When you go into grocery store and see row upon row of golden jars of honey (be they conventional jars or cutesy ones shaped like bears), you possibly may not appreciate the amount of effort required to make this popular sweetener. It requires visits by our friends the bees to two million flowers in order to produce a pound of the stuff. A single bee would have to fly 90,000 miles in order to achieve that same amount (she would also personally consume an ounce of the precious food to fuel such a prodigious undertaking).
Historically, honey has been used for a variety of medicinal purposes, such as treating wounds, burns, and hay fever; on those occasions where the patient dies anyway, it can then be used to embalm the corpse. Being composed primarily of simple sugars, it is an excellent source of instant energy but should be approached with caution by diabetics and avoided altogether by infants under one year of age or by soldiers fighting against Mithridates. Romans used it to pay their taxes. John the Baptist utilized it as his major source of carbohydrates, and Cleopatra employed it as part of her beauty regimen.
No one knows for sure the shelf life of honey, as it has been uncovered in 2,000 year old tombs and found to be perfectly fresh.
Also, it tastes really good.
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