Consuming Interest
Go11 optious Potful
By LESLIE ADRIAN
IT may astound you to know (as it certainly It was a brief visit to Cornwall this spring and the purchase of a jar of pure Cornish honey that drew my attention to the fact that members of the Cornwall County Beekeepers' Association sometimes display the Kitemark on their jars of honey, and in any case seem anxious to keep up the standard for a commodity which, in other parts of the British Isles, is not always what it is made out to be.
Extracted honey, clear or crystallised, should have been 'produced by bees from nectar. . . Some beekeepers, however, who may be careless of greedy, will feed their bees more sugar than is strictly necessary. This way they bump up the honey output of the bees, but for the most part the honey is no more than converted sugar, akin to the invert sugar which used to pass for honey among the uninstructed.
It should not do so any longer for, although there are some honey-like spreads on the market, they are not allowed to call themselves honey, or pure honey. Sellers seem to know so little about the honey they stock that I have been to the trouble of amassing a few elementary facts. One which may be familiar to country dwellers is that there is no material difference between thick and clear honey. (There are those who be- lieve that the thick honey contains wax from the comb.) The only difference is that thin honey is heated (but not boiled) to delay crystallisation, and should stay clear for some time in storage, depending upon the flowers from which 'it has been extracted.
Honey tends to vary in quality from year to year, like wine. The ideal summer for the bees (or rather their customers) is hot and sunny, but with enough rain to keep the flowers in good condition. In such a year the honey will be good and plentiful, and therefore cheaper. Or, at least, not dearer : it has sometimes seemed as if prices tended to move only one way. If the honey is taken from the hive too early in the summer there may be too much sycamore nectar in it, which does not make for good flavour. Later in the summer, when the lime blossom is out, the honey made by the bees will have a better flavour.
Because of the characteristic tastes imparted to honey by certain flowers, notably heather in the British Isles, the BSI has also laid down a standard for grades of honey designated 'Extra Select Heather,' and heather honey in comb is protected• by the rules of the Agricultural Produce Act, 1928. The imported honeys are not guaranteed in this way, but I have applied my own eating test to one of the cheapest exotic honeys, Spanish rosemary, at 3s. per lb., and found it good. There is also .a Spanish orange- blossom honey at the same price, which I have been reliably informed is excellent value. These honeys, again like wine, are brought over in barrel and bottled in Britain. They can be bought in all grocers of the Jackson quality, and most health food stores have good selections.
Perhaps the most famous honey in the world is Hymettus, and the most luxurious, thyme honey from Mount Hybla, and there are few better ways of remembering a holiday in Greece than breakfasting on a local honey months after- wards. No fear of customs duty on a reasonable amount, either. Last year I brought back some Bavella honey from Corsica : its flavour, derived from the aromatic shrubs of the maquis, would be hard to better for pungency and perfume. France has some delicate honeys which are not exported, and well worth bringing home from holiday. For example, if you are in the region, there are miel du Gatinais from the Orleanais, Morvan honey from Burgundy and the aromatic mountain honey of the Dauphine.
Honey from the Commonwealth is cheap and good (usually about 2s. 9d. per lb.). When labelled 'Blended Imported' or 'Pure Empire' it will mostly be a blend of Australian, which is strongly flavoured with eucalyptus nectar, and a milder honey from some other part of the Common- wealth, possibly Jamaica. New Zealand honey, like Polish, is a mixed flower honey, mostly gathered from clover, and is probably the best of the Empire blends. It costs 3s. 2d. per lb. at present. Israeli honey, too, is excellent. And for the really keen, Fortnum's do a box of small pots with distinctly different flavours, and this, though expensive, may be a good way to begin being a honey-fancier.
A good many women must have wished, at one time or another, to pay a lump sum every year for their nylon problem and have done with it. Last week an energetic young man burst into my office to tell me about his new scheme, Nylons Unlimited, which does just that. A woman pays a pound entrance fee for a set of three nylons and then 2s. 6d. a week thereafter; every stock- ing she ladders and sends back is replaced (however the damage was caused). Those who like to have a good many nylons around in case of accident, Mr. Wynne explained, can pay extra pounds for extra sets of three, though the weekly rate of 2s. 6d. still covers all replacements.
This seems to me an admirable scheme, and I wish Mr. Wynne every success. I took one girl in this office who ladders at least one pair of 4s. I 1 d. stockings in a week and reckoned she would save well over £5 a year on the deal— though of course someone living in the country who only wears nylons twice a week, and thirty denier at that, would not get the same benefit. One advantage the scheme has over the purchase of 'guaranteed' nylons, of course, is that the guarantees don't operate if you drop a cigarette on them or the puppy gets them : Nylons Un- limited do not care what happens The only drawback, in fact, seems to be that you do not yet get much choice of stocking: there are two shades and they are all seamed (though they do vary the leg length). Mr Wynne says that when the thing grows he will be able to branch out and have more styles: I hope so. And the nylons, though fifteen denier, are of that slightly less sheer type that always goes with guarantees (Taylor Woods Evening Lifelon, for instance, would not do for all types of evening). But otherwise it seems an admirable scheme. The address is 26 Gay Street, Bath.
Consumers now have their own Interpol. A meeting at The Hague a few weeks ago cul- minated in the setting-up of the International Office of Consumers' Unions--another set of initials to add to your collection, IOCU (tempting to suggest that they might have stuck to ICU, with its hint of Big Brother). The new interna- tional's Technical Exchange Committee, which looks like being the key department, will be headed by CA's Eirlys Roberts and Morris Kaplan of the Consumers' Union of the United States. Countries Whose consumer organisa- tions will be taking part in IOCU's work include Holland, France, Iceland, Austria, Sweden, New Zealand, Denmark, Norway and West Germany. Presumably there are no deficient or shoddy goods produced on the far side of that curtain.
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