Heather Honey

Heather Honey


Magic healing power was attributed to heather, this modest little wild flower of the Scottish Highlands, so dear to the heart of all Scotsmen. The legendary lore and lay connected with this favorite mountain bloom, the emblem of solitude, was shared by the honey which the bees extracted from it. Heather designates a flower of the heath (in German, heide) and its connection with the word heathen, pagan (in German, heide also means pagan) reflects a quaint superstition. Both in Scotland and in Germany a belief existed that the heather grew from the blood of a heathen. In Scotland, on Halloween, the witches are supposed to ride on heather brooms.

The heather flower is purplish, suggesting the color of blood. White heather is extremely rare and it is supposed to bring good luck, not unlike a four-leaf clover. Queen Victoria mentioned in a letter that when she was a young bride and was driving fast to Balmoral Castle, her coachman suddenly jumped off the carriage to pick a white heather for which "he had an extraordinary eye to find," and remarked that "a Highlander would never pass one without picking it, because it is considered to bring one good fortune."

The nectar which heather blooms contain is rich in minerals. The Picts had the secret of making excellent ale from the "tender tops of the twigs." Heather ale was called heather-crop, meaning the top of the plant. Robert Louis Stevenson refers to heather ale in A Galloway Legend:

From the bonny bells of heather They brewed a drink lang-syne, Was sweeter far than honey, Was stronger far than wine. They brewed it and they drank it, And lay in blessed swound For days and days together In their dwellings underground.

Leyden also refers to it in The Heather:

For once thy mantling juice was seen to laugh In pearly cups, which monarchs loved to quaff ;

Heather ale was much used among the Picts; but when that nation was extirpated by the Scots the secret of making it perished with them.

We know the legend relating how anxious were the Scots to learn the secret of the strength-giving heather ale. When the last two living members of the Picts, father and son, were brought before Kenneth the Conqueror, he offered them their life on condition that they reveal the method of heath-liquor making. After they refused Kenneth ordered the son to be killed. The father was still obdurate but his life was spared and he was imprisoned. He lived much beyond the limits of mortal existence but became blind and bed-ridden. Once he overheard some young men boasting of their strength. He felt their wrists, re-marking that they were not feeble but their vigor could not be compared to men who drank heather ale. He asked for an iron bar and broke it with his hands. It was an old Scotch saying that mead-drinkers have as much strength as meat-eaters.

The medicinal properties of heather had a wide repute in antiquity. Parkinson in his Theatrum Botanicum, 1640 A.D., remarks: "It hath a digesting quality, resolving the malignity of humors, by transpiration or sweating; which a decoction of the flowers being drunke, doth perform, and thereby giveth much ease to the paines within the body, and expelleth the worms therein also; the leaves and flowers made into a decoction is good against the stings or bitings of serpents and other venomous creatures; and the same being drunke warm, for thirty days together, morning and evening, doth absolutely breake the stone and drive it forth; the same, also, or the destilled water of the whole plant, being drunke easeth the chollicke; the said water or the juyce of the herbe dropped into the eyes helpeth the weaknesse of the sight."

A decoction of heather "with faire water to be drunken warm both morning and evening in the quantity of five ounces three hours before meat, against the stone in the bladder; but at last the patient must enter into a bath made of the decoction and whiles he is in the said bath, he must sit upon some of the heather that made the foresaid bath. By the use of bath, dyet and decoction hee has knowne many to be holpen, so that the stone has come from them in very small pieces." Dioscorides' highly-praised Erica plant was undoubtedly heather.

The same curative power which was imputed to the plant was also attributed to heather honey. Rev. Hugh Macmillan re-marked that "Mount Hybla itself could not boast of more luscious honey than the liquid amber which the bees gathered from the heather-bells." The Scotch thought that heather honey had a "grousey" taste.

Heather honey has world-wide repute as a specific remedy for many ailments. It is in great demand in foreign countries and is sold at a premium. Dr. Barton, during his stay 'in Edinburgh, noticed the distinct soporific effect of heath-honey. It is often so thick that it can not be readily separated from the combs by centrifugal force unless kept in a warm place for several days before extracting.

Pure heather (ling) honey does not granulate unless 10 per cent of pollen grains of other plants are present. (But 5 per cent of charlock might start granulation.) It is of a jelly consistency with a multitude of tiny air bubbles which give a characteristic sparkle. If the honey is heated these bubbles rise to the surface and their absence at once reduces the merit of the honey. In common parlance, pure heather honey does not imply absolute purity. If there is 20 per cent of other pollen present, it would still be reckoned good heather honey; and even if it had up-wards of 40 per cent of foreign pollen grains, that honey might, by flavor, aroma and consistency, pass anywhere as good heather honey. Bell heather (Erica) does granulate, and it is to be classed with other dark honeys; for it has not the characteristic color, sparkle, consistency, astringency, flavor, and pollen of the genuine heather honey (John Beveridge, President of the Scottish Beekeepers' Association).