When I moved from my home state of New Jersey to beautiful Oregon, I was exposed to so many new things. Among my favorite discoveries were the abundant, handwritten road signs that advertised fresh local produce, eggs, and honey. Intrigued and excited by these signs, I stopped in to meet my local neighborhood beekeeper, who was thrilled that I knocked on his door to say hello. He brought me over to his hives and taught me a lot about what it means to care for bees. I wanted to support my farm neighbor, so I bought a gallon of honey. What I was going to do with that much honey, I had yet to figure out.
When I got home, I started looking through my cupboards to see if some inspiration would call out to me. Having been an “herbal tinkerer” for some time, I kept coming across herb after herb, and it soon became apparent that I was meant to make some magic with these old plant friends and my sweet new bee bounty. A little afraid to ruin my perfect golden jar of goodness, I decided to start experimenting with my fail-safe herb, lavender.
After three weeks of excitingly waiting for the floral notes to infuse, I was left with the most delicious honey I had ever eaten!
There are two main ways to infuse herbs into honey: without heat, or with heat. There are pros and cons to each method, so we've included both here for your reference.
Like many folk herbalists, I like to infuse herbs into raw honey to enjoy the benefits of both the botanicals and the unprocessed honey in each spoonful. However, I usually use dried herbal leaf and flower material, rather than fresh plant matter and/or denser plant parts like barks and roots. If you're interested in creating honeys with the latter type of ingredients, you may find more success with the heated method below!
Yields 1 quart (32 ounces).
Ingredients
Directions
Pro Tips:
As noted in the no-heat method intro above, there are times when it may be worthwhile to use heat to create your herbal honey, even though you will lose some of the beneficial properties of raw honey by doing so. For example, if you choose to infuse honey with fresh herbs, it's important to keep in mind that the extra moisture introduced into the infusion from the fresh material increases the risk of culturing undesirable bacteria that can cause your honey to ferment—like mead, but in an uncontrolled way. Heating your honey during the infusion process allows you to create a much more shelf-stable end product. Honey also isn't particularly effective at extracting the properties of dense, woody materials like bark and roots at room-temperature, so adding heat can really help the infusion process along.
Watch as author and clinical herbalist Maria Noël Groves of Wintergreen Botanicals demonstrates how to infuse honey using heat (a method she learned from her teacher and mentor, famed herbalist Michael Moore).
Yields about 1 cup (8 ounces).
Ingredients
Directions
Pro Tips:
Excited to get started with blends? Try out my two most reliable herbal honey recipes below!
Yields 1 quart (32 oz.)
Yields 1 quart (32 oz.)
While I’m sure you won’t have trouble finding uses for this special treat, some of my favorite ways to enjoy it are drizzled on fresh fruit, on ice cream, on toast, and in tea!
The options for creating herb-infused honey are virtually limitless, so feel free to explore! I have shared two of my favorite blends, but you can use my ratios to create your own unique flavors. Some of my other favorite herbs to infuse:
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