We began doing the Honey Summits to gather the best bakers in the US to share ideas and discuss honey’s potential to be the cornerstone of innovative new products in the baking industry.  The NHB encourage bakers to meet consumers’ cravings for both clean label foods and natural sweeteners by using honey in their products.

At the Honey Summit, bakers received technical, marketing and formulation tools to create and launch new bakery foods made with honey. As a natural sweetener, honey is an excellent tool for bakers to sweeten products with an ingredient consumers love. The invite-only event also featured taste testings of honey varieties, including eucalyptus, orange blossom and buckwheat.

This year we will be hosting a second Honey Summit in September and we cannot wait to see what comes of it! 

Questions ranged from asking what bees collect to make honey (nectar!) to the number of honey varietals in the United States (over 300!). Studying up on honey facts paid off for these lucky participants who answered questions correctly.

• Sharon R., St. Marys, Ga.
• Bob M., Peabody, Mass.
• Zoey W., Charlestown, W. Va.
• Stephen M., Carver, Mass.
• Rick H., Batesville, Miss.
• Bonnie F., Boynton Beach, Fla.
• Leeann C., Bloomingdale, N.J.
• Jackie M., Port Arthur, Tex.
• Dan J., Tarpon Springs, Fla.
• Janalee M., Clearfield, Utah
• Donna E., Minneola, Fla.
• Beth E., Latrobe, Pa.
• Pam W., Flagstaff, Ariz.
• April E., Watervlier, Mich.
• Murry H., Roxborough, Colo.

Missed the sweepstakes? You can still visit www.storyofhoney.com to learn about the process from honey bee to pantry staple.

Also, we have yet to announce our grand prize winner, but we will be doing so on Monday! 

The TinCaps moniker is a reference to the beloved pioneer Johnny Appleseed, who was known for wearing his tin cooking pot upon his head. Johnny hails from Fort Wayne and joined the TinCaps in April of 2009 to help jumpstart the move to downtown Parkview Field. What was even more fun to learn was that Johnny Appleseed was a real person, but the name of John Chapman. Mr. Chapman died near Fort Wayne 151 years ago and is buried there. We thought this was such a neat piece of history!

We thought both the team and the city of Fort Wayne had so much to offer, but there was more! We attended one of their themed game nights, where all the players were wearing pink throwback jerseys to honor the All American Professional Girls team, the Fort Wayne Daisies. It was so cool to be a part of this. The Fort Wayne Daisies were a women's professional baseball team that played from 1945 through 1954 while the men were off at war. This honorary night was amazing to see, but the fun didn’t stop there. The TinCaps honored the team by having one of the original Daisies’ players threw out the first pitch!

We had a wonderful time at the game and the team was both welcoming and entertaining. We didn’t realize that this visit would be so much more than just the game and promoting our sponsorship; it was an incredible lesson in history, as well. We learned so much about Fort Wayne, the teams’ history and the stadium. If you’re in the area, make sure you stop by Parkview Field and support the Fort Wayne TinCaps this season!

Once we had set up our extra-large booth, it was time to get back to the hotel and get some rest for the show open the next morning. Once we arrived back at the show the following morning, we were ready to spread our love of honey to moms, dads, kids and anyone who would listen. The doors opened at 10 am, and from then until show closed at 4 pm, we were talking to attendees nonstop. The families attending the show loved our booth, our giveaways and our honey messaging.

We chose to attend the NY Baby Show in an effort to effectively reach parents, to inform them on the correct age to feed honey to infants. After some research, we realized there was a lot of misinformation out there about the correct age and we wanted parents to know that after the age of one, kids can consume honey.

We were just as busy the next day and we quickly realized that our honey booth was a destination for many of the families. They were eager to learn more about honey, as well as take some of our recipe brochures home with them. We heard time and time again, how much their family loved honey and used it in everything. We were also told by many parents that they were so happy we were there, educating people and promoting honey.

We exhibit at a few shows a year and this one was one of our favorites. Not only did we have exceptional traffic to our booth, we also felt like we were connecting with parents and arming them with information to help protect their kids. The only thing we will do differently next year is bring another NHB staff member with us to the show. We look forward to next year and we can’t wait to see everyone again in beautiful New York City!

Every day a new question will appear, and with every correct answer, you are entered into our daily drawings, as well as our grand prize drawing. Each daily winner will receive a $50 Amazon gift code and the Grand Prize winner will receive a $500 American Express gift card, plus a honey swag bag containing culinary honey items!

Questions like: How many ingredients are in honey? Does pollen make honey, honey? will be asked and if you answer one correctly, you could be a winner! Plus, finding the answers has never been easier. Just head over to www.storyofhoney.com, where all the answers can be found. 

So what are you waiting for?? Log on to the National Honey Board’s Facebook page from May 15 to May 29 to test your honey IQ and for a chance to win some sweet prizes!

Dispelling myths about honey and opening up consumers’ eyes to the sweet truths versus fiction has never been sweeter.

And what better way to celebrate than a giveaway? This giveaway includes an all-silicone spoon with our www.honey.com website on the handle, a handy fold-away tote that folds into itself to become a fraction of the size,  ten orange blossom honey sticks, one honey lip balm and our newest honey brochures, Honey: The Journey From Hive to Bottle and Honey: Discover the Versatility.

Be one of the first five people to email us at socialmedia@nhb.org and we will send you a gift package containing all these wonderful honey items.

