European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 8, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                By Caroline e. Mayer Washington Post in ancient times Honey was considered sacred a a food for the gods a sign of wealth a miraculous cure for wounds. Today however Honey is far More commonplace. Walk Down virtually any supermarket aisle a be it past the Cereal Cracker condiment Yogurt sections or even the ice Cream Case a and Honey products Are everywhere. Even the drugstore shelves Are filled with Honey a from body lotions and shampoos to cough medicines. Yet despite its pervasive presence in the supermarkets Plain Honey is a rare commodity in most american Homes with Only a third of the nations households buying a Jar of Honey annually. Quot a lot of people know what Honey is but done to know what to do with it a says Bill Gamber vice president of dutch Gold Honey inc., the nations largest Independent Honey Packer. Behind the sluggish sales is a misperception in the United states that greatly disturbs Honey producers. A most people think Honey is Honey that is definitely not True Quot says Russell Quot Pete Quot Roberson former president of Roberson Honey co., Virginia s largest Honey packing Plant. If anyone should know about the different tastes of Honey it should be Roberson who for the past 36 years has had at least a half dozen Finger Licking tastes of Honey daily testing the Quality and taste of each Batch of the 2 million pounds of Honey the Berryville Plant processes annually. Quot for every Blossom that blooms and yields nectar there is a different kind of Honey Quot says Roberson. Quot there Are thousands of kinds of  at the packing Plant which Roberson recently sold to another Virginia Packer Greg Gunter eight kinds of Honey Are processed from the lightly coloured mild chinese acacia Honey one of Roberson a favourites to the heavy molasses coloured buckwheat Honey. A it has an extremely Strong flavor Quot says Roberson. Quot if you Don t like buckwheat you won t like the buckwheat  he does no to not Only do Honey tastes vary greatly depending on the nectar but they also differ considerably from Packer to Packer. Each Packer has a special formula for wildflower or Golden Blossom Honey for instance. In some cases wildflower Honey May contain nectar from Clover and Alfalfa and be very mild. Others May have Goldenrod or Aster nectar and be very Strong. So Roberson advises Quot if you find a Jar of Honey you really like you re Best off sticking with that Packer. If you re adventuresome explore around a  looking Back Ann Harman now realizes that it was at the age of 4 that she fell in love with the idea of being a beekeeper. Quot one of my earliest memories is Honey of a misperception Sweet talking american Consumers food being screamed at by my Mother As i was catching bees and carrying them from one Flower to another Quot Harman recalls. Quot i was helping the  it was another 40 years before the chemist and former head of the science department at Georgetown Day school in Washington got her first Beehive. But the Pixi Eish Harman now 58, quickly made up for lost time becoming not Only an energetic beekeeper with some 50 hives but also an enthusiastic Honey Cook. At least once a month Harman who is president of the Maryland state beekeepers association holds cooking workshops to enlighten Consumers about the different tastes and uses of Honey. She also writes a monthly Magazine column on Honey cookery for Bee enthusiasts. Her House in Laytonsville md., is cluttered with piles of old newspapers put All the More in disarray by her two dogs and cat. But her garage where she and fellow beekeeper George Imirie extract about 3,000 pounds of Honey a year is neatly organized and spotless. Even after a Long Day of extracting up to 100 pounds of Honey a when she says she Sticks to everything and everything Sticks to her a Harman is unable to forgo the taste of Honey for very Long. Quot i come in from extracting and the last thing i want is something Sweet. But by the next morning if i done to have some Honey on my Cereal in a in sad  her enthusiasm for Honey and its distinctly diverse flavors spurred her and another Maryland beekeeper Ernest Miner jr., to publish their own 38-Page Cookbook. They wanted a Book that did no to merely teach How to substitute Honey for sugar but rather gave Honey the starring role. Thus Quot Kitchen creations with Honey Quot features such unusual recipes As Honey marshmallows Honey bavarian Cream and Mead a Honey wine. Just As it takes thousands of bees to make a Pound of Honey there Are thousands of american beekeepers collecting extracting processing and packing the 275 million pounds of Honey consumed in the United states annually. According to . Government statistics 211,000-plus . Beekeepers manage about 3.2 million hives that contain about 75,000 bees each at Peak season. Ninety five percent Are Small time hobbyists with fewer than 25 hives who for the most part pack their own Honey and give it to friends or sell it at Roadside stands. Most of the rest Are part timers who own Between 25 and 300 Bee colonies. Yet together these hobbyists and part time a pianists account for Only 50 percent of the Bee colonies and 40 percent of the Domestic Honey extracted. The bulk of Honey produced is by 1,600 commercial beekeepers with thousands of Bee colonies that Are continued Page 14 a amps file photo Friday june 8, 1990 the stars and stripes a a a Page 13