This natural sweetener just got even more natural

Besides bees, humans too are known to cluster around honey! Loyal fans simply lap it up, spooned over toast, stirred into tea, poured over ice-cream, or in many other wonderful ways. This natural sweetener has always been popular for its taste as well as its many medicinal benefits. Collecting honey, of course, has traditionally been a tricky process, with gatherers having to climb very high up on trees, protect themselves from irritated bees, and needing to destroy most of the hive and many of the bees too…all a rather violent procedure!

But now there's 'Nisarga Honey' - which is called 'non-violent honey'. Jayashree Shidore, an ardent environmentalist, distributes bottles of the golden good stuff from her home at Karvenagar, and has a growing and committed clientèle. "Its fragrance, taste and texture is so good and pure, that once you've tasted it, you'll never feel like trying any other brand of honey," says Jayashree.

How and where did it all start? Way back in 1992, Jayashree was helping her husband Anil, who was with the voluntary organisation Oxfam in Wardha. There she met Dr. Gopal Paliwal, a bee expert (and also a consultant with the Government Bee Research Institute of Pune), who was trying to find a way to collect honey without causing any harm to the bees and provide employment to the local tribal youth. Usually, bees are smoked out of their hives during collection. "Not only are large numbers killed outright, but the trees too get damaged by the fire and the beehives are totally destroyed," explains Jayashree. In his quest for a less destructive method of honey collection, Dr Paliwal designed an 'astronaut-type' outfit which provides protection from bee stings to the gatherer. Equipped in this novel way the gatherer, breaks off only a small portion of the comb, which is filled with honey, leaving intact the portion where the colony of the queen bee and her workers reside. "This ensures that the worker bees, in no time, build up the comb and re-fill it with more honey," Jayashree explains.

Jayashree has taken great pains to streamline the marketing process in Pune. When she first started selling the honey, it would come to her from Wardha in used biscuit tins and bottles of different sizes. It now comes in sealed 500 gm bottles. Her clientèle includes many Ayurvedic doctors, as well as the health-conscious.

Collected in various seasons and from different trees, the honey comes in subtly different flavours. Besides its delicious taste, honey is used for mixing herbal medicines, to reduce acidity, to improve eyesight, to regulate metabolism, to treat skin infections, improve appetite, blood circulation and for a whole lot of other health benefits. Honey contains 72-78% of natural dextrose and fructose. It contains1.5 to 3 % of sugar, and vitamins, proteins, enzymes and iron. Little wonder, then, that some people call honey by another name: 'liquid gold'.

Priced at Rs.85 for 500gms, Nisarga Honey is available with Jayashree Shidore at: 'Kalyan' 32, Natraj Society, Karvenagar, Pune 411 052,Phone: 25443134, 98231 38888.

Mita Banerjee