On Apr 14, 10:05*pm, Pam Moore wrote:
On Thu, 14 Apr 2011 15:23:14 +0100, Pam Moore

wrote:
A friend tells me that she heard on the Today programme that they are
now producing manuka honey on the Isle of Wight.
Can anyone (Mike?) expand on this?

Pam in Bristol

Thanks Mike and Janet for the input.
I don't have time to "Listen again" to the 3 hours of Today and the
web site doesn't seem to show it.
Sorry aabout the typo in subject line.
Manuka honey is generally only available as import from NZ. *Very
tasty and with health-giving, antibiotic properties, and very
expensive. *I originally bought it in NZ and have seen the
leptospermum bushes growing over large areas.
I don't see how they can restrict the bees only to those bushes in an
area like IOW where there must be plenty of choice of plants for bees.
If the bees foraging far and wide it won't be pure Manuka honey.

Pam in Bristol

All honey has similar properties. Paying over the odds for some
specific flavour is just foolish if you think it wil have better
health properties, it won't.
Basically it's just sugar flavoured with the blossom it came from.
Some blossoms have no discernable scent at all. Eg rape.

Bees go where it suits them. They do show preferences for certain
blossoms.
Dunno about this particular stuff. All a beekeeper can do is place
the hives in and area where the blossom predominates and when it is
"in season".
You can't force the bees to go to it and you will never get honey
purely from that source.

Some honey has a very strong flavour which overcomes anything else
that might be in with it. Eg heather.