Why does honey keep so well?

Factual Questions
1

Reading about Y2K preperations, and how there is currently a run on honey. Organic honey producers are having a hard time meeting demand.

My question is, why does honey keep so well, even without refrigeration? I would think something that is pure sugar would be covered in and eaten by mold very quickly.

2

Because as a crystal in suspension it is highly osmotic, literally sucking the juice out of any living cell that fell into it the same way that salt on lettuce will cause it to wilt. BTW salt has the same effect, the reason that salting meat was practiced before the days of refrigeration,
Larry

3

Good answer. How about the additional effect of plant alkaloids in there?

4

Plant alkaloids may have an effect but it’s probably unlikely. Honey, or any sugar solution with the density of honey, is simply too supersaturated to go bad.

“Who are all you people, and how did you get in my computer?”

5

(Perk!) Plant alkaloids? Too bad there’s no mescaline or psilocybin in there.

6

If there were, we’d be pissing in a cup every two months for a “random honey test”.

“Who are all you people, and how did you get in my computer?”