O Spring, How I Hate Thee

I really, really hate spring.

It all started several years ago when I was attending college in California’s San Joaquin Valley. My university was in Stockton, a city renowned for its many trees, and what do you know? I have tree allergies. I also have pollen allergies, though I didn’t know any of this back then. All I knew was that when spring rolled around every year, life became intolerable.

Stupid lame ragweed, thanks for nothing

Springtime is (supposedly) a time for renewal and joy, and in kids’ movies spring is associated with lovebirds and cute deer. I, however, associate spring with itchy eyes, a puffy face, and an overwhelming feeling of exhaustion. And I wear contact lenses, so I deal with the extra pain of the little curved sheaths of plastic rolling around on my already-irritated eyeballs.

So, I can say with authority that allergies suck. I did try allergy medication in college, but I hated it. It made me feel like a zombie on acid, so I decided to look for an alternative therapy that would ease my suffering.

In my search for an allergy cure that didn’t involve drugs, I heard that raw, local honey would help to adjust my immune system to the pollen in the air. I tried taking a teaspoon of honey twice a day for a couple of weeks, and it worked so well that I’ve been using honey ever since.

As I’ve come to love honey over the years, I’ve learned more and more about the different meanings of the word “raw” when it comes to honey. The National Honey Board defines raw honey by the following:

Raw Honey: Honey as it exists in the beehive or as obtained by extraction,
settling or straining without adding heat.

Commercially Raw Honey: Honey as obtained by minimum processing.
This product is often labeled as raw honey.

In case you were wondering, “minimum processing” has no standard definition. A honey producer can heat their honey well above 116º (the temperature at which enzymes die off) and still call it “raw” on their label, as long as they use less heat than conventional producers. They don’t use the term “commercially raw” on their labels, which would be more accurate. Instead, the commercially raw honeys and the real raw honeys all use the same term, which is incredibly confusing, not to mention misleading.

So, if you want honey that’s truly raw, you’ll have to do some research. The most important thing about using honey for allergies is having local honey, which will have been gathered from the exact plants you’re having a reaction to. Go to your nearest Whole Foods or other natural foods store and look at the companies in your area who produce local honey, and make a few phone calls. Ask about the temperature to which each company’s honey is heated. If a company can’t tell you, or if they skirt the issue, move on. A truly raw honey producer will be proud of their product, and they’ll be happy to tell you about their honey.

This is some work, but in the end you’ll have locally produced honey full of enzymes, vitamins, and minerals. If you can find a producer that sells honeycomb, even better. Remember that raw honey should be used like a supplement, taken twice daily, to combat allergies. If you only use the honey in baked goods or in your piping-hot tea, you’ll kill all those enzymes that you worked so hard to find.

You should know that you probably won’t find local honey that’s organic, due to the nature of bees themselves. Bees gather pollen from many sources, so a honey producer can’t guarantee that every single flower visited by every one of their bees was grown organically. The only organic honey I’ve heard of is from Canada, which isn’t exactly local, unless of course you’re Canadian.

For my part, I buy honey from Gipson’s Golden and Wine Country Honey. They’re both local producers in my area who heat their honey as little as possible in order to strain out any bees and put their product in jars. Sometimes I’m feeling frisky and I buy honeycomb, which is weird to chew because it’s waxy, but it’s still good.

Give raw local honey a try. If nothing else, your morning and evening doses will be delicious. At best, the honey will help to ease any seasonal allergies you may be experiencing. As for me, honey has helped me quite a bit. Who knows? Maybe someday I’ll come to love spring after all.