D-Day Honey
The Honey Label
Honey made by bees here in Normandy in the village of Cartigny l'Epinay, about two kilometers (one and a half miles) from the site of General Eisenhower's first Supreme Headquarters here in France and twelve miles south of Omaha Beach. This honey contains no additives or preservatives, simply being extracted from the comb, strained and bottled. You might be able to see what appear to be very small grains in the honey- this is pollen and can be eaten (pollen is actually very good for you and tastes really nice). In the sections of Honey, the only bit not to eat is the wooden frame. Apart from that the honey and wax can be eaten together. The honey is sold in Jars of 250 grams (nine ounces) and 500 grams (one pound two ounces) and sections of honey eleven cms (four inches) square and five cms (two inches) thick weighing 450 grams (1 pound).
Where the Bees Live...
Bees don't have a fridge in the hive with them, yet their Honey keeps for years. If you put your Honey into the fridge it will crystalise (separate out into sugar and other constituents) and not taste particularly nice. Just keep your Honey in the jar in a cupboard in the kitchen. Even after you have opened the jar it will still keep at room temperature for over five years.
Even if you never put your Honey in the fridge, it will most likely crystalise at some stage. This is a perfectly normal happening for natural Honey and is a good sign that it is pure. Most commercially produced Honey has additives in it specifically to stop it crystalizing.
If your Honey does crystalise (separate out into sugar crystals and other constituents), it is very easy to liquify it again. All you have to do is gently warm the jar for about half an hour to forty minutes by heating it in a saucepan of warm (not boiling) water. But it can be as simple as leaving a jar of crystalised Honey on the window-sill in the sunlight for the afternoon on a warm day as this will normally re-liquify it. The other ways can be to gently warm the jar for a few hours by putting it beside (not on) the hot water boiler or leaving it on a warm radiator. It is a bad idea to heat Honey directly and don't overheat it (no higher temperature than about 50 centigrade (140 Farenheit)) as it will burn. And finally never, never put Honey in a microwave oven.
Even if you never put your Honey in the fridge, it will most likely crystalise at some stage. This is a perfectly normal happening for natural Honey and is a good sign that it is pure. Most commercially produced Honey has additives in it specifically to stop it crystalizing.
If your Honey does crystalise (separate out into sugar crystals and other constituents), it is very easy to liquify it again. All you have to do is gently warm the jar for about half an hour to forty minutes by heating it in a saucepan of warm (not boiling) water. But it can be as simple as leaving a jar of crystalised Honey on the window-sill in the sunlight for the afternoon on a warm day as this will normally re-liquify it. The other ways can be to gently warm the jar for a few hours by putting it beside (not on) the hot water boiler or leaving it on a warm radiator. It is a bad idea to heat Honey directly and don't overheat it (no higher temperature than about 50 centigrade (140 Farenheit)) as it will burn. And finally never, never put Honey in a microwave oven.
Importing Honey into the Continental
United States
Honey is generally allowed to be imported into the United States by American customs officers as long as there are no health scares/insect disease out-breaks which have put a temporary ban on it's importation. A link to the US Customs & Border Protection (CBP) at https://help.cbp.gov/app/answers/detail/a_id/3619/kw/can%20i%20bring%20honey%20into%20the%20USA states that:
"The following are generally admissible:
-Honey- comb honey, royal jelly, bee bread, or propolis if it is not intended to be fed to bees (USDA Miscellaneous and Processed Products Manual, Table 3-100)"
However, it also states at the top of the same page that:
"Failure to declare food products can result in a $10,000 fine".
You are also not allowed to bring liquids into the cabin area of an aeroplane now, and Honey counts as a liquid, so make sure you wrap it up well so it won't break and pack it in your hold luggage for the flight home. Don't try and take Honey into the cabin as carry-on luggage!!! TSA Homeland Security will confiscate it as it's a liquid!!!
If you want to buy Honey in Europe to bring back to the United States you need to:
1) Pack your Honey in the luggage that will travel in the hold of the Aeroplane.
Do not Pack your Honey in your carry-on luggage!!!!!
2) Declare on your customs slip that you are importing Honey into the United States (even if you are an American Citizen)
OR
Post your honey home.
It's very easy to post your honey home and it's safe if well wrapped in newspaper in a cardboard box. All you need to do is wrap the jar in newspaper and go into a French post office. There you can buy a small, strong cardboard box that is on sale in any French Post office at a fixed price of about 5 Euros, Box and Postage costs both included in that price. Put your wrapped jar in the box, address it and give it to the post office clerk and he'll post it off.
If you do one of these two things there should not be any trouble.
Don't eat it all at once!
"The following are generally admissible:
-Honey- comb honey, royal jelly, bee bread, or propolis if it is not intended to be fed to bees (USDA Miscellaneous and Processed Products Manual, Table 3-100)"
However, it also states at the top of the same page that:
"Failure to declare food products can result in a $10,000 fine".
You are also not allowed to bring liquids into the cabin area of an aeroplane now, and Honey counts as a liquid, so make sure you wrap it up well so it won't break and pack it in your hold luggage for the flight home. Don't try and take Honey into the cabin as carry-on luggage!!! TSA Homeland Security will confiscate it as it's a liquid!!!
