Are you buying those plastic, bear-shaped squeeze bottles of honey at the supermarket? Check the label for the origin of that honey: Is it from Hawaii?

When you buy island-sourced honey you’re supporting agriculture in two important ways. First, you’re supporting the beekeepers who raise the bees and tend hives to get the honey. Golden sweet honey is, without doubt, one of nature’s amazing products.

Second, you’re supporting local farmers who provide food for our tables. Honeybees play an important role in the production of food crops as natural pollinators of fruits and vegetables. Without honeybees, melons, cucumbers, eggplant, zucchini, macadamia nuts, coffee and many more items would not be as bountiful.

The honey produced in the process is secondary to the role of honeybees in agricultural crops, but honey sales help keep the beekeeper in business.

Island honeys flavored by lehua, lavender and macadamia nut blossoms are sweet indeed; the subtle flavors of honey indicate where the bees have been busy and which blossoms they have been visiting.

Island honeys are on supermarket shelves and at just about every farmers market in the state, where you can taste before you buy.

Use honey in place of sugar in drinks, salad dressings, marinades and sauces. Carefully substitute honey in baked goods, adjusting other liquids in the recipe. Use a spoonful in your cup of coffee, drizzle it over yogurt and fruit. It is oh, so sweet!

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Hawaii food writer Joan Namkoong offers a weekly tidbit on fresh seasonal products, many of them locally grown.