Raw Honey

Not really. Sealed up and kept dry, honey lasts for years. It's one of the only foods that basically never spoils. Keep the lid tight and use a clean, dry spoon, and a jar will outlast just about everything else in your pantry. (Sealed honey has even turned up in 3,000-year-old Egyptian tombs, still edible.)

That's crystallization, and it's completely natural, especially for raw, unfiltered honey like ours. It hasn't gone bad. To bring it back to liquid, stand the jar in a bowl of warm (not boiling) water and stir. Never microwave or boil it; heat cooks out the very things we work to keep in.

Room temperature, in a cupboard or pantry, out of direct sun. Skip the fridge, since cold just speeds up crystallizing. And because honey pulls moisture from the air, keep the lid on tight.

Most grocery honey is heated and filtered until it's clear and uniform, and often blended from many sources. Ours is never heated and only lightly strained, so it keeps its pollen, its aroma, and the character of the season it came from.

Because it isn't the same every time. Color and flavor shift with whatever's blooming, so a spring jar and a late-summer one can look and taste noticeably different. That's raw honey doing exactly what it should.

We'll be honest: we can't make any health claims, and the science isn't settled. What we can say is that our honey is about as local as it gets, carrying the pollen of Central Texas wildflowers. Plenty of folks seek out local honey for that reason, and we'll let you be the judge.

Just one note: like all honey, ours isn't for little ones under a year old, a standard guideline for raw honey everywhere. For everyone past their first birthday, spoon away.