There is very limited evidence this is at all effective in lessening or eliminating allergy symptoms. At best, some studies have shown minor symptom relief, in proportions similar to the placebo effect.
So long as you don’t feed it to babies (risk of botulism) and you aren’t allergic to honey itself, it probably won’t hurt you, but it’s not a substitute for other allergy treatments.
I had no idea
I didn’t say it was. But it can’t harm you and hopefully helps to build up your immunity.
And I’m saying that those claims, about immunity or symptom relief, are not well supported. For a start, the pollen in honey is largely from flowers, which is different from the airborne pollen from trees and grasses that cause most seasonal allergies.
I mean, as you say, it certainly can’t hurt. But pseudoscience is the thin edge of conspiracy theory, vaccine skepticism, and a bunch of other deeply damaging concepts that have taken way too firm a foothold these days. This is a pretty benign example, but it’s still important to point out that it’s no better than folk wisdom.
Sorry if that came off as harsh. I didn’t mean it to be. I’ve just seen a few too many folks start down some harmless little “wellness” rabbit hole and come out full raving Q-anon. This stuff is dangerous and it frightens me.
I had fried eggplant with honey and white cheese on it 15 years ago in Barcelona and I still dream about it.
Although flower pollen can be tough for those of us with hay fever. My allergies are worst with trees in the spring and hay fever in the late summer/early fall months, although I have reactions to everything from trees, grasses, weeds, and molds. Yay, me!
Agreed. Some people have made suggestions to me about what “natural” products to have for pain/inflammation - and yet I can’t have them because of other prescribed meds I’m on for my heart. For now, I’ll go with trusted science with my meds vs. “possibles” on eating this or that to maybe lower pain/inflammation.
But - I do love my honey. Which is why I was such a fan of Winnie-the-Pooh growing up!
Well, it’s just like your typical fertilizer, except it comes out the other end.
I think honey might attract ants.
Traditional Ethiopian Honey Wine “T’ej”
You need Hop Leaves and Sticks but they are easily available online or if there is a Ethiopian Community near you.
One of many Recipes can be found here
Thanks @awara - welcome to Hungry Onion!
I’m on my second glass of homemead elderflower mead, and always warn others who I share my creations with - mead is different… not sure if is the enzymes, or the metabolisation of the sugar, or some other by-products of the bees, but you need to be careful with mead - you can drink and drink, and then … you’re somebody else’s problem, or not.
where does he live? I’ll come pick some up.
I can never tell when or how much you are joking.
How is that?
I call my dog Honey Bun. I’ve never tried a Honey Bun! Lol. These don’t use a lot of honey. One batch uses around half a cup of honey. 1/3 cup in the dough and 2 tbsp in the icing.
Store it in wide mouth canning jars, or something like it. Costco sells organic raw honey in a plastic bottle and I divided it into cleaned out glass jars with screw on lids, I think their Better than Bouillon jars. That way, if it ever starts to crystalize, you can always put it in hot water on the stove. It’s also wide enough to put a honey dipper in it.
My son’s been asking about mead (he’s on book 5 of the A Song Of Ice And Fire series (we don’t have HBO so he’s never seen the Game of Thrones TV series)) so I’ve been reading recipes and got some champagne yeast, but we haven’t started the ferment yet.
All the recipes I’ve read admonish me to carefully sterilize the equipment properly, as in the snippet quoted above… then add sliced oranges (“skin and all”) and raisins, berries and/or other (unsterilized) fruits. One calls for shitake mushrooms.
I suppose you could boil the fruits first, but none I’ve seen recommend doing so. It just seems like a logic disconnect to be adamant that you sterilize the equipment, but not worry about the other stuff.
Maybe the yeast or similar naturally present on the skin is important for the ferment. 
That was my thought, too.
Could be? Obviously the lacto bacteria are important in salt fermentation processes, and for my kombucha it’s a combined yeast-bacterial culture.
(hiatus)
I just skimmed several pages of the r/mead subreddit, and it seems some do boil their fruits first, others soak in a chemical sanitizer (then rinse well), and others don’t bother with either.
It does seem that the potential for mold or wild/undesirable yeast is the main potential problem, and the “don’t bother” folks talked about adding more yeast when using fruits so that the desired yeast gets well established quickly enough to throttle competition, so to speak.
It might be easier to buy a bottle of mead to try before you go all-in on brewing a batch. See if he likes it first.
How old is your son? Keep in mind that mead has an alcohol content that ranges from pretty low (like, weak beer) to fairly high, perhaps 15% or more.
