Thanks to the inspiration and hard work of one inspired volunteer, the MSBA website now has a growing collection of recipes using local honey (including recent award winners at our own and national honey shows) for you to browse, print and prepare in your own home! Each page includes a link to local sources of honey: MSBA members who have indicated that they have honey for sale are automatically included on the list!
In 2024, while helping at MSBA's annual honey show, EAS Master Beekeeper Valerie Wampler had an inspiration: show contestants are required to submit recipes with their entries, but what was happening to the recipes after that? She learned that the recipes are saved, but that they were not in use. And she has come up with an answer: share them digitally along with sources of Maryland honey.
Honey show recipes are meant to be part of the educational process of holding a competition, awarding prizes, and providing feedback. They are literally meant to be shared, and provide a powerful marketing and educational tool to reach the communities surrounding Free State beekeepers.
Valerie had also found 1980s era cookbooks, "Honey Recipes from Maryland Kitchens" and "More Honey Recipes From Maryland Kitchens," and wondered whether local beekeepers and honey fans had access to these tasty items, either! It has been over 40 years since these titles were published, and they are now rare and not accessible to the general public.
While MSBA is not in a position to publish hard copy books (the older titles mentioned here were produced in cooperation with an agricultural marketing project at the Maryland Department of Agriculture), our website now has an index and printable recipe cards for you to use at your convenience!
We already have about 50 recipes online (enough to fill a cookbook), with more being added each month. The recipes range from pies to lotions, cookies to furniture polish. If you have a recipe to submit, please email it to beeline@mdbeekeepers.org, and we will share it with Valerie and the website team.
[Return to February 2025 Beeline newsletter]