Natural…

I read somewhere online that what is natural is best and what is processed may not be all that good – they were talking about butter and margarine.

Well, the kelulut honey, unlike the commercially processed and produced ones sold at the shops and supermarkets, is definitely 100% natural and my dear friend, my ex-colleague, Carole, is rearing those stingless bees for it. She was also at that wedding dinner that night and she asked me to drop by her house to get it from her.

She has all these hives…

…all over her house compound…

…and the bees are in those rectangular boxes on top.

The hubby opened a couple…

…so I could have a glimpse at the bees and the honeycomb inside…

They planted these flowers, what the Malays call bunga air mata pengantin (bride’s tears), the pink…

…as well as the white…

…variety. If I am not wrong, these are called Mexican creepers and also coral vine, Coralita, bee bush or San Miguelito vine but many people are planting them for the bees so much so that they are starting to call it bunga pengantin kelulut. My neighbour has it growing on his fence in front of the house and it sure attracts a lot of bees, the stingless ones as well as the not-s0-harmless varieties.

I’ve noticed that the bees are also attracted to my dill flowers…

…which I’m sure will contribute towards bringing the taste of the honey to a whole new level as the flowers are as fragrant as the leaves. I was told recently that in New Zealand, they plant the manuka flowers for their bees so the taste of the manuka honey is pretty consistent unlike the kelulut honey which will depend on what flowers or sources of honey they have access to. I understand that during the fruit season when the trees will all be flowering, the honey will be extra nice.

I told Carole about the bees and my dill flowers and yes, she heard about that too and she showed me the ones she planted – they are still very small; I am sure it would be quite  a while before there will be any flowers.

She gave me a bottle of the honey and I got two more bottles from her – of course, I paid for the fruit of her labour, RM25.00 each…and she also gave me this jar of tempoyak (fermented durian) that she made herself recently…

How very timely! My missus just used up our stock of the very much coveted stuff a couple of weeks ago.

Thank you so much, Carole – I sure will drop by again as and when I need any more of the honey.