If you want to buy Honey in Europe to bring back to the United States you need to:
1) Pack your Honey in the luggage that will travel in the hold of the Aeroplane.
Do not Pack your Honey in your carry-on luggage!!!!!
2) Declare on your customs slip that you are importing Honey into the United States (even if you are an American Citizen)
OR
Post your honey home.
It's very easy to post your honey home and it's safe if well wrapped in newspaper in a cardboard box. All you need to do is wrap the jar in newspaper and go into a French post office. There you can buy a small, strong cardboard box that is on sale in any French Post office at a fixed price of about 5 Euros, Box and Postage costs both included in that price. Put your wrapped jar in the box, address it and give it to the post office clerk and he'll post it off.
If you do one of these two things there should not be any trouble.
Don't eat it all at once!
D-Day Honey in the News
December 2010
The following article about D-Day Honey was written by Gary Lee Kraut for the online magazine "France Revisited", with the same article also published in the online Magazine "N4Normandy"
http://francerevisited.com/2010/11/the-sweet-taste-of-d-day/
http://francerevisited.com/2010/11/the-sweet-taste-of-d-day/
The Sweet Taste of D-Day By Gary Lee Kraut
From Pegasus Bridge to Utah Beach, the Landing Zone of Normandy is prime territory for D-Day merchandising: coffee mugs, baseball caps, t-shirts, windbreakers, pens, placemats, posters, plates, toy hand grenades, squirt guns, and much more. But I’d imagine that very little, if any, of it is actually made in Normandy.
So I was a bit wary when saw a jar of “D-Day Honey” for sale this summer at Bernard Lebrec’s apple farm in Englesqueville la Percée, a village between Pointe du Hoc and the American Cemetery.
Had Bernard, whose farm I’d always enjoyed visiting for its authenticity, gone crass commercial? What could honey possibly have to do with D-Day?
A lot, it turns out—far more than those baseball caps, placemats and squirt guns.
First, Bernard reassured me that D-Day was apple blossom honey, made locally by a friend of his.
So I bought a jar. Good stuff. In fact, I thought of writing this piece because I’ve nearly finished my jar of D-Day and, needing another to get me through the honey-in-my-tea days of winter, I found in fine print on the label the contact information of the beekeeper, Ed Robinson.
Ed is an Irishman living in Cartigny l’Epinay, a village about 12 miles (20 kilometers) south of Omaha Beach. He moved to France eight years ago to learn French and, long interested in military history, soon got a job as a D-Day tour guide. After six years working for others, he created his own touring company, Battle of Normandy Tours.
Like his interest in military history, Ed’s passion for beekeeping began at an early age. He says that he was about five when he developed a fascination with bees and even asked his mother then if he could have a hive. No, she told him, but he could have one when he was ten. And she kept her word!
You can read the rest of this article at the link above.
* * *
Ed Robinson and D-Day Honey: For more about Ed Robinson’s D-Day Honey and his Battle of Normandy Tours see www.BattleofNormandytours.com/honey.html.
Bernard Lebrec: Bernard Lebrec’s apple farm produces juice, cidre, pommeau and Calvados. It’s located at Englesqueville la Percée on the main road between Pointe du Hoc and the American Cemetery. Tel. 02 31 22 70 72. E-mail [email protected].
© 2010, Gary Lee Kraut
So I was a bit wary when saw a jar of “D-Day Honey” for sale this summer at Bernard Lebrec’s apple farm in Englesqueville la Percée, a village between Pointe du Hoc and the American Cemetery.
Had Bernard, whose farm I’d always enjoyed visiting for its authenticity, gone crass commercial? What could honey possibly have to do with D-Day?
A lot, it turns out—far more than those baseball caps, placemats and squirt guns.
First, Bernard reassured me that D-Day was apple blossom honey, made locally by a friend of his.
So I bought a jar. Good stuff. In fact, I thought of writing this piece because I’ve nearly finished my jar of D-Day and, needing another to get me through the honey-in-my-tea days of winter, I found in fine print on the label the contact information of the beekeeper, Ed Robinson.
Ed is an Irishman living in Cartigny l’Epinay, a village about 12 miles (20 kilometers) south of Omaha Beach. He moved to France eight years ago to learn French and, long interested in military history, soon got a job as a D-Day tour guide. After six years working for others, he created his own touring company, Battle of Normandy Tours.
Like his interest in military history, Ed’s passion for beekeeping began at an early age. He says that he was about five when he developed a fascination with bees and even asked his mother then if he could have a hive. No, she told him, but he could have one when he was ten. And she kept her word!
You can read the rest of this article at the link above.
* * *
Ed Robinson and D-Day Honey: For more about Ed Robinson’s D-Day Honey and his Battle of Normandy Tours see www.BattleofNormandytours.com/honey.html.
Bernard Lebrec: Bernard Lebrec’s apple farm produces juice, cidre, pommeau and Calvados. It’s located at Englesqueville la Percée on the main road between Pointe du Hoc and the American Cemetery. Tel. 02 31 22 70 72. E-mail [email protected].
© 2010, Gary Lee Kraut
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