Honey-based Home Remedies – Grandma’s Natural Home Elixir, Tweaked
Many of us can attest that honey, often infused with a few plugs of garlic or a grated slice of tumeric, was the go-to miracle medicine that grandma or mom used to offer as a home remedy for a stomach ache, a cough, or a sore throat. But the once thriving honey industry waned in the 80s, and so did the home remedies. Now, the Ministry of Agriculture is on a campaign to revive the sector and promote the all-natural honey-based home remedies of yore. News Five’s Marion Ali reports.
Marion Ali, Reporting
Today citizens interested in combining honey with other condiments to soothe minor aches or discomforts attended a training workshop at the Ministry of Agriculture’s Central Farm lab to learn just that. Coordinator of the ministry’s honey and beekeeping unit, Miguel Huertas told us there are various ways that honey can be used as a preventative medicine or treatment for minor health issues.
Miguel Huertas
Miguel Huertas, Coordinator, Honey & Beekeeping, Ministry of Agriculture
“We want to train the beekeepers and other cooperatives which are interested in diversifying products. For example, today we did honey-tumeric, honey-garlic, honey-cacao, and honey ginger, which if we put that in the market we have five products additional from honey and four more that people can consume, not only for just a sweetener but medicinal and nutritious properties that the honey and the other ingredients can assist us health-wise.”
And if you didn’t know, there are two types of honey in Belize: clear and dark, and they are recommended for different uses.
Miguel Huertas
“The nectar that the bees forage from the flowers, that determines the colour of the honey. If we are looking for a medicinal purpose, we will pick a darker honey. Ehy it is darker is because it has more vitamins, more minerals, more enzymes and that makes it more nutritious and medicinal, even four times more than the clear one. If we are looking for a sweetener, we can go for the clear honey.”
There was also a lesson on how to make honey wine and candles from beeswax.
Miguel Huertas
“We are doing candles, which are very healthy in the sense that if we use it as therapeutic use we can benefit from the properties that it has for treating asthma and any respiratory problem. The other one that we’re doing today is the mead, which is a honey wine – the first alcoholic beverage in the world, which was consumed by the Vikings. That is fermented honey, which we can sell as a product as well, not only to drink as alcohol, but for medicinal purpose as well as treating problems while sleeping and you can even use for massage purposes.”
For Miguel Huertas, the bottom line is why buy a chemical solution if a natural one can do the trick.
Miguel Huertas
“I don’t want to say that it is not good to go to the pharmacy. You will definitely get a quick response for your body if you buy pharmaceuticals, but if we use these products we can use it as a preventative and even to tackle any chronic disease. But the idea is to consume natural, to go to what we have local.”
The session aimed to teach the participants how to become entrepreneurs and market their honey-based products. The ministry’s honey and beekeeping unit teamed up today with its agro-processing unit and its Livestock Coordinator, Andrew Maheia, who indicated how much our honey markets have shrunk.
Andrew Maheia
Andrew Maheia, Coordinator, Livestock Unit, Ministry of Agriculture
“Currently, the country is only producing forty percent of the honey we need, so we have a shortfall of about sixty percent.”
Marion Ali
“So where do we get the rest?”
Andrew Maheia
“Currently, the balance is being imported. We also have an issue with the contraband, but what we’re doing here and what we’ve being countrywide for the last two years is trying to rebound the industry. Production went up by thirty-five percent in 2022.”
Stephanie Ramirez and Desmond Leslie are already established investors who wanted to learn techniques they might not have known.
Stephanie Ramirez
Stephanie Ramirez, Owner, Country Dream Farm
“My goal is to be able to tap into the value-added products and to be able to be more involved in ensuring that our country get on the next level with our neighbouring countries, Guatemala and Mexico with the bi-products.”
Desmond Leslie
Desmond Leslie, Representative, Farm to Perfection
“We as a business have already been doing some infusions already based on the products that we push out. This is a different approach whereas we use the actual garlic as opposed to the powder and the same with the ginger. We get the same taste. From a business standpoint, this might be a little bit faster because with the actual garlic you will have to let it sit there for a few weeks so that it infuses.”
The end goal for the Ministry of Agriculture, according to Andrew Maheia, is to reverse Belize’s current position from being an importer of honey to becoming an exporter.
Andrew Maheia
“It’s important that we get the industry back to where it once was. In the 80’s we used to export honey, now we’re importing the majority of the honey that we consume.”
Marion Ali for News Five.
