All abuzz about BEES.

Byline: Randi Bjornstad The Register-Guard

It's hard to think of a word that sounds more like what it is than honey - rich, golden, enveloping and so sweet that we call those we love by its name.

This so-called elixir of the gods has been prized for thousands of years, as a sweetener and preservative for foods, of course, but also as a religious offering, as "money" and for medicinal purposes.

Beeswax has been used for centuries in furniture wax and varnish and as a cement-like hardener in building materials. Honey is still an important ingredient in cosmetics.

Local beekeeper and researcher Morris Ostrofsky says there's a lot more to bees than meets the eye.

"Sadly, most people never look past the fact that bees make honey, and they sting," Ostrofsky says. What they don't realize is that most plants depend on bees for pollination in order to thrive and produce, he says.

Beyond that, what goes on within a hive is simply fascinating, Ostrofsky says.

A colony consists of three types of bees - queen, drones and workers. The queen is selected by worker bees as a two-day-old larva and reared for her reign. Less than two weeks later, the fledgling queen leaves the hive for the only time in her life, flying out to find a "drone congregation area," Ostrofsky says. There she mates with several drones and returns to the hive with several million sperm cells that last the rest of her two-year life expectancy as a useful queen. The drones who succeed in mating with the queen die immediately afterward.

Within about 10 days of mating, the queen begins laying eggs in the honeycomb created by the worker bees - the thousands of females not chosen for royal status - depositing as many as 3,000 fertilized eggs in a single day.

During the spring and summer, worker bees live no longer than five or six weeks - "They literally work themselves to death in a very short time," Ostrofsky says - with the task of feeding the queen and the larvae hatched from her eggs, guarding the entrance of the hive from intruders, producing the hexagonal wax comb and keeping the hive cool by fanning their wings more than 11,000 times a minute.

Worker bees born in the fall have a longer life span; spared the grueling tasks of building honeycomb, collecting nectar and spreading pollen, they devote their energies to maintaining the hive over winter.

Unfortunately, in recent years bee populations worldwide have been threatened by a pinhead-sized mite "that sucks the life right out of the bees," Ostrofsky says. Without human intervention, billions of bees could be killed, wreaking havoc on farm and orchard production and the world's food supply.

A retired biologist, Ostrofsky - along with many other scientists - has been spending much of his time working on ways to eradicate the parasite, which has developed immunity to chemicals once used to control it.

"Bees have a really remarkable existence," he says. "Our challenge right now is to make sure they survive."

Honeybees have been in existence in most parts of the world since long before the dinosaurs dominated the Earth, the National Honey Board says.

However, the honeybees busily buzzing around hives in this country didn't originate here. Bees native to North America are tiny - less than a half-inch long - and don't produce honey in anywhere near the quantities of their European counterparts, brought to the American colonies in the 1600s by early settlers.

A large, productive hive can produce as much as 100 pounds of honey per year.

Junction City apiarist Ethan Bennett says after leaving plenty of honey for over-wintering, he harvests about 40 pounds of honey from each of his 28 hives.

"I'm careful to manage my hives in a way that the bees have more than enough for themselves," Bennett says. "Many beekeepers have two boxes in the hive for the bees and then more boxes where the queens - which are bigger than the workers - can't go, so they end up with pure honey that they can take out for sale."

He uses a centrifuge extractor to remove liquid honey from the comb and then filters it, Bennett says.

"Some people don't like the comb, so liquid honey is more popular," he says.

The flavor of honey varies by the kind of pollen the bees have collected, although the nectar from plentiful blackberry thickets tends to dominate the taste of much of the honey in the Willamette Valley, Bennett says.

Bees that frequent pumpkin fields produce a lighter, spicier honey, while meadowfoam - a plant grown for its oil - yields a nutty, "almost marshmallowy" honey, he says.

Besides its liquid and comb forms, honey can be whipped to a creamy consistency or crystallized to be used "dry."

Clove and Honey

Preserved Oranges

3/4 cup honey

1/4 cup orange juice

1/4 cup lemon juice

2 navel oranges, washed but not peeled

4 whole cloves

1 cinnamon stick

In a saucepan, whisk together honey, orange juice and lemon juice until well blended. Cut oranges in half lengthwise; then cut each half into slices 1/8 -inch to 1/4 -inch thick. Stir into the honey mixture. Add cloves and cinnamon stick.

