88 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Febeuaey, 1920 



WHEN a cer- 

 tain nice 

 man with 

 an ingratiating 

 smile calls at 

 our home I al- 

 ways know he 

 has a dull axe 

 concealed some- 

 where about 



him. Sometimes that axe takes the form of 

 a few honey recipes which he would like to 

 have me invent; sometimes he would like a 

 few honey candies or honey cakes to display 

 at a food show; sometimes it is an article on 

 honey which he wishes written. 



But one day, when neither of us happened 

 to be quite so busy as usual, after he had se- 

 cured a promise from me to sharpen his axe 

 we fell to talking of the food value of hon- 

 ey, and he told me a couple of true stories 

 which I am going to pass on to you. He 

 said, after telling me the stories, "Mrs. 

 Puerden, I have not dared to make these 

 stories quite as strong as they were told to 

 me." He knows I very much dislike to 

 have statements as to the food value of hon- 

 ey exaggerated. The truth about it is quite 

 good enough, and if we permit ourselves to 

 claim too much we are only weakening our 

 case. 



YEAES ago this man, who has been con- 

 nected with the sale of honey nearly all 

 his business life, sold a few pounds of 

 candied honey in the brick form to a Cleve- 

 land grocer. Honey in this form was rather 

 a novelty at that time, and there was little 

 call for it unless in a vicinity where it had 

 been demonstrated. The grocer put it on his 

 counter and there it stayed. His customers 

 had never heard of it; they were not inter- 

 ested and declined to try it. Months later 

 the weather grew warm, the honey began to 

 liquefy, and pretty soon it started to leak 

 out of those one-time neat packages on the 

 counter. About that time the grocer, like 

 the weather, grew warm under the collar 

 and he sat down and wrote my friend, whom 

 we will call Mr. Honeyman, a warm letter. 



Mr. Honeyman admits that he was not as 

 wise a honey salesman then as he is now, 

 and he therefore refused to take the honey 

 back, for the reason that he had sold the 

 grocer a good article in perfect condition 

 and was not to blame for its deterioration. 

 For a year or two after that he heard noth- 

 ing more from the offended grocer. 



Then one day when he had charge of a 

 honey exhibit at a food show a man came 

 up to him and said, "Mr. Honeyman, do 

 you remember selling me 16 pounds of ' hon- 

 eyspred' some years ago, which you after- 

 ward refused to take back at my request?" 

 Mr. Honeyman remembered it, and I imag- 

 ine his feelings were not particulai-ly joyous 

 at this unexpected reunion with a dissatis- 

 fied customer. But the grocer had not come 

 with a tale of woe, as you will see. He 

 went on with his story thus: "Just about 



OUR FOOD PAGE 



Stanqr Puerden 



the time you re- 

 fused to take 

 the honey back 

 my health broke 

 down, and I de- 

 cided to go out 

 of the grocery 

 business. I was 

 troubled with in- 

 digestion and 

 was in a much rundown condition. When I 

 sold out I decided I was not going to sting 

 my successor as I had been stung, and I 

 therefore carried that despised honey home 

 and put it in the kitchen. In so doing I got 

 a little on my hands as the sticky stuff had 

 oozed out of the package, and I put my 

 fingers up to my mouth. ' ' 



Isn 't that just like Charles Lamb 's story 

 of how roast pig was invented? 



To resume the grocer's story: "I dis- 

 covered that the honey had an unusually 

 pleasant flavor, and I began to use it freely 

 on the table. I decided I was going to die 

 anyway and might as well hasten the pro- 

 cess by eating what I liked. I used one 

 pound after another, with plenty of whole 

 wheat bread, until the whole 16 pounds were 

 gone. By that time I was feeling better 

 and had acquired such a taste for honey- 

 spred that I hunted groceries where I could 

 buy more, and from that day to this honey 

 has been almost constantly on our table. I 

 am now perfectly well, able to work hard, 

 and believe that honey had more to do 

 with my restoration to health than any- 

 thing else." 



Someone may think that this grocer was 

 over-enthusiastic, that change and freedom 

 from care improved his health, and that his 

 diet had little to do with it. Draw your own 

 conclusions. I have told the story just as it 

 was told to Mr. Honeyman. For anything 

 we know to the contrary, the ex-grocer may 

 have engaged in some other business which 

 was more strenuous and confining than the 

 one he sold. 



THE other honey story came to Mr. Hon- 

 eyman while he was in charge of a hon- 

 ey exhibit in California. A robust, fine- 

 looking man came to him, and in the course 

 of a conversation said, "I wonder if you 

 fellows realize what a valuable food you 

 have in this honey." Mr. Honeyman thought 

 he did, but intimated he would not object 

 to further enlightenment on the subject. 

 Then this man went on to tell him how he 

 came to California several years before this 

 time, hoping to recover his health, which 

 had failed until he was unable to do any 

 work. He went to friends who lived on a 

 ranch in the foothills, and those friends 

 kept bees. Now you know the rest, don 't 

 you? Naturally he began eating honey, and 

 he ate more and more of it, and then he be- 

 gan to gain in flesh and strength and kept 

 building up until he was the picture of 

 health. He also ate whole wheat bread with 

 his honey, and like the grocer he attributed 



