12/22/06 Honey Board honors Holiday Tradition

It's Christmas time - and for the Hispanic community - the feast of Posadas is one of the most revered traditions of the season. Lisa Jager - Director of Industry Services for the National Honey Board  explains. JAGER: It's a popular holiday tradition in Mexico and other parts of Latin America and obviously in the Latino community here in the United States and it's basically kind of food fest where they have various festivals with different kinds of dishes but what they're celebrating actually is commemorating Mary and Joseph's journey to Bethlehem the night Jesus was born. Jager notes that honey is the only sweetener mentioned in the bible - and has been held in high esteem among Hispanics for centuries. She says honey is as much a symbol of purity, happiness and wellness today as it was thousands of years ago. Because of this symbolic meaning of honey - and the importance of the growing Hispanic market to the U.S. food industry - Jager says the Honey Board has created a promotion to honor the long-standing feast of Posadas tradition. JAGER: We created a promotion for the Hispanic community here in the United States because there are Las Posadas festivals held throughout the United States in the month of December. It's an on-line brochure actually and it tells people where they can go to participate in these festivals or if they want to host their own Las Pasadas, there are obviously recipes using honey. According to Jager - this all-purpose Spanish-language guide is not only a way to pay tribute to this important Latin tradition - but also to remind the community that pure honey is essential for the holidays. Jager says it's really a perfect fit. JAGER: Hispanics have been shown through research to be extremely loyal to honey particularly around the holidays so it's really kind of a natural fit because the Hispanic community loves honey, they're very loyal to honey and it makes sense that they would want to use honey in some of the recipes for this Las Posadas festival. The Honey Board includes holiday favorites like Grandma's Honey Rice Pudding - Sweet Tamales with Pineapple - and much more. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.