Month: October 2009

Sore throat? Stomach problem? Blood problems? You must not be eating enough of the right kind of honey. The honey sellers at the 22nd Annual All-Russia Honey Festival have suggestions for just about every ailment that you may have. They believe that certain types of honey, depending on what type of pollen the bees gathered, have properties to treat just about every condition.

For ages honey has been used in Russia as a form of homeopathy– the nutrients of wild herbs and flowers rub off on bees, and eventually find their way into the honey.  Powerful medicine taken in a cup of tea, or preferably right off the spoon, as heat may interfere with some of honey’s medicinal benefits. Which is another reason to buy honey fresh from the farm, not commercially pasteurized and packaged.

At the fair, hundreds of sellers from across Russia offer every kind of honey and honey product that may or may not cure your problems. More than one seller told us that if it doesn’t taste good to you, it’s not the homeopathic remedy your body needs. Sunflower, raspberry flower, clover, buckwheat, acacia, linden, you can taste it all for free and decide which is the most therapeutic for you. Many of the honeys are labeled with their healing properties.

Where to start? There are so many sellers. The incredible range of just the colors of honey is amazing. Which appeals to you? The clearest, the whitest, the blackest the most golden, the seller with the best smile or most hilarious apron? Many stands boast awards, and the honey at this fair has been inspected for purity. Cheery and talkative bee-keepers overwhelm with thousands of honeys, honey comb, bee pollen, and beeswax candles–every sort of honey product is available. (Crushed dead bees, anyone?)

Most stands are decorated with pictures of the farm and the acres of wild flowers where the honey was harvested by the small-scale artisan bee-keepers themselves. One woman we spoke with had driven 24 hours from Central Russia with her truck full of honey. Father and son bee-keepers were eager to learn the names of the flowers in English, and explain the quality of their honeys using their newly-acquired words.

One big fan of honey is Moscow Mayor Lushkov, who himself is bee-keeper, he may be the only mayor in the world who holds a patent for a cold-climate beehive. The festival venue has been changed from its place of years past, Kolomenskoye to Tsaritsino, another of the mayor’s projects. The festival flourishes in part because of his support.

The festival is held by the Russian Union of Apiarists, whose main goal is to increase the number of small-scale beekeepers. Honey production has doubled in Russia in the last twenty years, but the bee-keepers aren’t keeping up with demand. Before 1917, bee-keepers had enough honey to export, but now supply falls short. Another goal of the Union is to teach the beekeepers business know-how. The Union hopes that by teaching business skills like marketing, increased distribution will lead to increased production.

None of the stands were Sue-Bee-Burt’s Bees-commercial in any way. From the bee-keeper with a mouth full of gold teeth to the apiarist who boasted her two degrees in psychology, “but I’m still wearing this silly hat,” each bee-keeper was eager to talk shop about his or her farm, bees and honey, quoting the latest studies from “Bee Plus” magazine.

The Russian cultural connection to the power of honey is evident in the warmth and enthusiasm of these bee-keepers. Part folk medicine and herbal remedy, part science, honey has proven antibacterial and antiseptic properties. Single flower honeys—whether from nettle, orange blossom or sunflower–have much more nutrition and character than the processed blended honey found on the grocery store shelves. Time spent walking around talking to friendly Russians representing the country from China to Siberia has it’s own therapeutic affects as well.