Many of you may be familiar with Dandelion honey and may have made it in the past, of all the foraged foods I have ever introduced my wife to Dandelion honey has far been her favourite. This got me thinking about what other plants could be used to make a honey and my studies took me to Rosebay Willowherb or to use its scientific name Chamerion angustifolium. This is one of my favourite wild plants which grows in abundance and has so many uses as well as bringing beautiful colours to the environment. As always make sure you are 100% of your ID for this plant or any plant before you eat it and if you have never eaten it before try a little at first and check that you have no negative effects, although this is a safe plant to eat always check your personal tolerance.
What do you need?
To make this tasty and medicinal honey you will need a saucepan, a sieve, some clean sterilised jars or containers for the finished project, 500ml of water, 500g of sugar, 1 Lemon and crucially 100g of rosebay willowherb flowers.
Find yourself a nice big patch of rosebay willowherb or several smaller patches. Collect just the flowers, don’t take all the flowers from any one plant, always leave it with flowers to carry on its pollination cycle and help the bees. Don’t take flowers from every single plant in the patch, leave some alone to carry on their life cycle and support all the wildlife.
How do I do it?
Leave the collected flowers outside for about 30mins to allow any critters that were on them to vacate, Put the flowers into a saucepan with the water.
Bring the water to a boil then reduce the heat to a simmer for 10mins or until the flowers have gone pale and the water is now a lovely pinkish purple colour.
Strain the flowers out the water, these can go to compost now if this is something you do.
Add the juice of the lemon and the sugar to the pinkish purple water and bring to the boil, stir intermittently for a 45-minute period. After 45 minutes pour the syrup into room temperature jars and allow to cool and thicken. Once fully cooled if it is still too runny for your taste simply boil it again for longer to thicken it up.
How to use it?
My wife loves honey on toast, it's great poured over cakes or ice cream and can be used in tea to sweeten it. Taste is very subjective but for me it’s a fruity flavour that I really enjoy. It has been said that Rosebay Willowherb honey is also a “kind” cure for diarrhoea, a tablespoon every few hours as required. By the release of this blog the flowers will be gone but plan now and be ready for late spring/early summer to add some of the beautiful colour and flavour into your life, you may find it’s a new favourite.