Happy Veterans Day today, especially to the women in the armed forces. ADVERTISING Happy Veterans Day today, especially to the women in the armed forces. The fifth annual Hawaii Honey Festival is slated for 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 22,
Happy Veterans Day today, especially to the women in the armed forces.
The fifth annual Hawaii Honey Festival is slated for 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 22, at Nani Mau Gardens on Makalika Street, Panaewa. You will have the opportunity to taste honey, vote on your favorite and help select the People’s Choice honey. There also will be honey and crafts on sale, kids activities, garden tours, great food, beekeeping demonstrations, bee education and local music. Entry fee is $5 for adults and free for children younger than 12.
This year, there are more than 60 beekeepers hoping their honey will be named best of the show.
Twelve of us were asked to be judges, going through three flights of honey. We tipped the jars to check for clarity, watched the size of the air bubble as it moved upward. If that air bubble moved up too quickly, it might mean the honey could be very “watery,” with a high moisture content. Ideally, 18.6 percent is what you want, but in Hawaii our honey tends to have about 20 percent moisture content. With high moisture content, honey can ferment more quickly so if you know that when you purchase your jar of honey, you know you need to consume it quickly.
For the second year, I had the privilege of judging with Lauren Rusert, the apiarist at the Hilo Department of Agriculture. Lauren’s knowledge of bees is always amazing and I love to find out what the latest experimentations are being done. For the past three years, Lauren has been developing bees to be VSH, or varroa sensitive hygiene, or resistant to the varroa mite.
With more than 60 colonies placed in a variety of areas, they are finding some of the lowest mite levels ever. Within one year, Lauren hopes to release queens resistant to the varroa mite to beekeepers resistant. Other considerations are that this new breed of bee is a gentle bee, and that they produce a lot of honey. So far, so good, as the bees in the experiment are not aggressive and are good honey producers.
We had three flights of honey and a couple of flights of solids. As I learned from Lauren, certain nectars produce a light honey; others, dark amber. We tasted a white solid honey Lauren thought might be from the ohia-lehua, and possibly from upper elevations as the honey was solid, as if it had been refrigerated. It is hard to imagine a beautiful red flower would produce white honey.
At the end of judging, six of the judges stayed back to taste the best of the best. Each one of the six honeys was clear, had nice noses and had a clean, smooth mouth feel. It was hard to decide, as each had its own distinct taste, but one stood out among them all.
Judge Ryan Kadota of Kadota Liquors commented that honey judging is similar to wine tasting. We sniffed and graded for aroma, put honey in our mouths, allowed it to coat our tongues and waited for some flavor to jump out at us.
The judges did their job, now it is up to you to go to the Hawaii Honey Festival to see for yourself which honey is the best of the show.
I took all my little samplings of honey into a cup and ended up with half a cup. With that, I made honey mustard baked chicken.
Baked Honey Mustard Chicken
Combine:
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup prepared mustard
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon dried parsley
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste:
6 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
Place in lightly greased 9-by-13-inch baking dish. Pour half of the honey mustard sauce over the chicken breasts, brush to cover.
Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes. Turn chicken pieces over and brush with the remaining half of the honey mustard sauce, bake for another 15 minutes, or until chicken is no longer pink and juices run clear. Let cool 10 minutes before serving.
Foodie bites
The Hawaii Community College Culinary Program’s Cafeteria is open this week from 10:45 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Tuesday through Friday. Call 934-2559 to place an order and for takeouts. You can get tomato beef or Korean Fried Chicken (if it is on the menu) for $6.50, which includes choice of rice, pasta or potatoes, hot vegetable du jour or tossed greens with house dressing and hot soup of the day.
Call and support the students at the culinary college.
The ACF Kona Kohala Chefs Association Culinary Scholarship Benefit, Christmas at Kamakahonu Bay-Dining with the Chefs, is set for 5:30-8 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 6, at The Courtyard King Kamehameha’s Kona Beach Hotel Seaside Lu‘au Grounds. Tickets are $85 or reserved table of 10 for $1,000, and are available online at www.konakohalachefs.org or by credit card by calling Kailua Candy Company at 329-2522.
A special standard room rate of $189, which includes breakfast buffet for two and parking, is available by calling 331-6330 and asking for the Christmas at Kamkahonu rate. If you are interested in attending, do not wait, there will be only 400 tickets available.
Email me at audreywilson808@gmail.com if you have questions.
