Decent Siberian meadow flower £10 honey, cheap @£2.99

[Mr Gus]

Lads, I love some well produced honey, & having run out of some decent greek Mellona honey recently was down to a mere 5 varieties.

I thought of doing a heavy on the honey beer brew, & found this Siberian Mishka honey filthy cheap.

It is still selling (variety dependent for £10-15 per jar) but has been caught up in the Russian govt war in ukraine perception of all russia bad (we know that is not necessarily the case) ...the importer had his 1st batch released about 50 days before russia invaded & the screws came down.
The uk md is UK born, siberia is about as far away from Moscow / St petersburg politics as you can get in terms of lifestyle.

Likely the fella's business is down the pan as a result, they were donating £2 per jar to unicef ukrainian relief but still got plenty of "nothing russian" haters on their farcebook page ..shame.

Suffice to say £2.99 per jar from discount dragon link 2 varieties available (making the £20 min order for free delivery more palatable)

There is a 1p deal (limited 1 per person) for heinz tomato sauce, seek it out to top up.
We are buying a wedge of the honey's (unpasteurised goodness) I hope wife doesn't complain when I use some for brew purposes.

MISHKA MEADOW FLOWERS HONEY
https://discountdragon.co.uk/product/1- ... glass-jar/

MISHKA LINDEN EUROPEAN LIME TREE
https://discountdragon.co.uk/product/1- ... glass-jar/

1p heinz tom saucey
https://discountdragon.co.uk/product/1- ... 0g-bottle/

I will be filling my boots of this technically "short dated" Minimum Best Before 15/09/2023

[AE-NMidlands]

Just buy local honey from someone who doesn't use a retailer/middleman. It's bad luck for the chap trying to make a business in Russia, but I bet there is almost nothing coming out of that country which is [politically] uncontaminated.
Mine is cheap (relative to English/local honey in shops) because the friends I sell it to bring the jars back, and I know my local market. Put the price up much, and they will be tempted to go for cheap rubbish at half the price - or less. I have plenty of stock so I can't afford not to sell it!

[Mr Gus]

Sadly the honey here is heavy on the rapeseed flower which I really am not keen enough to part with money for as I find it cloying, & cabbagey (well it is a brassica family) so I look around for honey which revs my taste-buds up, I hate myself for it.

Isn't it a mega fast crystalising honey too? (irksome) ..whilst it is easy to maintain a decent temp via sous vide It's a pain esp for a honey that sadly I don't rate.
Sadly the orchard industry is nigh on dead round here so mono floral more often than not

[renewablejohn]

Not surprised you get Russian haters when you here stories from Ukranian bee keepers returning to hives that have been liberated only to find the hives are booby trapped and apiarists have been killed. As an apiarist myself I would not touch Russian honey with a barge pole.

[Mr Gus]

To be fair though John, would a bee keeper drafted into the insanity do that to hives he stumbled across when pushed involuntarily into Ukraine? ..doubtful, it's likely to be indoctrinated scum, (of which the russian diktat has plenty of practise meddling with folks minds to make them as scared as they clearly are to allow dictatorial rule)

Hate russian forces rampant destruction, kidnapping torture etc, but plenty of good folk left in russia ..hard to tell who's who but I prefer to think that those who work with the environment, flora & fauna are at heart decent people regardless of world politics & the obvious atrocities.

I remember "the last tommy" Harry Patch (kept my daughter off school to watch his funeral, she knew all about him due to my military reading interest esp "forgotten voices" series they agreed to try & fire their unit (of 3) mounted machine gun above heads because regardless of uniform they didn't want to take a life if it could be avoided.

Technically the fella who imported this (uk man, I checked companies house as part of due process) already paid for this honey prior to Ukraine war, he was also donating £2 per pot at full price to Ukrainian food aid, so I have zero problem thus, less so than the likes of large mega corps who remain selling to russia, or still flogging burgers (pepsi corp) from still operating outlets (of which many italian brands are a problem)

The selling price here is likely a try to recoup something from the wreckage deal.

I understand the anger but not the necessarily the accuracy

For comparison & perspective: Oskar Schindler was still a german, nazi card carrying party member etc...

