Kashmiri Kahwa

Flying to Kashmir from Dehli last year we were seated next to a man from Srinagar who urged us to taste their special tea known as Kawah. A small single cup of Kawah is said to lift the spirits, create a sense of wellbeing, energise, and dispel headaches. Kahwa is an anti-oxidant - some Kashmiris consider it to have magical properties.

Our first experience of Kawah was made for us by our lovely houseboy. We imbibed the tea whilst relaxing on our houseboat's veranda, and enjoying the views across Dal Lake towards the snow capped foothills of the Himalayas. It was indeed magical, but whether it was the view or the tea I could not say.

It is possible to make yourself some Kawah, all of the ingredients are readily available. I still have a small stash of Kawah which travelled back home in my suitcase. In Kashmir they obviously use green tea and saffron grown in their mountain valleys, but whatever you have to hand will suffice.

2 teaspoons of green tea leaves

2 cardamon pods slightly crushed

1 inch piece of cinnamon bark slightly crushed,

a little honey or sugar,
two or three threads of saffron, the colour and flavour is dissolved separately in a little water by crushing gently with a teaspoon,
4/5 almonds shredded or ground (optional)  

when in season Kashmiri rose petals are used

Boil 2 cups of water add cinnamon, cardamom and tea, boil for 3 minutes and then allow to infuse over low heat,

strain, then add the saffron liguid together with the threads 
a little sugar or honey

Top with almonds, serve hot 

The result is a delicate, spicey, fragrant flavour.

Going Like Hot Cakes

Remember this?

I placed the little bee chalet on one of our sunniest house walls three weeks ago hoping for some visitors. Today I was delighted to discover this:-

We have 25% occupancy already 

All of these tunnels now contain lots of eggs laid by a female solitary bee and then sealed in by her. The sealing material is fibrous - chewed up assorted vegetation and mud.

Apparently female eggs are laid at the far end of the tunnel along with some pollen for the bee larvae to eat when it hatches, and then sealed in before laying the next egg. The male eggs are laid at the entrance to the tunnel so that they emerge first in the spring. I have also discovered that I need to place the chalet somewhere dry during the autumn where they will be safe from rainy weather and not succumb to parasites or fungi. The young bees will stay dormant in the tunnels during the winter then leave in the spring.

Until I did a bit of research I did not realise that it was going to take a whole year for the cycle to be completed.

Next April the chalet tunnels will have to be cleaned out with a stiff brush ready for the process to begin again.

There is much more to this than I originally imagined, but our gardens should be the beneficiaries - lots more fruit, flowers, and vegetables.

UPDATE

Caught in the act sealing up tunnel No. 7

p.s Female bees hatch from fertilised eggs, males from unfertilised eggs

Greek Honey

Walking into the community of Nikiti we were hit by the tangible perfume of honey drifting through the air. In this small town alone there are 150 beekeepers who manage over 85,000 bee colonies and produce 1200 tonnes of honey annually, an eighth of Greece's total production.

Honey is considered to be the worlds most ancient of sweeteners and has been used across the millennia. Aristole called it the nectar of the Gods. Greek mythology tells that Zeus was raised on honey.

The Greeks love honey - drizzled over their rich creamy yogurt, soaked in cakes, and pastries - loukamades (honey puff balls) melamacarano (honey macaroon cookies) sesame and honey bars.

via

From ancient times honey has not only been used as a sweetener but as a natural beauty agent, and in some cultures used for its medicinal attributions. I did a post here on the medicinal wound healing qualities of Mānuka Honey.

Honey contains small amounts of a wide array of vitamins, minerals, amino acids and antioxidants too.

At the honey co-operative we were asked if we knew what these were? Which of course we did, they are so similar to our own bee skep. 

The Greek skeps appear to be made of cane then covered in clay whilst ours is made of straw woven together with cane.

A thought to ponder, a singleproduces a gram of honey every 9 - 12 days after she has visited about 30,000 - 40,000 flowers. No wonder we use the term "busy as a bee".

Mānuka Honey

What is Manuka Honey?  I have read that it has special properties, but what is Mānuka? Is it a place, a type of bee, and how does it differ from the honey produced by the bees that forage on my heather?

Mānuka is actually a plant that grows in New Zealand, related to the Australian 'tea tree' (melaleuca) a type of myrtle of which there are many species.

via

 Leptospermum squarrosum

Early Australian settlers soaked the leaves of several of the species in boiling water to make a drink rich in Vitamin C. It is said that Captain Cook brewed tea from the Leptospermum to prevent scurvy amongst his crew.

via

Mānuka - Leptospermum scoparium

The New Zealand Leptospermum scoparium is the only plant of the species that actually results in Mānuka honey. The plant has been successfully growing on the Tregothnan estate in Cornwall since the 1880s, but due to our very strange mild winter it is now already in flower when normally it would be June. Originally grown at Tregothnan for cut flowers, they are now producing their own Mānuka honey and have been doing so for the past 5 years.

Mānuka honey has been demonstrated to have antibacterial properties but there is no conclusive evidence that spreading the honey on your toast will give any medicinal benefits. However, following medical sterilisation i.e. medical grade honey, it has proven to be beneficial in healing wounds. 
In laboratory conditions when the honey is added to a dish of MRSA (bacterium staphylococcus aureusis) the Mānuka honey appears to be able to fight the super bug. As we know MRSA is an increasingly problematic hospital bug, being resistant to many of our antibiotics. 

Future research may increase the clinical use of medical mānuka honey, as doctors continue to be faced with the threat of diminishing effectiveness of antibiotic options.