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Our Second Newsletter |
A Brand New Wild Honey Variety | Tim Writes For Eatable | Wild Honey
Beer | Tim's .delicious Trophy | Reduced shipping rate and minimum spend
during lockdown | Yellow Bloodwood
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~•*•~
'Wild honey has a scent - of freedom'
Wild Honey, Anna Akhmatova, 1934
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Hello Friends,
Working
alongside our little ladies as they buzz their way into a new season of
light, warmth and freedom, we are struck by their eternal, communal
optimism and ability to just get on with it, no matter what the world
throws at them.
In keeping with that spirit, we would like to
share with you a few of the things that have been keeping us very busy
for the past 5 weeks or so.
Aside from the most important task of tending to his burgeoning bee colonies, Tim has been preparing a new honey variety for release this week (!),
has written a short piece for a food magazine and has been updating his
instagram feed with insights from his beekeeping days in the bush -
read on for more details!
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Introducing Mountain Meadow
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Polyflora Wild Honey from the Grassy Woodlands of the Central Ranges
In the lead up to the bee season of 2019/20, the Central Tablelands
(and much of NSW) had suffered through the most extreme drought in
recorded history. The drought finally broke and the rains that fell on
parched ground triggered a flowering of ground flora species that are
rarely seen.
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One of our Central Tablelands apiaries during the flowering event
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Most honeys in Australia
are dominated by the ubiquitous flowering Eucalypts (of which there are
over 800 species in nearly all bioregions across the continent).
However, the high rainfall resulted in the Eucalypts putting all their
energies into regrowing leaves after the stress of the drought, rather
than flowering. Therefore, this honey can be described as a ‘La Niña’
honey - a result of a weather event that occurs once every 10 years or
so.
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Tasting Notes from Respected Wine Journalist, Mike Bennie
An amazing
honey, packed with character, emphatically distinct, delicious in every
sense yet somewhat other-worldly in its Australian botanical/flora-laden
personality. A benchmark release. So fragrant, so much detail in
flavour, thick-set texture and almost best eaten off a small spoon than
used in more conventional manners!
Colour: Blonde, hazy-cloudy
Texture: Firm butter-like texture
Aromas: Subtle, delicate aromas of alpine flowers and botanicals, pot pourri, juniper, chamomile and faint caramel
Flavours: Lemon myrtle, chamomile, light toffee, green mango, cinnamon, wattleseed nuttiness
Mike Bennie, Australian Writer, Public Speaker and Wine Journalist,
Instagram: @mikebennie101
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~•*•~
The bold characters of
our other Wild Honeys are not as present here, instead this is an
ethereal honey with subtle herbal notes, a malty character and creamy
fudge-like texture that perfectly captures time and place.
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As part of our ongoing
mission to share our love and knowledge of all things bees and natural
beekeeping, we are always grateful to have our work or words included in
select publications and online resources around the world. At all times
we attempt to bring the discussion back to the core of our work -
caring for the bees and for the unique landscapes we call home.
This month we have been fortunate to have a feature on our
Wild Honeycomb printed in the latest edition of
Eatable and our
.delicious National Trophy mentioned in the
.delicious Produce Awards bonus magazine (part of their September edition).
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A Fragile State - Tim talks about Wild Honeycomb
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In this piece Tim
discusses what makes wild honeycomb so different to commercially
produced honeycomb and the positive effects on the bee colony of
producing comb in this natural manner.
'Comb is made from the
bees' own bodies and crafted into a profoundly important part of the
bee superorganism by the bees themselves – it can be thought of as the
skeleton, skin, womb and liver of the colony, and also acts as a
communication network, contributor to social immunity and functions as
an extended gut of the colony.'
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The magazine is currently available in select newsagents and on
Eatable's website in print and as a digital magazine.
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If you are a recent subscriber to our newsletter you may not be aware that our
Blue Mountains Post Brood Wild Honey was awarded a national Gold medal and Tim won the National Trophy for Outstanding Artisan at the 2021
.delicious Produce Awards.
We received our trophy in the mail a few weeks ago, complete with a copy of the
.delicious
awards feature magazine which included some lovely words about Tim by
Matt Moran ~ we are still feeling so blessed to be recognised by the
finest in the Australian food industry!
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You can visit our
Media page for more information on our Wild Honey in the public eye and
excerpts of Tim's appearances in broadcast, print and online media over
the years.
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photos ©
.delicious, Eatable and Malfroy's Gold
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As the warmer weather
sets in, some epic honey flows kick off and the new beekeeping season
unfurls, we are thankful to have plenty of
Wild Honey and
Wild Honeycomb to offer you ~ so it's a great time to get into some of that Christmas shopping and beat the madding crowds!
In addition to the 500g jars of our new variety of Wild Honey,
Mountain Meadow, we have also
added new 4 packs so you can sample it along with our old faithfuls.
As always we have
E-Gift vouchers on offer so you can give the gift of honey during these disconnected times.
Also, as mentioned last month, to make it easier for everyone to purchase our products while in lockdown, our recently
reduced shipping rate and reduced minimum spend requirement remain in place until all lockdowns are lifted nationwide.
