1901 



GLEANINGS IN BKE CULTURE. 



97 



er all, more depends upon the grade and qual- 

 it}' of the honey than upon the manner in 

 which it is put up. 



Bottled honey is, as a rule, purchased by a 

 class of customers who demand a fancy arti- 

 cle, and are able and willing to pay a fancy 

 price for it. This being true, only a first-class 

 article should be bottled. A great majority 

 of the people who eat this bottled honey nev- 

 er see the package or jar in which it was 

 bought. The cook empties the honey, and 

 sends it to the table; if it is good, and tickles 

 the palates of those who eat it, they demand 

 more of the same kind ; but if it is an inferior 

 article, with a rank flavor, they want no more 

 of this or any other kind, for they either de- 

 cide that they don't /tke honey, or that it is 

 impossible to obtain a good or pure article. 



Bat not only should the honey, to be bot- 

 tled, be of fine flavor, but it should be light 

 in color. Dark honej- looks bad in glass, and 

 is a drag on the market. Recently I tried to 

 sell some bottled honey to a fancy grocer. 

 He said no ; he wanted none, for it would not 

 sell. " Why," said he, " I have honey in just 

 such jars as those, which I have had on hand 

 for years." I asked to see some of the honey 

 he referred to, and was shown several jars of 

 very dark honey on which were the labels of 

 Chas. F. Muth. They were out on the coun- 

 tar, too, in plain view, but no one wanted to 

 buy such honey. 



Now, if dark honey, put up by a man with 

 such a great and good reputation, would not 

 sell in jars, how can any of /is hope to dispose 

 of cheap goods in fancy jars, and at fancy 

 prices ? This grocer would not buy any of my 

 fancy honey, but agreed to take two dozen 

 j irs on trial, with the understanding that I 

 would take them back if he could not sell 

 them. In less than two weeks he ordered 

 more, and he is still a customer. 



Now as to mixing the different varieties of 

 honey to secure a standard flavor. I know 

 many practice this, but I think it is a poor 

 practice. Why not label the different kinds 

 and flavors, and thus educate the public taste? 

 The sooner the public learns that there are 

 different kinds and flavors of honey, the bet- 

 ter. Many people who are fond of clover hon- 

 ey can not bear the taste of basswood or pop- 

 lar, or vice versa ; nor can they stand a mix- 

 ture of them. There is no more excuse for 

 mixing the different kinds of honey than there 

 would be for mixing all the different kinds of 

 jelly to get a standard flavor. Better label 

 each kind, and let the customer choose that 

 which he likes best. This is no theory with 

 me, but it has been demonstrated by experi- 

 ence in bottling and selling honey. 



A gilt-edged article of extracted honey 

 should be put up in a neat and attractive pack- 

 age. I have used mostly the Ponder and Muth 

 jars, but I am now trying a new kind, a self- 

 sealing jam-jar with a glass lid and rubber 

 ring, which saves the trouV)le of waxing corks. 



But, regardless of what kind of j ir is used, 

 the process of bottling is practically the same. 

 The first thing to be done is to thoroughly 

 wash the jars and remove the fine glass splin- 

 ters or slivers which are so often found pro- 



jecting from the interior surface of the same. 

 The jars are then drained and dried. They 

 are then ready to be filled with honey. 



The jars are filled from a large tin tank fil- 

 ter with a good sized honey gate. If the 

 weather is cold, and the honey is thick and 

 stiff, it should be warmed before being placed 

 in the large tank, for it will then flow rapidly 

 from the honey-gate into the jars, and save a 

 great deal of time. 



When the honey is being poured from the 

 cans into the tank, and when it is being drawn 

 from the tank into the jars, it becomes mixed 

 with air, and filled with bubbles. If you 

 doubt this, take one of the jars you have just 

 filled and hold it up to the light. You will 

 see that the honey is filled with hundreds of 

 little beads (or bubbles) of air. Now, it is 

 this air in the honey which helps it to granu- 

 late. You may seal it up as tight as you 

 please ; and if these air-bubbles are left in, it 

 will ca}idy as soon as it is exposed to cold. To 

 drive out all of these airheads I place the jars 

 in large tin trays of water, which are heated 

 to 175 or 180°. Any grt-ater degree of heat 

 will injure the flavor of the honey, and tend 

 to darken it. 



The trajs used are made of galvanized iron, 

 and are about 5 inches deep, and large enough 

 to hold conveniently about 40 jars. A gaso- 

 line-burner keeps the water at the right tem- 

 perature 



After the honey is thoroughly heated, and 

 all the air is expelled, the jars should be seal- 

 ed at once, before being allowed to cool. The 

 corks are sunken slightly below the top edges 

 of the jars, and then covered with melted wax. 

 In this way they are hermetically se led, and 

 will all be sold before they will granulate. I 

 have kept clover honey, sealed in this way, 

 two years, and there were no signs of candy- 

 ing. When the corks were drawn, the air 

 could be heard hissing in, thus proving that, 

 when the jars cooled, a vacuum was produced. 

 The above, Mr. Editor, will answer your 

 question as to the reason for heating the hon- 

 ey after it has been placed in the jars. This 

 is a little " wrinkle," but an important one. 



If self-sealing jars, mentioned in the begin- 

 ning of this article, are used, no waxing of 

 corks is needed, as the rubber ring and glass 

 lid make an air-tight seal. 



If the regular honey- j^rs with corks are 

 used, a tinfoil cap adds greatly to their at- 

 tractiveness. The method for putting these 

 on is so simple that it need hardly be describ- 

 ed. The method that Chas. F. Muth used, as 

 described by him in his catalog of jears ago, 

 is as good as any. 



The last thing of all to be done is to put on 

 the labels. I use a dark-blue label printed in 

 gold. The dark label is not as easily soiled as 

 a light-colored one ; and then by contrast the 

 honey looks lighter in color with the dark 

 labels 



An attractive label is a great help in selling 

 the honey, and then it is an advertisement for 

 the producer. 



I use dextrine to stick the labels on the jars; 

 and by spreading it over both surfaces of the 

 labels they will never curl up or come off. 