The five winners will be announced Monday on the blog, so make sure you check back here to see if you are a winner.

The NHB chose the Barons as one of their six teams to sponsor this season and we are so glad we did. The team plays at a brand new, beautiful stadium and we couldn’t have asked for better weather. If that wasn’t enough, the game was a great one and the Barons beat the Huntsville Stars, five to one. 

Upon arriving at the stadium, the first thing we noticed was the HUGE honey billboard directly behind the pitching mound. This was great to see, but it didn’t stop there. Throughout the game, the rotating megatron screen had honey ads and messaging, encouraging the fans to go out and buy more honey.

We also incorporated honey trivia questions and used the players to answer the questions for us. These ran throughout the game and were so much fun. The most popular addition to this year’s program is the Honey Kiss Cam. Faith Hill’s song, This Kiss played while the camera went throughout the stadium and featured people kissing their honey. There were many great parts of the team visit, but this was one of our favorites.

At the bottom of the second inning, we were escorted up to the press box, where we sat down with the team’s sports announcer and answered some questions about honey. We told him what we do here at the NHB, as well as some of the many wonderful benefits of honey. The interview went very well and we were able to spread our honey messaging and showcase honey’s versatility to an even larger audience.

We had a wonderful time at the game and the team was both welcoming and entertaining. If you’re in the area, make sure you stop by the Regions Field and support the Birmingham Barons this season!

Also on the agenda, we had the pleasure of swearing in new board members and alternates that were appointed by U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack last December.

To back up a bit, our ten person board is composed of three first handler representatives, two importer representatives, one importer-handler representative, three producer representatives, and one marketing cooperative representative. The importer-handler representative must import at least 75 percent of the honey or honey products they market in the U.S. and handle at least 250,000 pounds annually.  The producer representatives must produce a minimum of 150,000 pounds of honey in the U.S. annually, based on the best three-year average of the most recent five calendar years. 

A “first handler” is defined as the first person who buys or takes possession of honey or honey products from a producer for marketing.  In plain terms, this is usually a honey packer.  If a producer markets honey or honey products directly to consumers, that producer is considered to be the first handler with respect to the honey produced by the producer.

Each Board member has an alternate to step in if needed and at some of our meetings, both the board member and alternate will attend. As you can imagine, these meetings are a big deal and we get a lot accomplished with all the people we have in attendance.

The meeting was a great success and it’s always so nice to have everyone together. We can’t think of being in better company, with having so many people who are all so passionate about honey bees, beekeeping and honey. It’s a pretty sweet combination! Our next meeting is scheduled for October in Denver, Colorado and we are already excited to see everyone again.

Pictured here (from left to right) are Kimberly Coy, Marketing Specialist, USDA/AMS; Jill Clark, first handler member; Nicholas Sargeantson, importer alternate; and George Hansen, producer member.  Sargeantson stood in for Board member Charles Kocot, who was unable to attend the meeting. 

With honey being the official energy sponsor of our teams, we ship cases of honey bears and honey sticks to the teams every month, to help get them through their work-outs and games. The players love having the all-natural energy booster, honey, on hand.

Whether you need a boost of energy for your workout or to beat an afternoon slump at the office, honey can be your go-to energy source. With approximately 17 grams of carbohydrates and just 64 calories per tablespoon, honey is an effective, all-natural energy booster that’s ideal for a quick pick-me-up, since carbohydrates are the primary fuel the body uses for energy.

This year, NHB and our six MiLB™ teams are joining forces to bring you amazing offers on game tickets and team merchandise! Just purchase any brand or size container of pure honey and bring your receipt to the participating team’s ticket office or team store to take advantage of these discount offers! This program is designed to increase the awareness and consumption of honey while offering fans discounts on game day tickets and official team souvenir merchandise.

To learn more about our MiLB sponsorship, visit www.honey.com/baseball and to see some of our delicious energy recipes, visit www.honey.com/recipes/c/energy-food.

Play Ball!

At 8pm that evening, exhibiting hours began! We were so excited for the Meet and Treat and we brought some very special honey jelly beans to treat attendees with. These were a huge hit and people would come by multiple times to enjoy more. We’d like to think it was because of our sweet nature and awesome honey messaging, but I guess whatever brings people by our booth works!

The next morning, we got up bright and early because we had to be at our booth at 8 am. We were so impressed by all the attendees that stopped by our booth throughout the day. Everyone had nothing but wonderful things to say about honey and we were able to share our messaging with them, as well. We had giveaways throughout the day, as well as a chance to win a few Le Cruiset Honey Pots. This got attendees really excited and we were able to pick a different winner each day.

Saturday was the final day of the conference and you could tell everyone was beginning to feel a bit tired. We had honey sticks at our booth and this was the perfect time for us to showcase honey as an all-natural energy booster. We were able to pass them out and promote just one more amazing use for honey. Attendees were also thankful to have the honey to help soothe their throat. After talking to other attendees for three days straight, honey was a perfect treat.

The conference ended on Saturday at 6pm and we packed up our booth and laid it out for the shipping company to come by and pick up our boxes. The next morning we boarded a flight back home and now we’ve had a few days to reflect back on our time at BlissDom. We had such an amazing time at the conference and met so many people who share our affinity for honey. We are so glad we had the opportunity to sponsor this conference and cannot wait to promote honey’s wonderful versatility next year.