Bring the mixture to a boil over medium heat; reduce heat and simmer 10 to 15 minutes, until the oranges are tender. Remove from heat and cool. Pour into a decorative container and refrigerate until ready to serve.

The imagination's the limit for using this bittersweet condiment with a flavor that resembles tangy marmalade. Try it on rice, as a sauce on chicken or turkey, or a foil for curry or other spicy flavors.

Makes 2 1/4 cups.

Source: National Honey Board.

Bees in the Herb Garden

Dip or Dressing

1 pint (2 cups) sour cream

6 tablespoons honey

2 tablespoons orange juice, thawed but undiluted

2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

2 teaspoons creamstyle horseradish 

2 teaspoons rosemary, crushed

1 teaspoon chervil, crushed

1 teaspoon basil, crushed

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon white pepper

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

Combine all ingredients and mix thoroughly. Cover and refrigerate several hours to blend flavors. Stir before using.

Good as a dip for chips, shrimp, ham cubes, vegetables, ripe olives and pineapple chunks or as a salad dressing for green or fruit salads.

Makes about 2 1/4 cups.

Amber Onions

8 small yellow or white onions

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon paprika 

2 tablespoons melted butter

1/4 cup tomato juice

3 tablespoons honey

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

Cut onions in half crosswise; place in large, greased shallow casserole dish.

Combine salt, paprika, melted butter, tomato juice and honey. Pour over onions. Cover and bake for 60 minutes or until onions are tender.

Serves 8.

Source: American Beekeeping Federation.

Honey Breakfast Drink

2 cups milk

1/2 cup orange juice

1/4 to 1/2 cup honey

1/4 cup low-fat dry milk

1/4 cup wheat germ

1 large banana, peeled and sliced

4 to 5 ice cubes

Combine all ingredients in a blender and mix well. Makes 4 servings.

Source: National Honey Board.

Ginger Peach Smoothie 

1 cup boiling water

1 piece (2 inches) fresh ginger root, peeled and crushed

1/4 cup honey

2 peaches, peeled, pitted and chopped

1 pint peach sorbet

1 tablespoon lime juice

In a small bowl, combine boiling water and ginger. Stir in honey; cool. Remove and discard ginger. Set mixture aside.

In blender or food processor, combine peaches, sorbet and lime juice. Process while adding honey-ginger mixture in a slow, steady stream; process until smooth. Serves 4.

Source: National Honey Board.

Calypso Rice

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 cup long grain white rice

2 tablespoons honey

1 clove garlic, finely chopped

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme, crushed

1 can (15 ounces) chicken broth

1/4 teaspoon Tabasco sauce

2 cups finely chopped mustard greens

1 cup chopped yellow summer squash 

1/2 cup chopped fresh tomatoes

In a large saucepan with a tight-fitting lid, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add rice; cook and stir 3 minutes or until rice begins to brown. Add honey, garlic, salt and thyme; cook and stir 1 minute. Add broth, Tabasco, greens, squash and tomatoes.

Bring to a boil; cover and reduce heat to low. Simmer 15 to 20 minutes until most of the liquid is absorbed. Remove from heat; let stand 5 minutes. Fluff with fork before serving.

Makes 4 servings.

Source: National Honey Board.

Eggplant, French Toast Style

1 large eggplant

Salt for sprinkling

2 eggs

2 tablespoons milk

1 tablespoon honey

2 cups corn flake or cracker crumbs, more if necessary

3 to 4 tablespoons butter, more if needed

1/4 cup warm honey, more if needed

Slice eggplant into 1/4 -inch rounds, paring if desired. Sprinkle generously with salt and set aside on paper towels or in a colander for 30 minutes. Rinse slices thoroughly to remove salt and any brown juice that has formed. Pat dry.

Beat eggs slightly and combine with milk and honey. Dip eggplant slices into egg mixture, then into crumbs, coating both sides.

Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add eggplant slices and cook until fork-tender and golden brown on both sides. Add more butter to skillet as needed.

Serve eggplant slices with additional butter and warm honey. Serves 6 to 7.

Source: National Honey Board.

CAPTION(S):

Honeybees produce a nectar that has been harvested as a sweetener, a preservative and for other uses for thousands of years.