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Happy Foraging!
~•*•~
This Month's Select Products
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Wild Honey 500g
Mountain Meadow
Grassy Woodland Polyflora
$32.00
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Wild Honey 500g
Mixed 4 Pack
(other combinations and
sizes available)
$116.00
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* Please note we are
bound by Australian Biosecurity regulations so are not permitted to
send honey to TAS, NT or WA
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If you
haven't been reading his Instagram updates, here is a little insight
into Tim's Warré beekeeping adventures in the Blue Mountains and Central
Tablelands.
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In Spring, the
colonies in our Warré hives start building comb at the base of the nest
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As the days lengthen,
the weather warms and wildflowers come into bloom, our bee colonies
start expanding their nests. For Tim, the species most emblematic of
this time of year in the lower Blue Mountains is the Yellow Bloodwood
(Corymbia eximia).
A close relative of the Eucalypts (in fact,
it was originally identified as a Eucalypt), it features as a major
contributor to our
Blue Mountains Polyflora Wild Honey and Honeycomb when in flower.
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Large Yellow
Bloodwood flower buds burst into creamy fragrant blossom every second
spring
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Growing out of pure
rock in sandstone woodlands, Yellow Bloodwood often has gnarly twisted
limbs underneath an attractive olive green canopy. The rough bark is
rusty yellow, tessellated and often oozing with kino and the honey is a
light amber colour with a dense body, and caramel and citrus notes.
Sweet and striking, but not overpowering or cloying.
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One of our small
Warré Apiaries in Sandstone Country surrounded by Yellow Bloodwoods
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A Yellow Bloodwood honeyflow is the perfect time to produce beautiful
Wooden Sections of Wild Honeycomb, and that is exactly what is happening at the moment. Stay tuned for notification of the first harvest in our next newsletter!
~•*•~
At the end of last season, Ben from
@leap_films
came out to spend a few hours with Tim in the Blue Mountains apiaries
and film him at work. They had planned to do some more filming this
spring but that will have to wait a while longer due to lockdowns etc.
In the mean time Tim has loaded a couple of short vignettes of Ben's
footage on Instagram - hopefully there will be more of them coming down
the track to share the how, where and why of what we do.
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A still from
one of Ben's short videos of Tim beekeeping in the lower Blue
Mountains, © Leap Films
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Another
still from a different video of Tim checking honeycomb frames in the
hives, © Leap Films
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As previously
promised, Tim will continue to fill your feed with updates from the
field about the ever changing and unique flora of the regions, bee
biology, our wild honey produce and other interesting things - all bee
related - follow along below!
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This month, we are focusing on Topher Boehm from
Wildflower Brewing and Blending, who we collaborated with recently.
In an industry first, Topher experimented with fermenting our Post
Brood honeywax to create a new kind of beer, and the result was their
very popular brew,
Hive: Post Brood.
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It’s been a joy for
Tim to work with Topher - he’s one of those rare individuals who is not
only great to hang with but also has a tremendous work ethic and really
'walks the talk' when it comes to sustainable sourcing of ingredients
and in-house processes. You can
read about the collaboration here, where Tim has gone into some detail about the Post Brood honeywax and the thinking behind using it for a beer.
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photo © Wildflower Brewing and Blending
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'There is
honestly no food I can think of that has intrigued, surprised and
inspired me more than Tim and Emma’s Post Brood polyflora honey. A
product of patience, respect for nature and sheer determination to an
idea, my family has become obsessed with it...'
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We recently sent some
more of our Post Brood honeywax to Topher, so keep an eye on the
Wildflower pages for release details about the third iteration of the
Post Brood beer. The two earlier vintages have sold out and it is fast
becoming something of a cult classic - truth be told, most of their
beers are cult classics!
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Topher's incredibe
Hive: Post Brood brew, made with Honeywax from our Post Brood Honey (photo © Wildflower Brewing)
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On a side
note, Tim was also impressed when a small jar of propolis he'd gifted
Topher ended up being incorporated into an additional, special micro
release beer simply called
Propolis - for Wildflower collective Customers only!
(photo © Untappd)
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~•*•~
In case you missed it
last month, to showcase the very talented and creative people who work
with our produce, we combined some of their amazing creations in a
little slideshow on our Awards page (with some new additions from the
last few weeks), and have also collected some kind things they have said
about our work on our Testimonials page.
We are so grateful to them that our produce is respected and used in such awe inspiring and imaginative ways!
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Finally, a big thank
you to everyone who contacted us after our newsletter with positive
feedback - your kind words and support are most appreciated and put a
spring in our step!
A special thanks to those of you who
purchase our Wild Honey, Honeycomb and Beeswax. We are so grateful for
our supporters and customers, particularly those who have been ordering
from us for many years now and are embracing our new online shop system
with open arms.
We hope you enjoyed our second newsletter and are always happy to hear your thoughts.
(If you missed last month's newsletter and would like to read it you can do so
here.)
Signing off for another month of this eventful year,
Tim, Emma and the Daughters of the Light
Photo below:
Tim in the Home Apiary (plus sheep and weeping cherry) © Our seven year old
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