Memorial Day weekend is here, and for many, the long weekend is the first opportunity to kick-off the summer block party season. Outdoor cooking, cornhole, drinks, and friends are all on the menu for a fabulous time.

For quick bites that appeal to all ages and tastes, something sweet and versatile should make an appearance on the grocery list: honey. At the RI Grown Fishermen’s Memorial farmers market, hosted by the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (RI DEM), shoppers can find Dick Sheridan, owner and beekeeper of Sheridan Apiaries in Wickford, RI, selling jars of raw honey. His stand, which is fittingly nestled behind vendors selling an abundance of flowering plants, offers this molten amber treat in all sizes, from honey sticks to jars that contain multiple pounds. 

Sheridan started beekeeping locally 38 years ago. “I saw an ad for hives in the Burpee Seed catalogue many, many years ago,” he remembers. A friend overheard him thinking about investing in bees and pointed him towards a beekeeping class by the Rhode Island Beekeepers Association. “I started with one hive of bees, and then two weeks into it, I wished I’d gotten two!” 

Since establishing his apiaries, Sheridan has made a commitment to let his bees roam naturally and keep the honey raw (unpasteurized). Pasteurizing honey is a process in which the honey is exposed to high heat, pressure, or a combination of both. The process means it will be “kept liquid on a supermarket shelf,” slowing down the natural process of crystallization. But pasteurizing honey takes out all of the flavor (besides “sweet”) and destroys the natural enzymes that boost honey’s nutritional and medicinal value. Sheridan compares this process to rapidly heating up and cooling off a fine wine – it simply destroys what makes it good. 

Raw honey, on the other hand, “means you’re eating it right out of the hive, like a bear,” says Sheridan. Bears actually broke into some of his hives earlier this season at Narrow Lane Orchard. They know the good stuff, and Sheridan, by collecting and jarring the honey, makes sure we can know it, too. 

“My bees feed on whatever’s available.” It’s both a survivalist necessity and a back-to-nature ideal; the bees are free to gather pollen and nectar from any source available. Rhode Island, Sheridan laments, is an urban state. Its “single biggest agricultural product is turf,” he claims, which is backed by statistics from the United States Department of Agriculture. So, his bees create honey from a mixture of clover, wildflowers, goldenrod, flowering trees, and more. The mix gives it a more complex flavor as compared to single-source honey. 

New honey Sheridan usually harvests between July and August. While honey is continuously made throughout the summer season and into the fall – September is usually when the year’s second batch of honey can be harvested – Sheridan stops taking honey after mid-August. That is when the invasive Japanese knotweed is in full bloom, and its nectar makes for a bitter honey. The jars of honey he sells at the farmers market were bottled the night prior. The secret to liquid, fresh honey after the bees have made it last summer? The packaging. “It stays liquid better if it stays in the bees’ all-natural packaging” – honeycomb. Unless one were to brave beestings like the bear at Narrow Lane Orchard, this is probably the closest a consumer can get to eating honey from the hive. 

Honey itself is an incredibly versatile ingredient, especially as a sweetener. Besides adding dollops of honey to tea, it can be mixed into salad dressings and barbeque sauces, or baked into bread and pastries, Sheridan lists off. “To choose one favorite is to deny the use of everything else!” He exclaims. But pushing the subject, Sheridan reveals that honey tastes sweeter with a sweet tooth: “My favorite use for honey is to put it over those in-season, fresh strawberries.” A juicy, sweet, simple, summery dessert that will soon be available, Aquidneck Islanders can experience the joys of picking their own strawberries from Quonset View Farm in the upcoming weeks of early June.

But if super-sweet isn’t your style, consider adding some jalapeño heat to make hot honey. While still incredibly versatile, I find hot honey goes best on pizzas. To appease all eaters, I made fresh pizza two ways, a veggie-based hot honey butternut squash pie, and a more traditional, more carnivorous bacon, pepperoni, and hot honey pizza. To wash it down with even more honey, try the sweet sting bee’s knees cocktail, a warm, sweet, and slightly floral drink that’s sure to get a buzz. And for dessert, save that jar of honey for freshly picked strawberries, but if you can’t wait, top-tier honey is sure to elevate berries from the store.  

The dough recipe is adapted from The Kitchn. 

