We never cease to be amazed in life when people and events come together synergistically, where their efforts and the resulting outcomes grow far beyond the potential accomplishments of a single individual. Our propolis, purple loosestrife, and Usnea wound wash, the newest product offered by the honey house, is not only the result of such synergistic human efforts, but its key ingredients are synergistic players as well. The herbs and propolis work beautifully together to promote tissue repair, heal fresh scar tissue, decrease inflammation and bleeding, stimulate local immune system functions, and act as an antibacterial, antifungal, anti-inflammatory, and antiviral agent. The astringent quality contributes its effectiveness as an antidiarrheal agent as well. In the language of wound healing, this is indeed broad spectrum coverage.

The arrival of our throat spray & wound wash to the marketplace at this time is indeed fortuitous. In this age of antibiotic resistance there needs to be a natural product that acts as a broad spectrum antibiotic and antiseptic (similar in nature to iodine and Betadine™). Propolis, raw honey, and Usnea are known individually to have strong antibiotic activity against gram-positive bacteria such as Streptococcus, Staphylococcus, and Pneumonococcus organisms. Combined in the same formula, propolis, raw honey, and Usnea with added purple loosestrife act synergistically to provide a unique natural coverage as a broad spectrum antibiotic and antiseptic. For people who cannot or choose not to take pharmaceutical antibiotics, throat spray & wound wash is a welcome solution.

Purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria), the much-maligned-of-late, magenta flowered, aggressively growing wetlands perennial, is a key contributor to wound wash effectiveness. Originally introduced to the North American cut flower trade from Japan in the 1880s, perennial flower enthusiasts more recently have included it in their gardens because of its lovely spikes of purply-pink flowers. No one foresaw that purple loosestrife was a beauty who didn’t respect boundaries and as a result, she began replacing native plant wetland species. Our intention at the honey house is to take full advantage of the local abundance of purple loosestrife. We harvest it in a way that not only discourages its invasive spread into our wetland ecosystems, but also optimizes its contributions to the wound wash formula. Its wound healing properties as an antibacterial, astringent, emollient, anti-inflammatory, and antihemorrhagic (styptic) agent combine nicely with those of the propolis and Usnea. In using purple loosestrife we are removing it from ecosystems where it doesn’t belong and at the same time creating a very effective wound wash, because of its synergistic effect with propolis and Usnea.

Though loosestrife threatens native aquatic vegetation, it provides an important pollen source for pollinators, particularly in times of drought, and is ranked close to goldenrod as a leading nectar producing plant. In an effort to constructively utilize this overabundant perennial, valued by many herbalists for its medicinal properties, we have formulated an Apitherapy propolis (a natural antibiotic produced by the bees) purple loosestrife Usnea throat spray and wound wash that is now available.

For a few years we have been noticing that the bee yards closest to stands of loosestrife produced significantly more honey than did other hives. During times of drought, we saw that these plants helped to keep our bees alive and productive. Since nearly 40% of the food we eat depends on pollination by insects, of which honeybees play a major role, survival of pollinators because of loosestrife is an important service to food producers and consumers around the country.

Appreciative of the plant’s contribution to the work of the bees, we sought a means of further synthesizing the two. Knowing the plant’s medicinal value, we obtained permission from the State of Vermont to harvest the otherwise quarantined plant. In August, 2002, our crew wildcrafted acres of loosestrife. Shortly afterwards, herbalists Barbara Raab Nardozzi and Tim McFarline formulated a wound wash using loosestrife and Usnea extracts and propolis. Usnea is a lichen that has been traditionally used throughout the world as an antiseptic, antibacterial, and antifungal agent. We harvest it from living and dead trees in Vermont and the north country.

Our new product joins the line of Honey Gardens Apitherapy natural products. We currently produce Apitherapy Farm-style Raw Honey containing beneficial traces of pollen, propolis and beeswax Apitherapy Honey Elderberry Extract, a traditional cold and flu fighter, made with organic elderberry, echinacea and natural vitamin C and cough calming Apitherapy Honey Wild Cherry Syrup, made with propolis, organic and wildcrafted herbs.

Thank you for your interest in and support of our bees and their work.

It is not fresh news that the

standard American diet (acronym is s.a.d.!) is not health supportive. For at least four decades, we have been listening to the medical community’s advice about the quality and quantity of fat and fiber in our diets, and the increased incidence of heart disease, diabetes (particularly Type II, adult onset), cancer, and obesity among our population. As a result, many people have shifted their dietary intakes toward a plant-based diet which is rich in vitamins, minerals, fiber, and antioxidants, just to name a few nutrients. We have improved our diets “in layers,” meaning that the initial shift for some people is toward a plant-based diet. Subsequent layers or shifts include incorporating more organic produce and free-range poultry and meats, and what we call “superfoods.” Superfoods are called such because they are foods that are naturally rich in vitamins, minerals, and trace minerals. Blue-green algaes (e.g., chlorella and spirulina), seaweeds (e.g., kelp and dulse), bee pollen, and raw honey are examples of superfoods because of their extraordinarily generous contents of beneficial nutrients.

The most recent layer of awareness that has resulted in a shift in dietary improvement is the knowledge that certain foods contain highly beneficial, therapeutic enzymes. Many of us are returning to a way of eating that incorporates the ways of traditional or native peoples. Not only are our food choices minimally processed (considered “whole foods”) and grown or raised organically, but equally importantly, many are vital, rich in, and alive with enzymes. In short, they are “live foods.” Even though a traditional society/culture might not know what an enzyme is and how it works, these people benefit from eating foods that are rich in enzymes. Their low incidence of modern diseases and their longevity are the result of eating health-supportive diets. Lower stress levels as compared to those of people living in the modern world are a factor we can’t ignore as well.

