Honey is just one of those kitchen staples that I seldom use by always have on hand. When I was a child, my mom would heat up honey to soothe my sore throat but thats about the only time I remember eating honey. I bought some for a recipe, used it once, and now it just sits on my shelf since I’m not sure what to do with it.

That is until this weekend when I was at a friend’s home. She was talking about how her soon-to-be husband it borderline diabetic, so they have changed their eating habits drastically. One change they made was to get rid of the sugar and replace it with honey. But not with just any honey but honey made locally.

I was intrigued since I always like to support local farmers but what she said next had me sold on it. She said that since they’ve been adding local honey to their tea, etc. that their allergies have improved greatly! Hearing her explain why really makes sense. Local bees visit local flowers and then make the honey. You eat the honey, giving your body exposure to those allergens while giving it time to build up an immunity. That makes sense because flu vaccines contain a small amount of the flu.

Here are some honey recipes from the Honey Association. You can replace sugar with honey in any recipe but remember the honey is much sweeter than sugar, so use less.

So, now I’m on the hunt for local honey. Of course, Wal-Mart didn’t have any but some of the local grocers might. If that fails, then I’ll try the local fruit stand or a local farm that we toured last October.