For the dough:  

1 2/3 c warm water (about 100 degrees Fahrenheit) 

1 packet of Fleischmann’s Pizza Crust Yeast

¼ c olive oil

5 c bread flour

Pinch of salt

1 ½ tsp garlic powder

2 tsp basil

Instructions for the dough: 

  1. Mix the water and yeast together in a large mixing bowl. Let stand until dissolved, breaking up any yeast clumps during the wait. Stir in the oil, then add the flour, salt, and spices. Mix with a spatula until the mixture forms a shaggy dough. 
  2. Knead the dough on a countertop or on a large cutting board by hand for about eight minutes. Trust the process. It will start sticky and wet, and then later form into a smooth ball that springs slowly back when poked. 
  3. Grease the mixing bowl with olive oil and return the kneaded dough back to the bowl. Flip the dough so all sides are coated with the oil. Cover with plastic wrap or a damp kitchen towel and let it rise at room temperature for about an hour and a half. 
  4. Once it has doubled in size, use a pastry cutter or a knife and divide the dough into four for 12-inch pizzas, or into eight for smaller, personal pizzas. 

This hot honey recipe is adapted from Gimme Some Oven. 

For the hot honey: 

1 c honey

1 jalapeño pepper, sliced

1 ½ tsp apple cider vinegar 

Instructions for the hot honey: 

  1. Add the honey and jalapeño slices to a medium saucepan and heat over medium until the honey begins to lightly bubble. Give the mixture a quick stir, then take the honey off the heat immediately. 
  2. Let it rest for about 15 minutes so the flavors can infuse. 
  3. Stir in the apple cider vinegar. Use immediately, or store in a jar in the refrigerator for up to one week. 

I took inspiration from Sweet Cayenne and Jar of Lemons for this hot honey butternut squash pizza. 

Hot honey butternut squash pizza: 

2 slices of bacon (optional)

1 small butternut squash, cubed

2 c arugula

6 oz crumbled goat cheese

Hot honey

Instructions for the hot honey butternut squash pizza:

  1. Prepare the butternut squash by chopping it into bite-sized cubes, without the tough skin. 
  2. In a skillet over medium heat, fry the bacon strips until extra crispy. Set aside the bacon, and in the same pan, sauté the butternut squash in the bacon grease until fork tender – about eight minutes. 
  3. Preheat your grill on high (about 500 degrees Fahrenheit) for about ten minutes with a pizza stone in the center. Take one of the dough balls and roll it out on a floured work surface. Alternatively, you can stretch it between your hands and drape it over your fists to create a circular pizza. When the stone has preheated, cut the center heat off. 
  4. Assemble the pizza, spreading out the arugula, crumbling the goat cheese and bacon, followed by the butternut squash and a healthy drizzle of hot honey. Place the pizza on the stone and cook for about five minutes or until the crust is golden brown.

Inspiration for the bacon, pepperoni, hot honey pizza comes from Hey Grill Hey and Cooking For Keeps. 

Bacon, pepperoni, and hot honey pizza:

4 slices of bacon

Thinly sliced pepperoni

1 c tomato sauce

1 ball of mozzarella cheese

Hot honey

Instructions for bacon, pepperoni, and hot honey pizza: 

  1. In a skillet over medium heat, fry the bacon strips until extra crispy. Meanwhile, preheat the grill and a pizza stone on high (about 500 degrees Fahrenheit) for about ten minutes. Take one of the dough balls and roll it out on a floured work surface. Alternatively, you can stretch it between your hands and drape it over your fists to create a circular pizza. When the stone has preheated, cut the center heat off. 
  2. Thinly slice the pepperoni and the ball of mozzarella cheese. Roll out or stretch the pizza dough into the desired size. Spread the tomato sauce across the center of the pizza, then layer mozzarella, pepperoni, and crumbled bacon bits on top. Finish with a drizzle of hot honey. 
  3. Place the pizza on the stone and cook for about five minutes or until the crust is golden brown. 

Sweet Sting Bee’s Knees: 

2 oz Tom Cat Gin

¾ oz lemon juice

½ oz hot honey

4 oz vanilla seltzer water

Lemon twist garnish (optional)

Instructions for sweet sting bee’s knees:

  1. In a cocktail mixer, stir together hot honey, lemon juice, gin, and vanilla seltzer water. 
  2. Pour the combination over ice, and garnish with a twist of lemon. Enjoy. 

This recipe makes four large pizzas. The total amount for the ingredients (portioned) is about $43.50. The cost of each pizza is about $10.87.

Ruthie Wood is a recent graduate from Johns Hopkins University and burgeoning writer. As she works on her dreams of becoming a novelist, you can find her writing about Rhode Island living for What'sUpNewp. She has also written articles for Hey Rhody, Providence Monthly, The Bay, and SO Rhode Island magazines.

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