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Honey
Sweet
and warm golden reflexes of honey hide the world where swarms of
harmoniously working bees magically transform the nectar of flowers and
plants in product called "miele", used as sweetening and as
medicine with specific curative properties since ever.
Although
always present on the territory of the Marches, apiculture was notably
spread during the first years of the 20th century. More than
1800 producers of honey have helped the region reach the highest levels
both in quality and in quantity.
In
order to produce excellent honey of great energetic value, high
digestibility, high presence of enzymes, vitamins and oligoelements, bees
have to live in perfectly unpolluted surroundings. The best place to
create this treasure in secret of their apiari,
those tireless workers find on hills covered with fields of Leguminosae
and lucerne.
Cautious
and precise movements of beekeepers are always the same. Honey, on the
contrary, has different qualities, flavours, consistencies and colours:
depending on the altitude and on the type of flora that surrounds beehives,
on the climate and on the period of "smielatura" (when honey is
extracted from honeycombs). Classic and largely known honey Millefiori, for example, can be extremely different from vessel to
vessel. It depends on nectars of some specific plants (acacia, Leguminosae,
hen's bill, clover, sunflower, etc.) and on the season when it is
extracted. Spring Millefiori is
generally darker and softer than the summer
one (because of higher grade of acacia nectar), but it is equally
equilibrated in taste, excellent in use as energetic sweetening of healthy
everyday food.
Miele di Melata (sweet substance produced
by leaves of some trees), dark and of the slowest crystallization, in the
Marches is obtained mostly from oak.
This honey, with strong and particular taste, is rich with potassium and
other minerals.
The
light coloured Miele d'Acacia,
thanks to its light colour, its being liquid and transparent, is
distinguished from less used sunflower
honey, crystallized and of brilliant yellow colour.
Beneficial
properties of honey can be concentrated in royal
jelly and propolis.
Beekeepers
from the Marches often unite in associations of the category. Trademarks
certify the origin and the quality of their products, and insure honey
that is result of passion and of knowledge. Maintenance of its integrity
and perfect composition, without thermo-treatments, just as produced by
bees, is guaranteed.
In
order to acknowledge, protect and distribute this important product in the
agricultural panorama of the Marches, classification PDO
(Protected Denomination of Origin) of regional honey is being defined.
In
this way, even the bold work of bees will be given credit, while we will
continue to taste their sweet product, maybe - as according to an old
tradition - with slightly warmed tasteful formaggio
di fossa.
© 2001
Liberation Ventures Ltd.
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