top and about 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Serve with sprinkles of icing sugar or you can make your desired icing.

I hope by sharing these yummy recipes that I made as a kid in David Jones all those years ago, it can sweeten up you and your childrens day.
Now if  you’d like to get you hands on some of Blue Mountains Honey we have a couple of holiday “Meet the Beekeeper” events, where you can taste all our honeys and other products, learn about the bees and have your questions answered. Head to our event page for more details. If you can’t make it out to the honey shed, buzz over to our website and broswer our products. 

We’d love to here from you. Share your recipes and honey memories with out. Plus, if you liked this post, follow us on Facebook, Instagram and sign up for our weekly newsletter and share this with your friends.

Sweeten your life with honey!

Autumn Flow in the Kitchen

Even though the honey flow is slowing down with the cool mornings and afternoons floating in, our Autumn kitchen has been busy. We have been cooking up up a storm, with some favourites but also some old traditional condiments that have been forgotten and aren’t seen in the supermarket shelfs.

Melon Jam. The Story.

Steve last week went over to Richmond to help an old beekeeper friend, Barry, out with his hives while he’s been sick. Barry has been keeping bees for a long time and also has a fantastic farm garden. For years Barry would pop in with surplus produce when he had to head into Penrith but as he’s aged he just can’t keep up with the farm and bees like he used too.

Blue Mountains Honey, “paddy” Melons for Jam.

 So while Steve helped clean up the hives and had a cuppa, Barry mentioned he had a couple of ‘paddy’ melons and wanted to pass them to the ‘girls’ (Gen and I) to make some jams. Steve could hardy refuse. Barry said, ‘have them all.’ Great! What Steve didn’t realise was a) he had to pick them himself, and b) there was about 14 of them, which he brought back the the shed. Yes, all of them. Gen and I where a bit shocked because with the size of them, we’d have jam for years. However, rather then disappear, we went straight to making our favourite, Melon and Star anise Jam. We haven’t had melon jam since 2013. When we had these mega sized ones,

Mega Melons from 2013

Barry’s master piece. So while Steve peeled (not just the beekeeper), Gen made scones and together we made this old time Jam and enjoyed on hot scones with butter.

 

Disclaimer: while writing this I have been enjoying a couple of boring rice cakes with butter and jam. yumm!

Sweet Mustard Pickles. The Recipe.

Sweet Mustard Pickles is a traditional condiment that you can still find on the supermarket shelfs. We all know that you can use it with sandwiches and meats, especially corned beef and cheese, but heres how we have been using them lately.

Blue Mountains Honey – Sweet Mustard Pickle

A quick Sweet Mustard Pickle Casserole

Serves 4-6.

2 tbls Olive oil
600g Corned beef or cooked chicken, cooked and chopped
1 onion sliced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
6 smallish potatoes, halved or quartered
3 small sweet potatoes, halved and sliced into chunks
1 red capsicum, sliced
2 cups stock of choice
1/2 300g Jar of Blue Mountains Honey, Sweet Mustard Pickle
Cream/ Sour Cream (optional)

1. Heat oil in large casserole pot. Add onion, stir until softened now add garlic, stir for a bit. Add all potatoes and capsicum, stir cook for 3-5mins.
2. Add meat of choice to pot with stock and Sweet Mustard Pickle. Stir, bring to boil. reduce heat to low and simmer covered until potato is cooked through. remove lid and simmer for 5 mins. At this stage you could add cream or sour cream to taste if you desired. Serve hot with crust rolls or over rice.

note: We’re having family over this weekend and this I am using this recipe however I am using fresh chicken and putting into the slow cooker in the morning on auto – should take 5-6 hrs but check if chicken falls apart your good to go. Also If you do this too, add the cream/ sour cream last 10-15mins.

Now if you’d like to get your hands on our delicious Autumn condiments, head over to The Honey Shed website, pop into the The Honey Shed or find us at Glenbrook Rotary Markets.

Blue Mountains Honey – Melon and Star anise Jam

We’d love to here from you. Share your recipes. Plus, if you liked this post, follow us on Facebook, Instagram and sign up for our weekly newsletter and share this with your friends.

Sweeten your life with honey!

Your Easter Feast Made Sweeter

We love Easter! It signifies so many things for us as beekeepers, Autumn – which brings on the cooler weather, the honey flow – slows down and gives the bees a well deserved rest and time off, or so to speak, as they never really stop but we don’t work them as much. It’s not a rushed time and we reflect on the spring/summer honey flow and count our blessings.
Its also a time for family. We enjoy easter more than christmas because christmas is our busiest time of the year and not just for the bees and abundance of honey but through the Honey Shed, at markets and the silly season.
The last couple of newsletters we have been sharing with you our Easter hamper and Easter range and today we want to share with you some recipes we have created to enjoy and share over the Easter long weekend.
Both of these hampers are loaded with goodies that you can also buy individually from the Honey Shed or at the markets.

