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Saturday, November 14, 2015

Bug Poop and Bee Vomit

You can already tell by the title of this thing that it is pretty quiet on the Los Osos sewer front if I am resorting to sensationalistic tricks to keep readership over here - all two or three of you anyway if that qualifies as a readership. (I suspect the hits I get are just bots from Russia looking for spam opportunities.) You probably have better things to do, and so should I. However, I ran across a fascinating story on a feed that I get and it was startling to say the least. Who really thought deeply about where honey comes from? (I could segue over to honey huts from here, but I will restrain myself, although that could make an interesting topic for the next post, things being SO quiet and all.)

WARNING: To go beyond this point you may never look at honey the same, and may never eat it again either.

OK, here goes, we'll ease gently into this reveal: baby birds are probably not conflicted by this vomit thing, as the thing that keeps you alive is rarely questioned (sewer malcontents listen up!). Cows upchuck grass to chew it some more to make it digestible. Some women pre-chew food before giving it to their babies. Honey, the regular non-staff-of-life stuff we stir into our tea or squirt from a plastic bear onto our toast, is really bee upchuck ("...100,000 vomits"* to make a pound of honey). Maybe we sort of knew that about honey - we did take a biology class along the road somewhere, right, bees gathering nectar/honeycombs, etc.? (We know that eating crispy coconut shrimp is just eating dressed up ocean bugs, right?)

Here's the really disgusting part though: some honey is made from the poop of scale insects!

Read on for a fascinating tale in honey manufacturing - you may as well; going down the page this far you are probably already thinking about tossing that golden jar into the recycle bin, and I'll bet I've ruined coconut shrimp too. Sorry about that, but you were warned.

http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/your-new-favorite-honey-is-made-out-of-bug-poop-and-bee-vomit

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