bout de papier, Vol. 30, No. 2 (2017), pp. 43–44
HONEY. If you love drama, this article has it all; scandal, mystery, health scares and deception among them. I am, of course, speaking of the honey industry. I write this as
fall is getting into gear and many of us are readying our retreat indoors. One of my favourite fall activities is baking oatmeal honey bread, which has the added benefit of heating my house at no extra charge. It is a beautiful change from ordinary white bread and a definite upgrade to your grilled cheese or French toast.
Honey is a fantastic ingredient for a lot of reasons, but the two most important are that it is readily available and it lasts for years with no special treatment. It has also been growing in popularity as the locavore and foodie cultures look for alternatives to refined sugar. You may remember from my first Hungry Diplomat article that Quebec produces most of the country’s (and the world’s) maple syrup supply, but can you guess which province leads the country on honey production? Take a guess and I’ll tell you at the end of the article.
Honey is produced both commercially and as a cottage industry across the country. You would be hard pressed to find a farmer’s market that doesn’t
Recipe // Recette
This is a wonderful bread for French toast, grilled cheese or just eating with butter. It also makes your house smell amazing.
1 4 cups hot water 1 % tsp salt %» cup oatmeal % tsp cinnamon (Vietnamese is especially good) “4 cup brown sugar 1 % tsp yeast 1 % tsp honey % cup whole wheat flour (Red Fife is fantastic, if you can find it) 2 tbls butter 2 cups white flour, either all-purpose or bread
1. Stir hot water, oatmeal, sugar, honey, butter, salt and cinnamon into the large bowl you’ll use for mixing.
2. Once the water has cooled to lukewarm, add yeast and flours. Knead with either your hands for ten minutes or use a mixer with the hook (dough) attachment on low until the dough is smooth and silky.
3. Cover bowl with plastic (to keep the moisture in), then a towel (to keep the heat in). Place somewhere warm until doubled, which should take about an hour.
4. Lightly flour your countertop or a large cutting board. Stretch the dough into a big rectangle. Fold like a letter so that there are three layers. Then roll one edge up like a sleeping bag to form a loaf. Place into a well-greased 9″x5″ metal or glass bread pan. I’ve had trouble with my loaves sticking, so I usually line my pan with parchment paper instead of greasing. Cover and let rise a second time for about an hour. At the 30 minute mark, pre-heat the oven to 350F. The dough is ready to bakes when it peaks about an inch above the rim of the pan.
6. Bake for about 40 minutes, until golden brown. If using parchment paper, take the loaf out of the pan, remove paper and place directly on oven rack for the last 10 minutes of baking to firm up the crust and give it some nice colour. Let cool on a wire rack before enjoying!
have at least one local honey vendor. Even restaurants and hotels are increasingly taking up beekeeping to serve their own in-house product, which is branded as upscale and prestigious. Honey is a familiar ingredient in both food and beverage products, but interestingly, it’s also used in pet food. Our top export markets include the United States and Japan. And while we have a trade surplus, we do import it too, primarily from Latin America, the U.S. and Oceania.
Over the last few years, you’ve probably seen the media reporting on honey bee colony collapse disorder — both in North America and overseas — and how it threatens our food chain. Fears in Canada were heightened when we faced significant bee losses over the frigid winter of 2013-14; according to a Canadian Honey Council survey, Ontario producers lost over half of the producing honey bee population and other provinces lost about 20%. Science is having a hard time identifying a single cause for colony collapse, but there are likely several causes, including weather, varroa mites (a pest), Nosema (a pathogen) and pesticides (witness the recent reporting on millions of bee deaths in South Carolina due to mosquito spraying to prevent Zika virus).
Media has been much more reticent to report on the recovery that is in progress, which has lead to to several bumper years of production. According to StatsCan, over 8,500 beekeepers produced just over 95 million pounds of Canadian honey in 2015, representing an increase of 11.4% over the previous year. But with the beginnings of bee population recovery came a second blow: “suspicious” international imports decimating the price of our domestic supply. It is widely alleged that honey from China is being transshipped through non-producing third countries and labelled as originating there. With a surplus of domestic product, Canadian producers have had to sell below cost or pay for storage. And while there are ways to forensically determine the origin of the honey by analyzing the pollen or other particles in the product, techniques are improving to remove these particles to mask its origin. Honey is just one food product that can fall victim to the global trend of food fraud.
With that being said, Canadian honey consumption is projected to continue to grow in the near future. My favourite use for honey is for fuel during distance running, instead of using energy bars or gels. It’s very easy on the stomach and hits the bloodstream almost immediately. If you’d like to replace sugar with honey in your baking, consider swapping out a percentage of the sugar rather than replacing it entirely, and remember that baked goods with honey will brown faster and darker, so keep an eye on it.
The top honey producing province in Canada? Alberta!
Lisa Bitto is a political Foreign Service Officer currently seconded to the Department of National Defence. She enjoys making and sharing food both as a sport and as therapy. She’s started a food blog, YouHaveGotThis.weebly.com to help you make some of the recipes she shares in these articles.
Originally published in bout de papier, Vol. 30, No. 2 (2017), pp. 43–44. Read the rest of this issue →
