LIBER XI · CAPUT 13
WHERE THE BEST HONEY IS PRODUCED
Latine · Mayhoff 1906
ibi optimus semper, ubi optimorum doliolis florum conditur. fit Atticae regionis hoc et Siculae Hymetto et Hybla locis, mox Calydna insula. est autem initio mel ut aqua dilutum et primis diebus fervet ut musta seque purgat, vicensimo die crassescit, mox obducitur tenui membrana, quae fervoris ipsius spuma concrescit. sorbetur optimum et minime fronde infectum e quercus, tiliae, harundinum foliis.
English · Bostock & Riley 1855–57
The honey is always best in those countries where it is to be found deposited in the calix of the most exquisite flowers, such, for instance, as the districts of Hymettus and Hybla, in Attica and Sicily respectively, and after them the island of Calydna. At first, honey is thin, like water, after which it effervesces for some days, and purifies itself like must. On the twentieth day it begins to thicken, and soon after becomes covered with a thin membrane, which gradually increases through the scum which is thrown up by the heat. The honey of the very finest flavour, and the least tainted by the leaves of trees, is that gathered from the foliage of the oak and the linden, and from reeds.