[renewablejohn]

Its not just bee keeping though its the whole Russian attitude to Ukranian farmers. From stealing expensive combines tractors etc to the whole slaughter of herds just for the hell of it. Its not as though they dont know where the equipment has gone as most of it has trackers and can be disabled remotely.

[Mr Gus]

Is this being carried out by russian farmers though john?

I doubt those stolen laptops were by IT techs, (opportunists yes) ..nor white goods stolen by salesman, opportunists again, the whole broken system in russia, so stolen farm kit (also stolen here) is by opportunists seeing quick cash opportunities & have the mechanism to get it back for a bundle of roubles / other stolen kit via an empty lorry, train etc.

War sets thuggery loose, sometimes under the excuse of "boredom" sometimes because of lack of leadership, & a lot of want.
War is wholesale slaughter be it animal or human taking the brunt.

Not much was said when the russia moved a border overnight (each time) this has been coming a long time with russia watching the international malaise..
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/worl ... 35756.html

The ethnic cleansing by soldiers would have followed a similar pattern
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russo-Georgian_War

Considering how many Wagner with plenty of experience in african / syrian states are on the job the hardcore stuff will have been via the well practised PMC routes, doubt the majority of fill in non professionals will be competent to do much more than vandalism, basic theft, rape, torture etc, the alcoholism keeps many busy enough as is, booby trapping is experienced units not your recently press-ganged recruit generally. (however russian military is a large entity) ..it must also be reminded (esp in times of retreat from places like Bakmhut, that destroying kit as you go is commonplace by any warring sides to deny the other advantage, less likely from Ukrainian forces to slaughter animals for instance but not a certainty either.

Here is an interesting "rules of war" insight as to definition of boobytrap devices..
https://lieber.westpoint.edu/booby-trap ... -conflict/

[renewablejohn]

Is this being carried out by russian farmers though john?

I doubt those stolen laptops were by IT techs, (opportunists yes) ..nor white goods stolen by salesman, opportunists again, the whole broken system in russia, so stolen farm kit (also stolen here) is by opportunists seeing quick cash opportunities & have the mechanism to get it back for a bundle of roubles / other stolen kit via an empty lorry, train etc.

War sets thuggery loose, sometimes under the excuse of "boredom" sometimes because of lack of leadership, & a lot of want.
War is wholesale slaughter be it animal or human taking the brunt.

Not much was said when the russia moved a border overnight (each time) this has been coming a long time with russia watching the international malaise..
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/worl ... 35756.html

The ethnic cleansing by soldiers would have followed a similar pattern
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russo-Georgian_War

Considering how many Wagner with plenty of experience in african / syrian states are on the job the hardcore stuff will have been via the well practised PMC routes, doubt the majority of fill in non professionals will be competent to do much more than vandalism, basic theft, rape, torture etc, the alcoholism keeps many busy enough as is, booby trapping is experienced units not your recently press-ganged recruit generally. (however russian military is a large entity) ..it must also be reminded (esp in times of retreat from places like Bakmhut, that destroying kit as you go is commonplace by any warring sides to deny the other advantage, less likely from Ukrainian forces to slaughter animals for instance but not a certainty either.

Here is an interesting "rules of war" insight as to definition of boobytrap devices..
https://lieber.westpoint.edu/booby-trap ... -conflict/

Dont know whether Russian farmers involved but modern tractors and combines are pretty sophisticated bits of kit which the average joe bloggs off the street would not have a clue on how to start it never mind operate it. So yes I do believe a lot of farming equipment was stolen to order with the assistance of Russian farmers. As I said the tracking devices would suggest it was a very well organized raid on Ukrainian farm equipment not as you suggest a few opportunists.

[Mr Gus]

Reports from 2022 show a lot of grain & agri kit that was tracked & disabled shows chechnya as the most mentioned destination, to shift all that grain tonnage is indicative of government sanctioned operations (so much organisation esp where the grain theft was concerned) ..so likely enough to crack plenty of software systems via ministry hackers, & likely TOR dark web operators.

If you wish to dip your toes into tor & have a look round it's even available via google play.

If not familiar with it, here's a wee introduction..

https://www.techradar.com/reviews/tor-browser

Thereafter it's not too far to access what is commonly referred to as the dark web & see what's on offer with machinery work arounds.