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Our Fourth Newsletter |
Red Stringybark is Back! | Clare Smyth, Matt Moran and Ross Lusted |
Limited Beeswax Now Available | Reduced shipping rate and minimum spend
until Easter | Beekeeping with La Niña
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~•*•~
'Every saint has a bee in his halo'
Elbert Hubbard, June 19, 1856
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Hello Friends,
We hope this
finds you and your family well. We apologise for being very quiet on the
newsletter front. The bees have been incredibly busy this Spring,
Summer and Autumn (i.e. our beekeeping season), producing wild honey and
keeping Tim on his toes.
During the very long, Australian bee
season the world has been experiencing some serious climate related
devastation and upheaval. Close to home, our hearts go out to those people and properties adversely affected by the flooding in NSW and QLD. Tim details below how the flooding, and La Niña, affected his beekeeping and the regions he works in this time around.
Despite the inclement weather, we are excited to announce that the incredible Red Stringybarks managed to flower for a very short period in late summer and we have a limited number of 500g jars available!
Additionally Tim has processed a small amount of beeswax and we have had a very fortunate start to the year, with more Australian and International chefs working with our products.
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Red Stringybark Wild Honey Now Available
A rich, spicy, toffee-like flavoured honey with smoky, earthy undertones - perfect for Autumn!
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Sunset over the
grassy woodlands of the Central Tablelands where Red Strinybarks grow on
the mountains and hilltops
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Growing on elevated
hills of the Central Tablelands at altitudes of 800 to 1100m (in an
extreme climate with highly variable rainfall), the honey produced from
Red Stringybark woodlands is one of the finest in Australia.
Only once every four
to eight years will this tree flower, enlivening our bees to collect her
rich, amber nectar during late summer and occasionally into early
autumn. The wild honey produced from Red Stringybark forests is
exceptionally high in mineral content and has
the second lowest GI rating of any Australian honey (44).
It also received
a TA rating of 39+,
making it the highest rated of our products to date which are some of
the most medicinally active honeys available. If you’re interested in
the medicinal benefits of honey Tim has written
articles that outline how our products differ from conventionally produced honey, including our latest offering.
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Despite our
other Wild Honey varieties crystallising naturally in the jar, this
variety will definitely stay in liquid form (we have a jar from a 2006
harvest that is still entirely liquid!).
It is a thick, full
bodied honey with a glassy amber colour, making it a nice contrast to
the cloudy, earthy, crystallised varieties.
'An intense, generous aroma and flavour profile leaning into richer,
confected characters. Concentrated, deeply flavoured and curiously and
wonderfully spicy. A hedonistic honey for savouring.
Colour: Bronze gold, clear
Texture: Medium viscous
Aromas: Toffee apple, dried rose hip, caramelised sugar, cinnamon, faint eucalyptus
Flavours: Richer, toffee and caramel flavours, red berries, cola, light chilli, cinnamon, faint minty-peppery lift'
Mike Bennie, Australian Writer, Public Speaker and Wine Journalist
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We have some more new
releases coming soon - we will keep you updated via our newsletter and
instagram so stay tuned!
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From Aria to the Rockley Pub
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We have been
incredibly fortunate to have the patronage of one of Australia's most
well known Chefs and Restaurateurs,
Matt Moran,
for a number of years. 2022 is no exception with our Wild Honey
currently featuring on his menu at Aria in Sydney and included in the
opening night celebration at his latest project, The Rockley Pub in the
Central West.
The latter is
especially meaningful as Emma is an 6th generation Rockleyite - her
great, great, great grandfather was the first blacksmith in Rockley and
his son and grandsons then purchased large tracts of land around the
town for grazing properties.
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Eggplant and radicchio, with our
Wild Honey and toasted seeds at Aria, Sydney (photo: @chefmattmoran)
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Emma and Tim were also
married in Rockley, their first child was baptised there and they lived
5kms from the town on the last piece of Emma's family's farm for a
number of years before settling in their current location in the Central
West.
Emma's grandfather was very active in the community trying to
revive the town, raising money to save local landmark buildings,
refurbish the parks and amenities and helped organise events to
celebrate and promote the village and it's remarkable history.
To have our Wild Honeycomb used on opening night, on Emma's
grandfather's anniversary no less, by someone with similar aspirations
was very special.
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Oncore's Leading Lady paid us a visit
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We were incredibly honoured to have
Clare Smyth, Gordon Ramsay's protege (and chef for Harry and
Meghan's
wedding!), visit one of our Upper Blue Mountains apiaries with some of
her staff in February to sample Wild Honeycomb and talk natural
beekeeping with Tim.
Clare has been using our Wild Honey in her new Sydney restaurant,
Oncore, for a
few months now, which is an honour in itself. To say Tim was blown away
to be included in the world famous, 3 Michelin star chef's one-week
Australian visit would be an understatement.
Thank you Clare for
the keen interest you take in the producers and regions you feature in
your restaurants world wide. It was an absolute pleasure having you in
our "office". You are a true queen bee!
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Clare and her team suited up!
(photo: @chefclaresmyth)
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Clare Smyth and Tim in the Blue Mountains
(photo: @chefclaresmyth)
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Ross Lusted from Woodcut, Sydney
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Ross and Sunny Lusted, a well known and highly regarded
duo in the Australian fine dining scene, have included our Wild Honey
on their menus for some years but have made it a feature in their latest
venture,
Woodcut, which, like Clare's
Oncore, resides in Sydney's Crown Casino.
