BLOG POST 2

‘Native bees make a healthy honey no others make, and now we know how’. was the heading on a recent ABC News article by Anthea Moodie and Kallee Buchanan1.

The article referred to researchers at the University of Queensland who had ‘uncovered the secret of trehalulose – a sugar that is only produced by the tiny insect and does not spike blood glucose levels when eaten.’

Dr Natasha Hungerford from University of Queensland stated ‘Stingless bees are unique in that they’re the only creatures that we know that produce it in a food.’

The ABC article described Australian Native Bee honey as being ‘highly prized as a specialty food, is considered medicinal in indigenous cultures, and attracts a high price.’

Dr Hungerford was quoted as stating ‘Stingless bee honey is fairly rare…There are some people that sell it and it does get quite a high price. It’s usually sought after by high-end restaurants as a unique flavour to add to their dishes. The flavour of stingless bee honey is sought after because it’s quite tangy and has a citrus note as well.’

Dr Hungerford is correct when she describes Australian native bee as being ‘fairly rare’. One hive of Australian native bee honey only produces one kilogram of honey per year.

1 https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2021-08-28/native-bees-healthy-honey/100409558?utm_campaign=news-article-share-next-actions-0&utm_content=mail&utm_medium=content_shared&utm_source=abc_news_web

Tabulam Real Honey is located in the northern rivers of NSW. It is a family founded and operated business that produces and sells its premium brand of rare Australian Native Bee honey. Part of the unique characteristics of their honey is that their Australian Native Bees forage on organic growing Gigal Gee plants.

Gigal Gee (pronounced jiggle jee) is considered to be a 21st century super-food. The combination of Tabulam Real Honey’s Australian Native Bees (scientific name is Tetragonula carbonaria) producing rare rich trehalulose honey from Gigal Gee plants is both a health and gourmet treat.

Dr Tim Heard is an Australian entomologist, ex-CSIRO research scientist and a longterm keeper of Australian Native stingless bees. Dr Heard has written the multiple award-winning book ‘The Australian Native Bee Book’. Dr Heard states in his book that ‘the Indigenous people of northern Australia …used (the native bee honey) as a medicine.’ Dr Heard has a business which supplies native bees in hives, along with a lot of other great native bee merchandise. See sugarbag.net. Dean Haley’s excellent book ‘The Honey of Australian Native Stingless Bees’ states similarly that ‘Sugarbag honey (ie native bee honey) is widely regarded as being a traditional bush medicine’.

At Tabulam Real Honey we are proud to be able to help meet the growing demand for Australian native stingless bee honey. We are particularly delighted to be able to offer our unique brand of native bee honey produced by our bees foraging on the wildly growing organic Gigal Gee super-food plants.