Loving Islands’ healthy organic raw honey lollipop recipe is now available online! This means you keep your sweet tooth satisfied & your health & wellness regime on point with this quick & easy delicious nutritious treat for every occasion.
But first an answer to some of our most Frequently Asked Questions we receive about the organic raw honey supplied by our network of organic beekeepers in Fiji!
What is the difference between Raw Honey & ‘Normal’ Honey?
Raw honey or pure honey is extracted & bottled directly from the beehive. Raw honey can be filtered or unfiltered but the bee pollen, nutrients, and medicinal benefits of honey remain part of the final product.
‘Normal’ honey is generally honey that has pasteurised (ie. heated to high temperatures) before bottling. This results in the loss of bee pollen, nutrients & many (if not all) of the medicinal benefits of honey. Unfortunately we now live in a world where ‘fake honey’ is a thing as ‘normal’ honey is becoming increasingly reported to be watered down and contain added sugars and chemicals.
What is buying Organic Honey important?
‘Organic’ is a term that is generally used to advise consumers that a product has been produced & manufactured according to a defined set of rules. These rules can change from country to country, however they generally guarantee a product is free of synthetic chemicals that aren’t meant to be in your body, and environmental, community, and animal welfare practices.
But while this sounds simple, it is challenging to achieve organic verification for honey production. This is because bees can travel up to 3.4km (2.1miles) in search for food. This means that the entire 3.4km radius surrounding the beekeepers farm (also called an apiary) should be free of synthetic chemicals like chemical pesticides. This has become a growing problem for beekeepers as global tests started reporting chemical contamination being found in a large number of honey samples being tested.
As a result, finding genuinely labelled organic honey is rare, especially in Fiji because of the small land masses. Currently Loving Islands’ community of beekeepers are the only verified organic honey suppliers in Fiji.
For more information on organic honey production in the Pacific you can read the 17 organic beekeeping rules detailed in the Pacific Organic Standards available for download here (page 35).
Read more about these differences here.
- 100 gms Honey (approx. 1/3 cup or 125ml)
- 1 tsp Cinnamon Optional
- 15 pcs Lollipop sticks Use palm leaf stems to go plastic-free!
- 1 Cup Ice water For testing only
- Heat non-stick pan over low heat and combine honey and cinnamon.
- Cook for 10 minutes stirring constantly & remove from heat once honey begins to simmer.
- Test if honey is ready by placing a drop of honey into ice water. If it solidifies immediately the mixture is ready.
- Turn off heat and mix honey mixture for 1 minute before pouring into lollipop circles on a non-stick baking tray.
- Insert lollipop sticks into the centre of the lollipop circles and allow them to cool and harden.
- Remove from tray gently with a fork and serve immediately or wrap with baking paper and store in a container in fridge or freezer.
- Wrap with baking paper and twine for plastic-free packaging.
1. Be careful not to burn honey by over cooking it or allowing it to over boil.
2. Prepare your lollipop sticks & baking tray before cooking.
3. Clean your non-stick pan by adding water and heating it over low heat. The remain honey mixture should melt into the water. Discard into garden if possible.