Here is what is in them:

Our Sweet Easter Hamper includes:
~ Blue mountains Honey 500g seasonal Natural Honey – Grey Gum or Bloodwood at the moment.
~Blue Mountains Honey 300g seasonal Jam – Strawberry or Fig
~Not Without Spice Pancakes Mix – Gluten Free
~Not Without Spice Tea – Chai original, to warm you up.
~6 x Blue Mountains Honey Hot Cross Buns – Honey and Fig
~dozen free range fresh eggs – Fresh from Luddenham

and Our Savoury Easter Hamper includes:
~Blue Mountains Honey 300g seasonal Relish – Tomato Relish
~Blue Mountains Honey Honey Caramelised Honey Balsamic Vinegar
~Not Without Spice Sauce – Chunky Chilli Mild
~Not Without Spice Fish Pie Cooking Kit
~Not Without Spice, Spices – Lamb Spice Rub
~dozen free range fresh eggs – Fresh from Luddenham
~6 x Blue Mountains Honey Hot Cross Buns – Honey and Fig

Now these are some of our family easter recipes that we are sharing.
Easter Pancakes:

You could do this if you are feeling creative on Easter Morning! (Photo Source)

In our sweet hamper you get a Pancake Mix – the recipe is included and you can really make this mix your own. Here are a couple of ideas.
Follow the recipe that comes in the packet. Then when mixing everything together you can add the following:
~ Chocolate Chip – it is easter after all. Add about 1/2 cup to a 1 cup (Craig says more) of chocolate chips, Dairy Milk or White Choc, I prefer the smaller chips if you can get your hands on them. Stir in and mix well. Continue to cook and follow recipes.
~ Berry – any berry but I love fresh blueberries but you can use frozen too. Add about 1 – 1 1/5 cup of fresh blueberries when mixing ingredients together. If using frozen berries, just watch the liquid, maybe strain first. Stir in and mix well. Continue to cook and follow recipes.
~ banana, bacon and honey  – add 1 to 2 bananas to the mix, sliced or smashed it doesn’t matter. stir in and mix well. Continue to cook and follow recipes. Cook 2-3 rashes of bacon per person separately and serve with honey drizzled over the top.

 

Good Friday Tomato Relish Fish

Yields: 6 servings

6 fish steaks, prepared by Fishmonger, like Ling, Blue-eye, Trout
3 cloves garlic, peeled and halved
1/3 cup all-purpose flour, as needed
1 teaspoon Chilli powder
1/3 cup olive oil, as needed
1 slice stale white bread, toasted and diced
1 teaspoon Not Without Spice Fish Herb Spice
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 clove garlic, finely minced
1 onion, chopped
1 carrot, peeled and diced
1 jar Blue Mountains Honey, Tomato Relish

Method:

1. place the fish steaks in a small, shallow dish.
2. Season with salt, red chilli powder and 1 clove of crushed garlic. Make sure the spices coat the fish.
3. Spread a tablespoon of oil evenly in the dish. Marinate the fish for no more than 30 minutes.
4. Put the diced bread into a food processor and pulse several times into fine white powder. Add Not Without Spice Fish Herb Spice. Pour the mixture into a bowl. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside.
5. Pat the fish dry one more time, sprinkle some bread crumbs over the fish steak and shake off the excess bread.
6. In a skillet, heat the oil and fry the garlic until golden, add the butter over medium heat. Place the fish in the oil, making sure the fish steaks don’t touch each other, nor does it stick to the bottom of the pan. Cook for about 2-3 minutes until lightly golden, flip each piece and pan-fry the other side for another 2-3 minutes until crispy and lightly browned. Jiggle the pan. Place the fish steaks on paper towels.
7. Add more oil in the skillet (if necessary). Add the onions and cook over low heat for about 5 minutes, Add the carrots, garlic, jar of Blue Mountains Honey tomato relish, Stir well. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes.
8. add the fish back to the skillet. Turn off the heat. The color of the flesh should be white and opaque and the texture flaky.

Serve immediately, with salad or roasted veggies.

We haven’t gotten many baskets left, you can still order or stop in at the Honey Shed. We will however have everything you need at the Honey Shed this week. Hot Cross Buns, Pancake Mixes, Fish Pie Kits, Lamb Spice rub plus local free range eggs.

Now we’d love to here from you. Share your Easter traditions and recipes. Plus, if you liked this post, follow us on Facebook, Instagram and sign up for our weekly newsletter and share this with your friends.

Sweeten your life with honey!

The Spice is Right!

Most all of the products we sell at the Honey Shed are hand made by ourselves or the bees. If we don’t make it, its made by our friends or family members. Just look at our brilliantly talented daughter, Emma, with her business Not Without Spice. We know a lot of you have looked at Emma’s products but we thought we’d share more about them today.

