Amazing Comb Honey!
Ross Round Comb Honey
Comb honey is so impressive, and absolutely beautiful to look at! It is the most raw form of honey, and the manner in which honey was consumed prior to the invention of the extractor. It is gorgeous to look at and just as delicious to eat. Honestly, if you have never tried it, well, you are missing out!
We find that not everyone has had an opportunity to try comb honey, so we attempt to be helpful, and provide suggestions on the different ways you can consume comb honey! We provide ideas, but truthfully, the sky is the limit, including charcuterie boards, but we also realize trying to create a charcuterie board can be daunting. There are also much simpler ways to try comb honey then creating a massive charcuterie board! Honeycomb is so simple and perfect. Eating it does not have to be a complicated process, we promise.
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Cut Comb Honey!
The most no-frills way to eat honeycomb is to simply cut off a small chunk and eat it is - all by itself. Just like that. While this doesn't sound all that exciting, you most assuredly will taste the honeycomb in all its unfettered glory. Now, if you don't want to eat the wax, you end up with a lump of wax at the end of this journey! If you eat the honeycomb with other food, such as fruit or a cracker, in your yogurt, you don't even realize you are eating wax! It integrates with the rest of the flavors!
Some other very simple ways to eat honeycomb:
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Get your favorite cracker, layer it with a chunk of comb honey and a toasted pecan! The upscale restaurants often serve comb honey in the center of a plate surrounded by a selection of expensive cheeses and multi-grain crackers. The idea is to cover the cracker with a piece of cheese (blue cheese, strong cheddar, or your favorite cheese) and top it off with a small chunk of comb. This works great with cheddar or brie, but any cheese will work. Comb honey will compliment any cheese to create a unique gourmet treat. Add your favorite nut to the concoction!
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Spread a hunk of it on top of a warm buttermilk biscuit, English muffin, or just plain old toast.
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Pile it on your pancakes, waffles, or oatmeal.
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Drop some small chunks into your yogurt or favorite salad.
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Scoop it up with apple slices, pear slices or literally any cracker.
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Add it to your sandwich: ham and American, Turkey and Swiss, roast beef and provolone. You will love it.
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Put some on your pepperoni pizza.
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Plop it on top of some warm brie and slather the mixture on a baguette. This one just a sounds fancy, but it's really not.
So, no big deal, right? Easy peasy!
Types of Comb Honey
We produce two types of comb honey - the Ross Round production method (picture above, left) and the cut comb production method (picture above, right, and below, left). The Ross Rounds are new for us - 2021 was the first time we have tried Ross Rounds. The bees prepare the honeycomb in the round, plastic containers right in the hive! We remove the containers and place a cover and labels on the container. The last living beings to touch the honey inside the comb were the bees who made it. To get to the comb honey, just remove the top and bottom cover!
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Cut Comb Honey, Draining After Cut from the Frame!
The second type of comb honey we produce is cut comb. We prepare an empty wooden frame for the bees to make wax and fill the hexagon cells with pure, sweet, raw Iowa honey! We freeze the frames once we pull them from the hive, and then thaw and cut the 4" x 4" squares of honeycomb for packaging and labeling. Freezing and unthawing as folks want to purchase comb honey assures you that you are getting the freshest comb honey! Honey at it's finest!
Let's Talk About Eating Wax!
Many folks ask if they can eat the wax! YES! Beeswax is very soft — not at all like, for instance, candle wax. It has little to no flavor but is 100% edible. It is a tad bit chewy if you don't eat the comb with other food items, and not this author's favorite way to eat wax, but it is not unpleasant, either. In Colonial times, beeswax was mixed with tree resins to make the first chewing gum.
If you eat the honeycomb with other food, such as fruit or a cracker, in your yogurt, you don't even realize you are eating wax! It dissolves and integrates with the rest of the flavors!
Beeswax facts
Beeswax is the only naturally occurring wax. Other types of wax must be rendered from fruit or leaves, and soy wax and paraffin wax are produced by a toxic chemical process. Bees produce the wax and form it into hexagonal repositories, called cells, that make up the structure of the honeycomb. It’s where bees store honey and pollen.