The restaurant is an ode to Australian food and life in every sense,
decorated with amazing Australian art and the dining rooms named and
designed after Australian flora.
It is a an immense honour to
have Ross work with our honey and produce some truly original and
beautiful dishes. His continued support of what we do is a blessing.
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Ross Lusted once again weaving magic with our Wild Honey at
Woodcut in Sydney (photo: @woodcutrestaurant)
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There will be more
images and articles to come in the near future from Clare's Apiary
visit, and a magazine article on our honeycomb and beekeeping is being
organised as we type. So keep an eye on our media page which is jam
packed with features on us in the media, some of which include recipes
from Australia's finest chefs.
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Despite the wet
beekeeping season, we are very relieved our bees managed to produce
plenty of
Wild Honey (which is available in 3 jar sizes for most varieties) and
Wild Honeycomb frames.
We also have a small amount of
Beeswax available and
mixed 4 packs, some including the latest release of Red Stringybark.
As always we have
E-Gift vouchers on offer so you can give the gift of honey ~ very handy for Easter during pandemic peaks!
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Shipping and Housekeeping
(Pre-Easter)
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Given the resurgence of Covid and the floods in Australia, we have decided to
extend our recently reduced shipping rate and reduced minimum spend requirement until Easter.
To allow for delivery by Easter (depending on Australia Post) we advise you to
place your orders by the 4th April.
It can take us up to a week to process orders as everything is done in
house, from the production of the goods all the way through to the
packaging of your order. We generally allow another week for goods to be
delivered as we live in Regional Australia.
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~•*•~
This Month's Select Products
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Wild Honey 500g
Red Stringybark
$32.00
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Wild Honey 500g
Mixed 4 Pack
(other combinations and
sizes available)
$116.00
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Malfroy's Gold
1Kg Pure Beeswax Block
$55.00
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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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Another instalment of Tim's Warré beekeeping adventures in the Blue Mountains and Central Tablelands.
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Misty mountain
weather has persisted all summer in the upper Mountains, a result of the
La Niña weather system
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What a strange season
it has been - full of ups and downs and a lot of wet weather through it
all. I’m writing now after just finishing a quick tour of the apiaries
in the lower Blue Mountains to see how the colonies fared during the
recent flooding and torrential rain.
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In our Lower
Blue Mountains apiaries, the bees are now foraging strongly on Red
Bloodwood after the recent torrential downpours
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Beautiful
compact brood. The colonies start shrinking their broodnest as the days
shorten and weather cools
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Having grown up in the
area, I take great care in locating apiaries out of the flood zones.
However, trees can come down in the apiaries, landslides can take out
access roads and weeks of constant rain can have a detrimental affect on
the vigour of the colonies. Many of our friends in the Hawkesbury were
badly affected by the flooding and have worked so hard on their
businesses in the area only to be hit by consecutive years of fires and
floods - it is truly heartbreaking.
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Fresh,
delicate virgin comb being built by the bees in the Wollemi Wilderness
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A Warré hive
in the Wollemi Wilderness, with a Red Bloodwood (Corymbia gummifera) in
flower in the background
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Thankfully there were
no losses in the apiaries and the bees are looking good, despite having
eaten through a lot of their honey stores during the three weeks of
rain. Some of the Red Bloodwood blossom survived the downpours, and the
bees are bringing in large baskets of creamy pollen and rich red nectar
from those trees.
It seems that every summer we are confronted
with a different natural disaster to contend with - from bushfires to
floods and damaging storms. Although these events have always occurred,
the frequency and intensity continues to increase. Rather than view them
as ‘unprecedented’, they are more likely the ‘new normal’ - and
something that scientists have been predicting for over three decades.
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Fresh Wild Honeycomb - the purest of all foods! Pictured here is a frame of Yellow Box (Eucalyptus melliodora)
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When bees
build natural comb off a top bar, it forms a catenary curve (the shape
made by a chain or rope suspended by its ends)
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Despite the grim
realisation of this new normal, there is a lot to be thankful for: a
magical spring honey flow in the Blue Mountains which enabled us to
produce a beautiful crop of Wild Honeycomb; a Yellow Box honey flow in
the Central Tabelands, somewhat subdued by the cooler
La Niña
conditions; a surprise, small harvest of both Red Bloodwood and Red
Stringybark, two of our favourite varietal honeys. Considering the
challenges of the second
La Niña
season in a row, it is heartening to see the colonies thriving and
looking healthy and strong as we head into the cooler months.
~•*•~
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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Once again, thank you
to everyone who contacted us or purchased items after reading our
previous newsletter, particularly those of you who took the time to let
us know how much you enjoyed our Wild Honey! Your ongoing support of
what we do is very much appreciated!
We hope you enjoyed our fourth newsletter and are always happy to hear your thoughts.
(If you missed our last newsletter and would like to read it you can do so
here.)
Thank you for reading,
Tim, Emma and the Daughters of the Light
Below: Another stunning dish from Alex Prichard,
Native Australian Bombe Alaska
- Strawberry Gum, Plum Sorbet, Australian Chocolate, Malted Wattle
Seed, Malfroy's Gold Wild Honey and Jersey Milk (Photo: @alexsprichard)
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