Honey Honey Honey

On Thursday my friend Kathryn and I went to the biannual Honey Market held each February in the Manezh, an exhibition hall by the Kremlin. There are literally hundreds of vendors there selling honey from all over Russia. There are about eight basic varieties, but they taste very different depending on the bees and the region and the flora and fauna they visit. The Russians are serious about their honey. Many believe that particular varieties have medicinal properties. I'm just looking for something good on toast and maybe in some honey artichoke dinners, but it's always an interesting excursion, and a great place to stock up on a very genuine Russian product.

It's actually sold in vast quantities. I don't think I'll ever see this amount of honey together outside of Russia. They also sell lots of bee biproducts like pollen, honeycomb bits and other things I couldn't identify, making the whole place smell a little bit like my Grandma Haslam's house used to.