Before we go further, we need to talk about what enzymes are. Enzymes are necessary for our bodies to function optimally. They are substances (protein specifically) that are able to simplify complex elements into simple elements. There are three classes of enzymes: digestive, metabolic, and food enzymes (which are present in raw foods). Enzymes are catalysts for biochemical processes and reactions in the body. When we are talking about digestion, this means that enzymes are necessary for the digestion of or breakdown of foods (like fats, carbohydrates, and proteins) into their simplest form. Enzymes make it possible for proteins to be broken down into amino acids and for complex carbohydrates to be broken down into simple sugars, for example. In addition to supporting digestion and making it possible, enzymes are also metabolic. They are involved in hundreds of metabolic reactions within our bodies which enable our complex biochemistries to work in the miraculous ways that they do, converting foods that we eat into renewing building products and energy.

All humans have what is called “enzyme potential,” meaning that we are born with an enzyme-making potential to satisfy the metabolic and digestive needs of the body. Nutrients that we ingest in the form of mostly raw and uncooked foods are also used to manufacture enzymes because our bodies’ enzyme reserves can’t always meet the demands for enzymes. Our bodies have evolved the natural ability to conserve enzymes by manufacturing them only on demand. We can also arrange for digestive enzymes to come into the body by taking digestive enzymes in capsule form. The virtues of enzymes and their significance in today’s diets are exclaimed/appreciated by noted doctors such as the late Dr. Edward Howell. A number of books, most notably Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats (1999), by Sally Fallon with Mary Enig, Ph.D. and Patient Heal Thyself (2003), by Jordan Rubin, N.M.D, C.N.C., are also emphasizing the importance of enzymes in the diet.

What are some sources of these beneficial enzymes? Raw honey is a food noted for its exceptionally high enzyme content. Other enzyme-rich raw foods include bee (flower) pollen, vegetables and fruits (especially avocado, banana, papaya, and pineapple), extra virgin olive oil, raw dairy foods, lacto-fermented dairy products like yogurt and kefir and cultured or fermented foods such as miso and sauerkraut. (Grains, nuts, legumes, and seeds are rich in enzymes as well as other nutrients, but they also contain enzyme inhibitors like phytic acid. This is why traditional cultures soak and sprout these foods in order to deactivate the enzyme inhibitors.) It needs to be emphasized here that these foods must not be heated so that the enzymes are viable and available. Here at Honey Gardens Apiaries, our honey is strictly raw and unheated, thus retaining the maximum enzyme content.

As mentioned above, because our honey is raw and unheated, the maximum enzyme content and health benefits are present for the consumer. Honey contains more than 75 different compounds (Buhner, Herbal Antibiotics, pp. 47 – 48), among them: enzymes, minerals and trace minerals, vitamins, proteins, carbohydrates, organic acids, and hydrogen peroxide. The enzymes in raw honey help to initiate the process of digestion and reduce the body’s need to produce digestive enzymes. Because of its high enzyme content, raw honey spares the enzyme reserves of the pancreas and other digestive organs. They won’t be constantly stimulated to produce and secrete various digestive enzymes. Wonderful long-term benefits of this enzyme-sparing activity are good health, increased longevity and energy, fewer illnesses, and a healthy immune system. In this way, one can see the importance of including raw, unheated honey in the diet.

Thank you for your interest in and support of our bees and their work.

Our northern woods, fields, and wetlands are rich in botanical treasures. Many of these plants are medicinal as well. In particular,Vermont transitional forests are home to one of our most valued medicinal trees, the wild cherry, or Prunus serotina. We value the wild cherry for its inner bark which is a main ingredient in our wild cherry cough syrup.

Unlike commercial cough medicines which are typically flavored, colored, and sweetened as if containing actual cherry fruits, our formula is made the way traditional wild cherry bark cough syrups have been made since the nineteenth century. It is the bark rather than the fruit that is more therapeutic and medicinal. Of specific influence and inspiration to our formula is Dr. D.C. Jarvis, a twentieth century Vermont folk medicine country doctor, whose use of both apple cider vinegar and raw honey in treating coughs is tried and true. Our Apitherapy wild cherry syrup contains a base of raw honey and organic apple cider vinegar to which we add organic and wild crafted herbs and propolis.

Contained within our vision is the intention of wildcrafting sustainably, never depleting natural populations of wild medicine plants. Todd’s brother-in-law is a forester and alerted him that some cherry trees had been cut down and bark would be available from sections of logs that were too small to be marketable. Tim and Carol of the honey house crew carefully removed first the outer bark which is not used, and then the prized inner bark for our syrup. This is a wonderful example of the choreography of sustainable practice: agriculture working in tandem with forestry.

There is a bit of irony surrounding the naming of our plant medicine, the wild cherry syrup. Although ingredients in our formula have been used traditionally to treat coughs at least since the early nineteenth century (and volumes of anecdotal evidence support their success rate), we cannot label our syrup a cough syrup because it does not contain one of the chemicals that the FDA deems necessary to include for such labeling.

Our wild cherry syrup is pure plant medicine. It acts as a respiratory relaxant, an anti-inflammatory and demulcent for inflamed respiratory tissues, and an antitussive for relieving irritating, relentless, and spasmodic coughs. The propolis and raw honey contribute antibiotic action, making this a very effective product.

to order Apitherapy honey wild cherry syrup, Apitherapy honey, and more, via credit card from our website click here

Apitherapy raw honey is important for maintaining health, too, because it is one of the eight or so foods that are very high in enzymes.