The annual (mannerly) argument is upon us, i.e. about honey. "Fine," says one doctor, "as long as you realise it's just sugar." Oh, it's a lot more, say the faithful. But even on the first judgment, we find reference to it all over literature. Rupert Brooke: "Stands the church clock at ten to three,/ And is there honey still for tea?" There are references in the Bible and Shakespeare.
Frank O'Connor, in his Kings, Lords and Commons, a collection of poems from the seventh century to the 19th, has in a poem, The Hermitage, a saint listing his frugal needs in a small hut in woodland, praying for `Leeks from the garden, poultry, game,/ Salmon and trout and bees." Wise man. Anyway, two gifts in recent time of honey, one in pots from Sean Cronin of the Gourmet Shop in Rathgar, which he labels as Irish Woodland Honey from Woodtown, Rathfarnham, and it comes in two shades, one darker than the other. What flowers were the bees feeding on? He laughs: "Just call it summer honey." A bit of everything, then.
And, in comb form a gift from Andrew and Mary Healy, Glen Ita, Ballingarry Wood, Wexford. Splendid, rich, almost toffee-ish in colour and flavour. What were the bees feeding on? Well there is a primeval oak wood there, also limes and other deciduous trees. Leave it to the bees. Their formula is great. There will be a lot of honey around when the Dublin Beekeepers' Association holds its annual honey show, craft exhibition and sale at Christ Church Hall, Rathgar on Saturday November 25th from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.
There will be much in the craft part of it from aromatherapy, plants, old postcards, stained glass, pottery and what not. Admission £1 for the DSPCA. (Enquiries to Anne O'Sullivan, Dublin 2888873.)
And then the argument about the wider use of honey as related many times here with particular reference to D.C. Jarvis, M.D., author of Folk Medicine, described as a doctor's life-time study of Nature's secrets. He lists some of honey's virtues: it easily and rapidly assimilates, has a sedative value, quieting the body, and medically, he writes, it calms the nervous, high-strung type of person, produces sleep at night. He quotes a case of arthritis being cured for a woman when boarding at a farm where honey was the only sweetening agent.
"It could," writes the doctor, "be attributed to the remedying of potassium deficiency with the honey." You don't have to agree with any of this to go to the Honey Show on the 25th of this month. (The book was published by W.H. Allen, London in 1960. Folk Medicine, A Doctor's Guide to Good Health.)