Sweetness and Light

Eat honey, my child, for it is good. 

Proverbs 24:13

I don't know that you would call John the Baptist either a gourmet or a gourmand. His taste, as recorded in Mark's gospel (1:1-8, Advent 2B), does not appear especially refined, nor do we have any record that he was especially fond of eating. His diet was interesting enough to be recorded by the gospel writers, though. Locusts for protein, and wild honey for sweetening. Perhaps as a dipping sauce for the locusts.

John might have been on his own with the locusts, but eating honey is part of a long Biblical tradition. The promised land was, of course, flowing with milk and honey (Exodus 3:8). The Messiah will eat curds and honey (Isaiah 7:15). God feeds God's people with the finest wheat and with honey from the rock (Psalm 81:16). Christian church history, too, shows bees and honey as representing the faithful life. John Chrysostom wrote, "The bee is more honored than other animals, not because she labors, but because she labors for others." (Homily on the Statutes, 12.5) Ambrose, Bishop of Milan is also associated with bees and honey. Legend says that when he was a small child, Ambrose had a colony of bees light on his face, yet he was not stung. Instead the bees left a drop of honey, which Ambrose's father took as a sign that the child would grow up to be a honey-tongued preacher.

Two main sugars are found in honey - glucose and fructose - along with a number of other complex sugars and dextrin. It takes more energy for the body to break down the sugars in honey, so you may accumulate fewer calories from honey than sugar. The specific botanicals from which bees collect nectar will add specific flavors to the honey. Imagine...honey has "terroir", just like wine! Clover honey, sourwood honey and lavender honey are among the more well-known varieties. Unfiltered honey will be just a little cloudy because the pollen hasn't been filtered out.

To celebrate John's diet, think about hosting a honey tasting. Purchase local honey, nationally produced honey, botanical-specific honey and taste each of them. Are they similar? Different? Perhaps you could develop a score sheet to make comparisons easy.

• Another way to enjoy honey is with goat cheese. Form the goat cheese into one-bite patties or spheres. Roll the goat cheese in chopped pecans and drizzle with honey. You might add cinnamon or rosemary to the pecans for slightly sweeter or more savory taste. You might also slightly warm the goat cheese in the oven after it has been rolled in pecans.
• Make honey butter. Start with four parts of room temperature butter and one part honey. Depending on the sweetness of the honey, you may need to adjust proportions. Honey butter is especially good with hush puppies.
• Make honey mustard. Equal parts of sweet and sharp make a lovely balance, perfect for meats and salads and without the fats and chemicals of a purchased "honey mustard dressing".

It was Jonathan Swift who coined the phrase "sweetness and light." In his contribution to the argument between whether one should use ancient writers as model/pattern or contemporary writers, Swift compared the ancients to bees: Instead of dirt and poison we have rather chosen to fill our hives with honey and wax; thus furnishing mankind with the two noblest of things, which are sweetness and light. We may not associate John the Baptist with "sweetness and light", but through honey those adjectives find themselves attached to John's name and person.

For information on all things honey, see the website of the National Honey Board: http://www.honey.com/ The Honey Locator (http://www.honey.com/honey-locator/) lets you search by map for registered suppliers in your state. From that list you can link to the website of your local producer. You can also search by honey varietal (almond, lavender, clover, etc.)

The Lesson of the Fig

It's more than a little ironic that the gospel reading for Advent 1B talks about figs as the sign of summer. As we enter the final month of the year, it is the fruit of summer that provides the lesson in the waiting time that is Advent: 

     From the fig tree learn its lesson:

as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts forth its leaves, 

you know that summer is near.

So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near... (Mark 13:28-29)

Pictures from City Farm Florist and Nurseries, Roslindale, MA: http://www.figtrees.net/

If it were full summer, then the suggestions for fig-eating would be simple:

• sample them straight from the tree, peeled but still warm from the sun
• wrap them in prosciutto
• cut a cross shape through the top, stuff them with brie or another soft cheese and quickly broil them
• quarter and roast them in a very hot oven, then toss with a balsamic glaze 

But as it is not high summer, perhaps it makes sense to use a prepared product like fig preserves. You might:

• slice a baguette, grill the slices with a little butter, spread them with a goat cheese (or mascarpone for a slightly sweeter result) and fig preserves or use two slices of baguette and make a grilled goat cheese sandwich with fig preserves
• use fig preserves as a filling for thumbprint cookies
• add mustard to fig preserves to create a sweet-and-sour style sauce served with dumplings, wontons or potstickers
• puree the preserves and use them as a filling between two pieces of puff pastry or two pie crusts; bake until golden brown for a fig-filled flaky-cakey cookie; if you add orange zest to the pureed preserves to enhance the flavor you might also make an orange glaze for the top of the cookie

Why not have a sampling of "fig food" this Sunday? Let folks experience the food they'll hear about in the gospel lesson for Advent 1B.