Karina Jones is a real-life ranch wife in the Nebraska Sandhills and one of the most highly sought-after speakers in the cattle industry nationwide!
Show me the honey! Welcome to Fun, Fact Friday here on Ranch Raised!
September is national honey month! I am truly fascinated by this golden nectar and how it is produced. Getting bees is a life goal of mine, but we won’t tell my husband.
Honey is a liquid sweetener that bees make. After they collect nectar from flowers, they take it back to the hive and regurgitate it. Then, the other bees chew it until it becomes honey. The bees deposit the honey into tiny, waxy storage units called honeycombs. They fan it with their wings to dry it out. This process makes it stickier.
The U.S. boasts more than 300 different types of honey. Raw honey comes straight from the hive. Raw honey is the least processed and probably has the most antioxidants. Despite its raw status, it’s considered safe to eat except for children younger than 1, who should avoid all honey.
Pasteurized honey has been processed to remove imperfections and improve its shelf life. Not all honey sold in the stores is the same even though it all starts naturally in the hive, some of it is spiked with corn syrup.
In addition to its use as a natural sweetener, honey is used as an anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and antibacterial agent. People commonly use honey orally to treat coughs and topically to treat burns and promote wound healing.
The Dakotas, California, and Montana are the top honey producing states! What I love about honey is that you can almost always find a local source! I love a little honey in my hot tea during the winter months. You can bet that I always support my local beekeepers and I encourage you to do the same!
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Karina ranches with her husband, Marty, and 3 daughters near Broken Bow, NE. She grew up in western NE, with roots also in southwest SD. The cattle industry and raising kids is her passion.
Watching the cattle industry go the path that it has gone, she could no longer sit quietly at home checking cows, fixing fence, and doing all the everyday tasks wondering when some else was going to make it all better. As she became more active and outspoken on industry issues, she was asked to join the R-CALF USA staff in September 2020 as the Checkoff Petition Campaign manager. That position transcended into her current role as full time Field Director for R-CALF USA.
You can hear her almost every Friday on Your Ag Network’s Hot Barn Report that is broadcast on 60 radio stations with coverage in 9 states, where she deep dives into cattle industry issues and highlights R-CALF’s work on industry reforms. Listen to Ranch Raised on a Your Ag Network hometown station or www.youragnetwork.com where she talks about her daily life on the ranch.
Cattle producers are her people. She will meet you at the county fair, at the sale barn, or anywhere the dusty trail leads.
[email protected] or visit facebook.com/ranchraisedwithkarinajones
