{"id":53459,"date":"2014-12-30T00:09:30","date_gmt":"2014-12-30T08:09:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/?p=53459"},"modified":"2014-12-30T00:09:30","modified_gmt":"2014-12-30T08:09:30","slug":"mad-honey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/53459","title":{"rendered":"Mad Honey"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\tAre you mad for honey?<\/p>\n

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Photo courtesy National Honey Board, Honey.com<\/p><\/div>\n

Did you love our tour of worldwide beehives <\/a>earlier this year? Well then, you’ll want to hop aboard the Jane train as we venture off to the Black Sea region of Turkey in search of a mysterious variety of mountain honey that may be as treacherous as it is tantalizing \u2026<\/p>\n

\"800px-G\u00fcburnu_Espiye_Giresun_Turkey\"

Photo by Dr. Zeynel Cebeci via Wikimedia Commons<\/p><\/div>\n

As we arrive in the beautiful port of Gulburnu, a small seaside village in Turkey’s Giresun province, the scenery looks peaceful and picturesque. Not a trace of \u2026 madness. Let’s have a look around. Hmmm \u2026 all is quiet as we ascend the slopes above town.<\/p>\n

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Photo of mountains on Turkey’s Black Sea coast by Gardenlantern via Wikimedia Commons<\/p><\/div>\n

Who might we ask about the honey known locally as deli bal<\/em> \u2026 Hello? Excuse me, can you tell us where we might find deli bal? HELLO!?<\/p>\n

\"OTSchwarzteeErnte1\"

Photo by Ziegler175 via Wikimedia Commons<\/p><\/div>\n

Can you imagine? They never even stopped to look at us! Perhaps that’s the reaction we should expect when asking about a type of honey that has, at least once in history, been used as a weapon of war.<\/p>\n

It’s true.<\/p>\n

“In 67BC, King Mithridates’ army left chunks of ‘mad honeycomb’ in the path of the Roman enemy, who gobbled it up, lost their minds, and were promptly slain,” reports The Guardian<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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Photo by Skrissh2013 via Wikimedia Commons<\/p><\/div>\n

Deli bal, or orman komar bali (rose of the forest honey), is rare regional honey produced by the pollination of certain rhododendron varieties that contain a natural poison called grayanotoxin.<\/p>\n

\"800px-Sar\u0131_\u00e7i\u00e7ekli_ormang\u00fcl\u00fc-1\"

Photo of toxic Turkish Rhododendron luteum by Karduelis via Wikimedia Commons<\/p><\/div>\n

According to Emma Bryce of Modern Farmer<\/em>, “In Turkey, not only do the poisonous rhododendrons abound, but the humid, mountainous slopes around the Black Sea provide the perfect habitat for these flowers to grow in monocrop-like swaths. When bees make honey in these fields, no other nectars get mixed in\u2014and the result is deli bal, potent and pure.”<\/p>\n

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Photo of toxic Turkish Rhododendron ponticum by Karduelis via Wikimedia Commons<\/p><\/div>\n

While “mad honey” is rarely fatal, consuming more than minute amounts can cause low blood pressure, heartbeat irregularity, nausea, numbness, blurred vision, fainting, potent hallucinations, and seizures.<\/p>\n

No wonder no one wants to tell us where to find it! Mum’s the word \u2026<\/p>\n

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Photo by Seattle Globalist via Wikimedia Commons<\/p><\/div>\n

“People believe that this honey is a kind of medicine,” S\u00fcleyman Turedi, a doctor at Turkey’s Karadeniz Technical University School of Medicine, told Bryce. “They use it to treat hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and some different stomach diseases.” He went on to say that deli bal is taken in small amounts, sometimes boiled in milk, and consumed typically just before breakfast.<\/p>\n

That is, if you dare.<\/p>\n

“If you do find yourself in the area and want a taste, you’ll have to dig a bit deeper than supermarket shelves,” Bryce advises. “Ask nicely, and chances are most local shopkeepers will hand over a jar from a stash tucked behind the counter, adding to the old-world mystery of it all.”<\/p>\n

So, tell me … would you dare?\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Are you mad for honey? Did you love our tour of worldwide beehives earlier this year? Well then, you’ll want to hop aboard the Jane train as we venture off to the Black Sea region of Turkey in search of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-geography"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53459\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}