Banksia honey
"woody, malty, molasses, golden syrup, caramelised banana"
This is an Eltham walk derived post, which probably won't say much - except that banksia honey is Australian and different.
Along the way on my walk, I pass a house with a narrow strip of garden between the house and the road, currently filled with banksias in bloom. They were so lovely that I took a couple of photographs. Well actually I took the photographs a couple of days after I first noticed them, as my phone had no charge the first time I passed them, but I made a note to myself to photograph them next time. So I did - today.
And then I wondered how to fit them into a post - they're just a plant after all and we don't eat them. But then again, yes we do. For they yield a substantial amount of honey, beloved by bees, birds and even small marsupials. If you smell them, you can smell the honey.
"the flowers help produce honey that smells extremely similar to baked bananas. Thick and dark, banksia honey is perfect on fruit with whipped cream." Good Food
There are lots of different kinds of banksias and I'm guessing that all of them can provide nectar for the bees. They are uniquely Australian and a pretty unique kind of flower. They are named after Joseph Banks the botanist who accompanied Captain Cook on his voyage of discovery to Australia and New Zealand, and who collected and documented all the Australian flora that he found. This painting is by Sir Joshua Reynolds. It shows him as a fairly young man with a touch of adventurer about him I think.
It must have been paradise for a botanist, seeing all these previously unknown plants. For Australia, as we all know, was separated from the world early on and so developed its own flora and fauna. When I was a child my father brought me May Gibbs' Snugglepot and Cuddlepie after one of his Australian trips. The baddies in the rather charming sort of fairy stories about Snugglepot and Cuddlepie, were the banksia men. I really didn't like the banksia men. I found them very frightening. Wouldn't you? That drawing of him running away with he gum nut child is extremely alarming.
And you can clearly see how May Gibbs made a monster out of the seed pods of the banksia tree. But the banksia men were really far too frightening for little children. Well I thought so anyway.
But I am straying from my subject of banksia honey. I have noticed it in the supermarkets as a varietal honey - mostly we don't buy them because of the extra cost - we're very stingy in this household - but we have bought it from time to time - mostly because it seems to crystallise out and my husband likes the crystallised honey. It is apparently one of the stronger tasting honeys and is much darker in colour than the others. So I thought I would take some pictures of it but in Woolworths there was none - and not many varietal honeys either. I do not know if Coles has any, but either this is yet another example of the supermarkets slashing their range, or it is possibly a seasonal thing. Beechworth Honey still advertise it on their website, and there are various other makers out there too.
I'm going to do a post on Beechworth Honey and Australian honey in general, some time, so I won't expand on that here, but will just provide the Beechworth tasting notes for their Banksia honey.
"Banksia honey is another one of our darker honeys that is full of rich bold tones giving it a very distinct palate. This variety is a delicious addition to marinades where a strong punchy flavour is desired." Beechworth honey
They, and others, are putting a lot of effort into developing Australian honey - moving it up the gourmet ladder - so I hope the supermarkets are going to encourage them in this rather than delete everything other than the blander blends from their shelves.
