When a Heavenly Honey Pot and a Murder Mystery Collide

The universe sends me some sweet stuff on the Greek island of Zakynthos.

Remember I told you about a super-cute Greek island called Zakynthos which I visited last September? I wrote about it here and here.

Well, my husband and I went back. This time we rented a car and took our sweet time exploring the island. Free olive factory tours abounded, so we checked one out.

There was a lot of rusty old farming equipment, which may interest agricultural types, but not us. After we finished the tour, we landed in an olive oil shop where one could purchase every olive oil product imaginable.

This is us indulging in tomfoolery at the end. Can you smart people identify the beautiful tree in the background?

Further down the road, we discovered an open-air store selling pottery, souvenirs, and Greek specialty food items, including honey. We were the only ones there that day, so the proprietor spent some time giving us tiny spoonfuls of honey.

Zakynthos is an excellent place for bees to gather nectar and produce high-quality honey because of its favorable climate, diverse flora, and abundant natural resources.

Local beekeepers set up apiaries across the island to manage their beehives, where the bees produce thyme honey, pine honey, wildflower honey, and citrus honey. Honey products in the United States typically aren’t marked by the type of plants the bees use as nectar but by geographical area.

I sampled all of them, but the most delicious one was rose honey. Yes, these bees lived near rose bushes, so that taste permeated their honey.

I was immediately bewitched and bought a jar.

A weird coincidence is that I was in the middle of reading a novel called "Mad Honey" by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan while we were on this trip.

It’s a murder mystery told from the perspective of a beekeeper. The author weaves information about her apiary throughout the story.

I learned so much about bees and the medicinal properties of honey that I started taking a teaspoonful of honey daily just like the beekeeper in the book. Not that I needed a reason. The rose honey had a delicate, heavenly flavor, and I savored it.

Did you know that honey never spoils?

In Sanskrit, the word for nectar is "Amrita," representing the divine, immortal elixir associated with gods and goddesses. It describes a sweet, divine substance or the essence of immortality. That is what rose honey tasted like!

I wanted to bring my open honey jar home, but this would not be allowed in our carry-on luggage. My husband and I decided once we started traveling again after the pandemic, that we could no longer trust the airlines with our checked bags. We heard too many lost luggage horror stories. This meant anything we brought home had to comply with carry-on luggage rules.

I left my honey behind.

A surprise honey-tasting on the side of a mountain while reading a book explaining beekeeping makes me pause.

Do you get curious when the universe synchronizes something so perfect for you? What do you do about it? I’d love to know if this happened to you in the comments below.

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I think I missed my calling. I could have had a career selling Shakti mats. Apparently you guys have been yearning for that bed-of-nails feeling. I heard from so many of you about your experience after my article. To catch up, you can read it here. Let me know how you like yours in the comments, too.

This Zakinthian goat has never heard about goat yoga but said he may try a Shakti mat.