Not Without Spice at the markets

Not Without Spice is all about spicing up your cooking with Spice and Herb Rubs, Cooking kits with recipes, Baking Kits, Soup Kits, Sauces, Spiced Mueslis, Chai Tea and Dukkah, Some of the best things about Not Without spice is that the products are Gluten free, salt free (unless it’s a salt rub), sugar free, additive and anti caking agent free. But the best thing is that they cater for everyone (mild to hot -Emma says she’s working on some XX hot rubs) and they are flavoursome. At the Honey shed the spice rubs are most popular and most talked about.

We stock all her Spice Rubs but the most popular are Chicken, Lamb, Pork, Beef and Fish. You can have these in you kitchen for every day use from barbecuing, baking, grilling, slow cooking and more. Here is how we use a couple of them:

Chicken Spice Rub: This is a Moroccan style rub to use for the whole family especially the kids because its mild and flavoursome. Toss about 1-2 tablespoons of rub in a large slip lock bag with a bit of corn flour, shake to mix, then place 750g of chicken strips in and shake it. You can deep fry or place on the oil barbie or baking tray in oven. serve with roasted veg or easy garden salad. serves about 4

Find Not Without Spice, Spice rub at The Honey Shed

Find the Not Without Spice Spice Rubs at The Honey Shed

Lamb Spice Rub: A Middle Eastern inspired rub, again mild in flavour but the sumac and cumin make it something else. Mix 2-3 tablespoons of rub with 1/4 cup of olive oil mix then rub all over a whole leg of lamb. Roast in preheated (180c) oven for 2-3 hours or until ready. This rub is also great for chops, grillers or with a tomato salad.

Pork Spice Rub: A smokey Southern inspired rub with a little heat. Great with sprinkled over pork chops or in the slow cooker with pork fillet for pulled pork. Here is our easy go to dinner: 750g pork mince, sprinkle 1-2 tablespoons of pork spice rub and 1/4 cup olive oil and 1 fresh lime squeezed, stir and fry up. serve with burritos, salad or rice.

All the spice rubs can be substituted in these suggestions depending on taste and flavour preference. So next time you pop into the Honey Shed ask us about the Rubs for you dinner that night.

You can find Not Without Spice on Facebook, Instagram, and at the newsletter here. Emma is also having Free Postage on her website from the 12th March for orders over $39 so head over there and check it out.

Now we’d love to here from you. Share your spice recipes, tips or let us know how you use Emma’s Not without Spice range. Plus if you liked this post, follow us on Facebook, Instagram and sign up for our weekly newsletter and share this with your friends.

Combat Hay Fever with local Honey

Blue Mountains Honey -Comb Honey

This is meant for a guide not medical use and if symptoms persist please contact your health care professional.

A lot of us suffer from Hay fever and allergies. Even though here in Australia we are heading into Autumn I personally still suffer the sneezers, runny nose, itchy eyes, nasal congestion and occasional headaches that are the fun symptoms of hay fever.

Through the Honey Shed, we have had a lot of questions about honey helping relieve these symptoms of hay fever and allergy but more specifically, why local untreated honey is better and whats the best way to take honey for this relief.

Why Local Honey?

We have a couple of hives in our backyard in the Blue Mountains plus at the Honey Shed in Luddenham. We only use these hives for comb honey, the best way to have honey but also for this very reason. The comb honey that is produced from these hives contains small pollen particles from the flora of these area. Once the honey is digested by the hay fever sufferer, you and me, it may help to build immunity to the pollen that causes your hay fever. This also means that you don’t just use the honey when you are suffering, but you keep taking honey/comb honey throughout the year.

There is also the benefit of chewing the comb honey for about 10-15 minutes, as this also helps clear the sinuses and helps relieve allergy symptoms. Comb honey is the best way to have honey, especially for the above reasons, as it isn’t heat treat or filtered.

How to use?

For best results use Comb Honey and chew on a 10 cent piece size of your local comb honey for 10-15 minutes. If the wax doesn’t dissolve, thats fine, just spit it out like you would chewing gum.

If you can only get unfiltered unheated honey, try 1-2 teaspoons each morning, I put mine in a little warm (not boiling) water to help it down.

We also drink this honey, spice drink to help relieve the sinuses.

1 whole cinnamon stick

1 whole star anis

1 piece of ginger

1/4 piece lemon

1-2 tablespoons of Blue Mountains Honey, Seasonal Natural honey or Ginger or Cinnamon Honey for extra boost.

boiling water

Place all ingredients except water into a large mug or jar mug in picture and then put boiled water over the top, stir and let stand 5 min. once cooled, sip away.

Where to get it?

