Honey is not just a novel alternative to refined sugar.
Some people claim honey contains all the nutrients we need to sustain life (albeit low levels of some).
On top of that, it doesn’t go off – honey lasts for hundreds of years without decay (it’s been found in tombs and tasted fine).
With these two points considered, honey should be a top priority in any prepper pantry, alongside salt and vinegar for their value in cleansing and preserving foods.
Honey is also a preservative! You can coat sliced apples in it to delay their browning. You can even coat meat in it, to make it last many months (if not years) without spoilage or impaired taste. Raw honey contains outstanding antiseptic properties making it useful in extending the life of various fresh foods as well sanitising & healing wounds.
It’s a jack of all trades, master of many. Its only weakness is what it’s most famous for – its sweetness. While it makes a great alternative to sugar, it can upset diabetes if you try living off nothing but honey for long.
Recommended raw honey to buy online
Brazilian Mountain Honey by Hilltop
The taste and texture of this honey is pretty good.
What’s up with Manuka?
Manuka is by far the most famous and expensive type of honey. Its value is usually measured by the levels of certain chemicals it contains. Unfortunately, this gave rise to a massive counterfeit industry, where these identified chemicals are added to cheap honey in order to inflate its cost by passing it off as something special. For this reason, you may wish to avoid Manuka altogether, and settle for any other raw honey that you like the taste of. To the wise connoisseur, nothing beats the taste test.
Cashmere syndrome
Manuka honey is a bit like Cashmere wool in how its once legendary status, based on impressive attributes and high standards of production, gave birth to a booming industry of knockoffs and generally declining standards. These days, Cashmere goats (native to Kashmir, India), like Manuka trees (native to New Zealand), are bred all over the world under various conditions, and while Cashmere still outperforms the legendary Merino sheep wool in some ways (warmth and softness, but not durability or cost), Alpaca now beats them both comfortably. In fact, one step better than Royal Alpaca (the finest grade of alpaca) is Vicuña – Alpaca’s wild ancestor, which is mostly sold to Italian designers, making it the most expensive fabric in the world today. So neither rich nor poor need Cashmere any more – perhaps the same will be said of Manuka soon.