Help! I can’t get the honey out of the jar

local honey producer
Have you ever had a jar of honey look like this and can’t squeeze or spoon it out? Bummer, isn’t it?

In my photo here, the light color indicates crystallization or honey that is or has turned solid, while the dark color indicates liquid honey. By holding a jar up to the light, you can sometimes see the crystals floating in suspension. I always think about ancient Egyptians when I see hardened honey, because people have found it in tombs, and it never went bad. It just got hard. Three thousand years ago. I think that is a very cool attribute for food to naturally have.

You can soften and liquefy your honey easily with some hot water and some time. I place a deep saucepan of water on my stove, bring it to steaming, turn off the heat, and put my jar of honey into the water bath — but keep the water line below the lid. After that, it’s a matter of time before my honey melts. For small jars, I can have the lower 25% of the jar in the hot water bath and the entire contents will end up liquefying. I have a photo of it on my Examiner page.