The document summarizes a school visit to a beekeeping company and museum to learn about honey and bees. It discusses honey as a valuable human food throughout history in ancient Egypt, India, and Greece. It then describes different types of honey based on the raw materials used by bees. The document answers common questions about honey and explains why it should be included in one's daily breakfast. Finally, it shares traditional Greek recipes that use honey such as melekounia, melomakarona, and loukoumades.

1. “Honey and the healthy
diet: The golden food”
7th Junior High School of
Rhodes
Our visit in “Melissokomiki Dodecanesou” 21/12/2016
(Beekeeping Company of the Dodecanese)
Visit in the bee Museum.
Attending the programme:“Honey and the healthy diet: The golden food”

2. On the way to Istanbul’s meeting!
Subject: “The food of our countries”
About honey as healthy food.
A presentation by Dimitris Antonoglou and
Marietta Georgarelli

3. Our visit in the Bee
Museum
21/12/2016

4. Attending the
programme
About bees and their valuable
products: honey, pollen, wax,
propolis and royal jelly.

5. An
introduction

6. Beekeeping
since the old
times (up to
200 years
ago) up to
our days.

7. Beekeeping
since the old
times (up to
200 years ago)
up to our days.

8. In the Bee
Museum

9. The Beekeeper.
How honey is
obtained (from
the bee to our
table).

10. The Beekeeper.
How honey is
obtained

11. Tasting
different kinds
of honey.

13. Erasmus + bees!

15. Honey:A valuable human food through the centuries.
Humans cultivated bees since the ancient times.
Honey is referred as therapeutical in Egyptian papyruses 3500 years
ago.
In the ancient Indians’ book of life it is said that life is prolonged when
there is honey and milk in everyday diet.
Nectar was the food of the immortal Olympian Gods. Zeus was brought
up with honey by the Bee nymph.
The father of medicine Hippocrates recommended it for the treatment of
several diseases, and so did Aristotle who believed that honey
prolongs life.

16. Honey:A valuable human food through the centuries.
● The Egyptians offered their gods honeycombs with honey as a valuable
present showing devotion and gratitude. Cleopatra, the Egyprian queen, used
honey for her face and body.
● In Mykinae and the Minoan signs of other basic products of nutrition honey is
(me-ri) is mentioned.
● In the classical era honey was one of the mytotos (kind of gruel) ingredients.
Legumes also were eaten in the form of gruel adding honey.
● “Plakunta” was also a very popular sweet with honey, nuts and spices.
Aristeos had become immortal because the Earth and the Hours to whom
Apollon had given him,fed him with amvrosia.
● In the Byzantine period honey was also part of the diet.

17. Honey Categories
1.Honey from flower nectar. Its color
is light, it has an intence aroma and
crystalizes relatively quickly.
Pure Greek varieties:
Thyme,heather,orange,cotton,sunflo
wer etc.
• 2. Honeydew honey from hertal or
animal origin (secretions by insects
which are parasitic on trees). It is
darker,more viscous and less sweet
tham flower honey. It crystalizes or it
doesn’t crystalize at all.
• Pure Greek Varieties:
• Pine,Fir
There are two general types of honey according to the raw material used by bees:

18. Answers to frequent
questions about the honey.

19. Why do we have so many types of honey?
On which factors do their characteristics depend?
• Types of honey, organoleptic properties
(taste,aroma,color,fluidity) and physicochemical
(moisture,PH,conductivity,etc) depend entirely on:
The herbal origin of nectar or honeydews, the
geographical area and the weather conditions.
• When these factors change, honey properties
change too.

20. What is the best honey?
• The nutritional value of all types of honey is very high
(with little variation). It is a matter of taste mainly.
The price of honey is not a criterion of quality. It
depends mainly on the production cost and the
demand.
• Any type of honey is one thousand times better than
any other sweetener(sugar, maltitol, aspartame, etc.)