If you are a local to the Honey Shed we currently have Grey Gum and Bush Honey in stock. Both of these are beautiful honeys and very unique from each other. You can bring in your container to be refilled or just pick up a tub. We have some of the Luddenham Comb Honey in stock also. We are also at Glenbrook Rotary Markets this Saturday, 5th March, from 8am to 12pm or you can order online here.

Now we’d love to here from you. Share your honey hay fever recipes and tips. Plus, if you liked this post, follow us on Facebook, Instagram and sign up for our weekly newsletter and share this with your friends.

Queen Bee
xx

Winter Long Lunch @ The Honey Shed Round Up!

Oh my goodness! We were blown away by your support for our Winter Long Lunch here at the Honey Shed. We sold out of the tasty local gourmet pies and rolls. We only just had a couple of serves left of the BBQ Pulled Pork and Beef Casserole. Wow what a day!

It was fantastic to see Melinda (first timer to the events) giving a talk about her and her families journey with healthy lifestyle including Paleo. We were glad so many of you stayed to listen to her story and talk to her more about what she has to offer.

Carol our Aromatherapest and Tarot reader also had a fantastic day. This is carol’s third time with us and it was great to see return customers after her readings and products.

Mel from The Alabaster Ant was another first timer. She had a great response with her gorgeous handmade children clothes and toys.

Steve and Malcom our Beekeepers had a wonderful time talking all things honey and bees. It was a nice day for them to get out of the paddocks and meet the customers. They said some of the questions from the kids where awesome.

We really appreciate you all coming out to The Honey Shed to support us and local artisans. With such a beautiful location we are looking forward to more event to come.

If you didn’t get a chance to sign up to our mailing list please do so here. You can also find us on Facebook and Instagram and below is the contact details for our three guests. Our next event is our Honey and Chai Festival on Sunday the 13th of September to stay turned for more details.

Melinda  – Emu Paleo Girl
Facebook
Website
Carol – Essence of Heart and Soul
Facebook
Mel – The Alabaster Ant
Facebook
Website.

We’d love to hear what you would like to see at our next event or what event you’d like to see at The Honey Shed, so leave a comment below.

Ciao,

Gen

Winter Long Lunch at The Honey Shed Menu

We are doing a lot of work here today at the Honey Shed. We have our Gardener doing a vegetable boxes, we are cleaning, making condiments and we have finally set our menu for our Winter Long Lunch on Sunday.

Here is our Menu for this Sunday’s Winter Long Lunch Open Day!

We are also having a Bread, Egg and Cake stall with our honey treats like our famous Honey Cakes, Muffins, Anzac biscuits and more!

We’d love to hear from you so please leave a comment below! Tell us what your favourite honey treats are? Don’t forget to sign up to our newsletter and subscribe to our blog. You can also find us on Facebook here and here and also on Instagram!

Ciao

Genevieve

Winter Honey Harvest @ The Honey Shed

We’ve had a lot happening this season at The Honey Shed! We now are offering Tea, Coffee, cakes and treats. We have sourced a lovely Coffee from Blue Mountains Coffee Roaster which is a medium flavoured coffee based in Valley Heights. Emma has come back as our barista and is training us up.

The Honey Shed, Shop & Café, Luddenham

Steve, our beekeeper (The Husband) has also been bringing some beautiful honey to The Honey Shed, this season we have Iron Bark (now sold out) , Orange Blossom (getting low) and Eucalyptus Honey.

Orange Blossom & eucalyptus honey

We’ve had a couple of plovers nesting right near the shed door, so please be careful when visiting, as they do like to swoop. we might have to collect ice-cream buckets to pop on our heads.

Plover Nest, The Honey Shed

We also have our Winter Long Lunch, Celebrating Winter Festival coming up on Sunday 9th August 10am to 3pm but more details to come.

So why don’t you pop in, say hello, get your refill and have a Honey cake and coffee while looking over the dam! We’d also love to hear from you here too. What have you been up to this winter and what sweet treats have you been making?

Ciao,

Genevieve

Winter Long Lunch – Celebrating the comforts of Winter!

On Sunday the 9th of August we will be hosting a Winter Long Lunch. This is a open day celebrating the comforts of winter;

Pop Up Chai Tea house serving Not Without Spice Chai Tea and Warm Spice Cider,
Slow Cooked Winter Menu (Menu to be posted closer to the date),

Artisan Stalls Including:
Bread and Eggs,
Cakes and Treats,
Massage, Tarot Reading and Aromatherapy,
Infant and Toddler Clothing,

Talks and Cooking Demos:
Steve – The Beekeeper
Gen and Em – Spice, Honey and Cooking
Melinda Blundell – Paleo and Healthy Lifestyle

 

We’ll have a regular tasting and Shed Store open also.

Looking forward to seeing you at The Honey Shed!

Ciao,

Genevieve