Anyone use honey? Are there any safe national brands? (USA)
We use Sue Bee brand. Someone posted recently about honey not being from where they companies claim it's from but so far we haven't had any problems with this brand and the only others available here are generic or ones we've never heard of.
Golden Blossom.
We buy honey from the farms north of the city and at farmers markets.. local product that is very fresh straight from the hive. the only national brand we have used in the past is Billy Bee.
I read some cheap brands bring in cheap honey from China which contains residues of pesticides that are banned in North America. And they are sneaky as they import it through a 3rd country so it may say 'imported from Malaysia', even though it is 100% Chinese honey with contaminants.
So be careful.. cheap honey from a dollar store is probably filled with illegal pesticide residues and sub-standard product. Big national brands should be fine ... since they should value their reputation.
Or pick up some local honey at a farmer's market :)
For those in Ontario, we pick up our honey from Saugeen Country Honey of Elmwood ON we buy it at the St Jacob's farmer's market) and local honey from Forsythe Farm in Markham ON (only open MAY to DEC).
http://www.foodlinkgreybruce.com/userfiles/files/SAUGEENCOUNTRYHONEY(1).pdf (http://www.foodlinkgreybruce.com/userfiles/files/SAUGEENCOUNTRYHONEY(1).pdf)
There's actually a local place here that we can buy it but for some reason I'm nervous about it. I emailed and asked them about nuts and she said no nuts are used anywhere around it but human error and all that. They don't even have a proper shop-they have the jars of honey in a small shed and people go in and leave money and take a jar.
We use.... local...
VERY local, let's just say. ;)
I get it at the farmer's mkt
Local is supposed to be better for helping environmental allergies. IMMV
I buy from local producers, because they only package & sell honey.
I buy it from local beekeepers. No problems yet and it's really tasty. And my favorite beekeeper will warn me if the bees have been in lavender fields. Not an issue unless it's a densely planted lavender field, but it can make me pretty ill, even in bee vomit form.