The Jar of Honey That Never Leaves My Kitchen Table

I have a jar of honey that has not left my kitchen table in six months. It sits next to the salt cellar, close enough to the teapot that I reach for it without thinking, and that is exactly the point. The label says Nate's Honey, raw and unfiltered, and I started buying it because it was plain and straightforward, no more complicated than that.

I am Marlene Hutchins. I am sixty-three, I live in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, and I have been growing and using kitchen herbs for about twenty years, most of it learned from my grandmother. I am not a doctor and I do not sell anything. I keep a natural medicine cabinet the way other people keep a pantry, and honey has been part of it longer than almost anything else.

What I want to tell you is not exciting. Nobody is going to make a video about a woman who puts honey in her tea and in her grandmother's old onion syrup and on her bread. But I have learned that the quiet things are the ones that earn their place. This jar earns its place every single day, and I would rather tell you plainly what I do with it than promise you the moon.

The first thing I do most mornings is make tea. Peppermint from the garden in summer, dried and stored in a glass jar for winter, and a spoon of this honey stirred in while the tea is still hot enough to melt it. I do not measure. I do not time it. I just stir until the spoon comes out clean.

The honey itself is raw and unfiltered, which to me means it looks the way honey looked when I was a girl. It is not clear and it does not pour like syrup. It is thick, it clings to the spoon, and it has that deep, complicated taste that comes from bees that visited real flowers. That is the whole reason I buy it.

Six months on my kitchen table, used most days, and I have never once thought about switching brands.

The second way I use this honey is in an old-fashioned honey and onion syrup my grandmother taught me, the kind of kitchen tradition she called a simple. Ray hates the smell of onions, so I keep that jar to myself. You slice an onion, layer it in a jar with honey, and let it sit overnight while the honey draws out the juice. I make it in winter mostly out of nostalgia, because it tastes like her kitchen. It is a family tradition, not medical advice, and anyone with a health condition, or anyone thinking of giving it to a child, should talk to a doctor first. Never give honey to a baby under one.

The third way is the least interesting and the most honest. I put it on toast. Butter, honey, and a mug of tea is the snack I actually eat, not the one I tell people about. When the jar runs low, I notice it the way you notice a missing step on a staircase.

Ray teases me about the jar because it sits out all year instead of living in the cupboard. I tell him that is the point. A jar of Nate's Honey in plain sight is a reminder to do the small thing first, before the day gets away from you.

Here is what I am not going to tell you. I am not going to tell you that this honey cures anything, because I do not know that, and neither does anyone else. I am not going to tell you to stop taking your medicine, because that is a conversation for your doctor, especially if you take anything for blood sugar, or you are pregnant, or there is a baby in the house. Honey is food. Good food, but food. I keep it because it tastes good and because it has been useful to me, not because it is magic.

What I will tell you is this. If you want to try raw honey, buy a jar that says raw and unfiltered on the label, and buy it from a brand you can look up. Nate's Honey has been my choice for a while now because it is easy to find, the squeeze bottle suits my kitchen, and every jar has been exactly what I expect. That last part matters when you use it the way I do, which is constantly.

What I'd Tell You If We Were Sitting at My Kitchen Table

If we were sitting at this table, you and me, I would pour you a cup of tea and hand you the jar. I would tell you to taste it plain, off the spoon, before you decide anything. I would tell you that raw honey is not a treatment for anything, and anyone who says otherwise is selling something. I would tell you to keep it in your kitchen because it is good, honest food, because it keeps for a long time on the shelf, and because a spoon of it in a cup of tea is one of the cheapest comforts I know. And I would tell you to talk to your doctor before you make honey a daily habit, especially if you have diabetes or you are pregnant. That is the whole of my advice, and it is the same advice I would give a friend.

I keep a lot of things in this kitchen because they were my grandmother's or because they came from the garden. The honey is the only thing I keep because it earns its keep every single day. That is a good enough reason for me.