Honey

If you enjoy honey and are visiting the Agamé region you should know that there is often a delectable array of flavours available at local markets.   

White honey from the Agamé region.

One of the most sought after local varieties is a white honey with a complex palate and a lovely granular texture.   I personally find that there is enough flavour and delicate sweetness in the white honey that just a small amount will leave me feeling satisfied.   My grandma always serves white honey with fresh warm bread.   

There are high quality, organic, beautifully golden honeys also to be found all around the region.   Sometimes there is a black honey available that comes from the Axum area, is actually made in the ground by ants, not bees, and is said to have many medicinal benefits.   

The floral biodiversity in the province of Tigray yields a wide variety of flavours and honey is so popular in the Agamé region I've found that most of my friends here have a refined palate.   I encourage you to ask local residents for reviews and personal recommendations!  
  

White honey derives its unique flavor and color from a variety of indigenous plants growing in the region, including the prickly pear (cactus fruit), euphorbia, becium grandiflorum and a local sage plant.

  

distinctive white honey is made from a local blossom of the sage plant family, known as labiate, which gives it its unusual colour. The white honey of Tigray is the most praised in the country and is considered a delicacy - See more at: http://africanbusinessmagazine.com/sector-reports/food-and-beverage/honey-ethiopias-liquid-gold/#sthash.xtT0HtSB.dpuf

distinctive white honey is made from a local blossom of the sage plant family, known as labiate, which gives it its unusual colour. The white honey of Tigray is the most praised in the country and is considered a delicacy - See more at: http://africanbusinessmagazine.com/sector-reports/food-and-beverage/honey-ethiopias-liquid-gold/#sthash.xtT0HtSB.dpuf

The market in Adigrat regularly has merchants selling honey and occasionally the beekeepers themselves are around at the market.   The honey is often stored in large barrels and smaller containers aren't always readily available so bring your own if you can.   White honey from the Adigrat area was also recently available at my local supermarket in Addis Ababa.

Honey has topical antibacterial elements and "... in general, the darker the honey is the better its antibacterial and antioxidant power."- Web MD

Ethiopia is the largest honey producer on the continent of Africa and is amongst the top ten or so honey producing countries in the world.   I do not have the latest statistics on hand but I do know that a very high percentage of the honey produced in-country is also actually consumed locally, mostly through honey wine.   I wrote about honey wine (aka tej or mes) in a previous post.

It is used in cooking but also to produce Tej, the national drink made from fermented honey - See more at: http://africanbusinessmagazine.com/sector-reports/food-and-beverage/honey-ethiopias-liquid-gold/#sthash.xtT0HtSB.dpuf

It is used in cooking but also to produce Tej, the national drink made from fermented honey - See more at: http://africanbusinessmagazine.com/sector-reports/food-and-beverage/honey-ethiopias-liquid-gold/#sthash.xtT0HtSB.dpufThere seems to be a rise of public understanding of health benefits of honey seem to Ethiopia leads in African countries producing honey and is number eight in the world with 39,000 tonnes of honey per year

Honey bee on Field Scabious

Beekeeping is an ancient practice in Ethiopia dating back to between 3000 and 3500 B.C.    Aside from the Agamé region and the province of Tigray, the Oromia Region and the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples Region (SNNPR) are also major beeswax and honey production regions in Ethiopia.

Bee hives in southern Ethiopia

Did you know...
 
- That as long as honey is stored correctly it will never go bad?  Archeologists excavating ancient Egyptian tombs often find pots of honey, which are thousands of years old and are still preserved. 

- That honey bees are social insects.   I will leave you with this description of the sophisticated communication between worker bees via the Waggle Dance:  

If the nectar is more than 100 metres from the hive, the returning worker does the waggle dance. This gives the other workers the direction and distance (flying time) to the food source.   First she dances in a straight line rapidly wagging her tail.   Then she turns and walks around a half circle, and dances back along the same straight line.   Then she turns in the other direction and walks around the other half of the circle, and returns once more to her straight line.   As she does this she wags her tail.   The number of times the dance is repeated per minute tells how far the food is from the hive.   A fast dance means the food is close to the hive, a slow dance means it is further away.

The straight line of the dance shows the direction to the nectar in relation to the sun. On the vertical honeycomb, a dance done straight up means fly away from the sun.   If the dancer moves on a line to the left of straight up, that means, "Go to the entrance of the hive, look at the sun, and fly to the left".   When the nectar is all gone, the returning workers do not dance, so that no more workers will go to that location.  (Ontario Beekeepers Association)

Figure 2: Honey Bee on Field Scabious, linsepatron, Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic
Figure 3: Bee hives in southern Ethiopia, Bernard Gagnon, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported

Investment Opportunity in Mekelle, Regional State of Tigray, Ethiopia Beekeeping and Honey Processing:  http://mci.ei.columbia.edu/files/2013/10/Mekelle-Beekeeping-Honey-Processing-Investment-Profile.pdf