21. What is the crystallisation of honey?
It is a natural phenomenon and has nothing to do with the quality
of honey.

22. Why we should add honey in our daily breakfast?
What makes honey unsurpassed is this
coexistence of more than 180 elements with
unique properties directly related to metabolism
and growth in a harmonious whole. Honey is
considered the most quick natural source of
energy and wellness for humans.

23. Why we should add honey in our daily breakfast?
Also honey is one of the most important factors for
athletes as it is the most effective form of
carbohydrate, for the necessary “charging” of the
trainee before training, not only because it is easily
digested and released at a constant rate in the
muscular system, but also because it increases muscle
resistance, eliminates fatigue and restores glycogen.

24. Honey and greek
gastronomy
Traditional recipes with honey
Melekounia
Melomakarona
Loukoumades

25. Melekounia
Melekounia
In the island of Rhodes it's tradition to offer melekounia on weddings or
christenings. The relatives and the friends of the bride and the groom are
gathered before the wedding and celebrate as they make these delicious,
traditional sweets . “Μelekouni” is a healthy sweet which stands out thanks to
its great taste and high nutritional value. We use aromatic thyme honey ,
natural sesame, almonds, orange and lemon peel and spices. “Melekouni” is
soft and frees all its fragrance the moment you taste it. It is more delicious and
healthier than the usual pasteli because of its ingredients and the way it is
made.

26. Melekounia
Ingredients:
• 700 gr honey
• 1kg sesame
• ½ t-spoon of cinnamon
• ½ t-spoon nutmeg
• scrap of 1 orange (or bergamot)
• 100gr almonds whitened
Execution
First clean the sesame and brown it .Then flail it lightly in a mortar or in a blender.Boil
the honey until it loses its humidity and starts to become solid and stir it well with all
the other ingredients. Clean and wet a surface ,spread the mixture of honey while it is
still soft and warm. Press one by one all the almonds on its surface so that they
become one with it and then let it get cold. When it is cold we cut it in lozenge and
bundle in cellophane. In order to preserve them for a long time place them in pots well
closed.

27. Melomakarona
2 glasses of corn oil
• a small glass of cognac
• a small glass of sugar
• a small glass of orange juice with a t- spoon of soda
• half tsp of cinnamon
• half tsp clove powder
• orange scrap
• 1 kg of soft flour
• finely chopped walnuts
for the syrup
• 1 glass of honey
• 2 glasses of sugar
• 1 ½ glass of water
Mix all the ingredients to form a soft dough. Give them a small oblong shape and
bake them in the oven. Put the ingredients for the syrup in a pot and leave it to boil.
Immerse the biscuits in the syrup for 1-2 min. and transfer them in a large flat dish.
Sprinkle with the chopped walnuts.

28. Loukoumades
500 gr. Flour
• 1 tbsp yeast
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup tepid water
• olive oil for frying
Syrup:
• 400 gr honey
• 100ml water
• cinnamon
• sesame

29. Loukoumades
Mix the flour with the salt pour the mixture in a big bowl , add the yeast
(dissolved in some lukewarm water) and stir slightly. Add a little
lukewarm water to form a paste that is neither too fluid nor too thick.
Whisk the mixture thoroughly to unify all the ingredients. Cover the
mixture and let it stand in warm water. When the batter has bubbles on
top it is ready. Heat plenty of olive oil in a pot until it is scalding cold.
Drop teaspoonfuls of the batter in the hot oil. Allow the puffs to turn
golden all around . When done, remove the puffs from the pot and place
them on a large dish lined with kitchen paper.
Prepare the syrup heating and mixing the honey with the water. Pour
the syrup over the honey puffs and sprinkle with sesame. Serve them
warm.

30. The importance of bees in the world
• Albert Einstein highlight the importance of bees in the world
by saying that if bee disappears from the of earth, man would
have no more than four years to live!

31. Thanks for watching!