Golden was the Honey

Hello Emma,

'Tis the merry month of May and as Australia ushers in a new government we, too, are ushering in something new.

We will be releasing our rarer Wild Honeys as Limited Edition Gold Label varieties over the next 12 months. The first of these varieties, Red Bloodwood, is now available in 500g jars.

We have also been incredibly fortunate to have had more coverage on Australian television this month. The biggest news being that our Wild Honey was featured on Masterchef Australia by the World's Best Female Chef ^*, Clare Smyth!

Additionally, Tim updates us on his life with the bees where he has been busy processing Wild Honey and diligently harvesting honey and comb in the ongoing inclement weather.

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Limited Edition Gold Label

Red Bloodwood - Available Now

'An incredibly complex and compelling honey' ^*

In late Summer and into Autumn, the Red Bloodwood tree (Corymbia gummifera) bursts into flower, covering the wilderness canopy with creamy blossoms. Flowering once every two to four years, the honey produced from Red Bloodwood is a true terroir honey, capturing the essence of the Blue Mountains.

This rich and sweet honey also has deep resinous notes owing to the 'blood' or kino/resin produced in abundance which gives the tree its common name. The amber colour and unique texture make for a beautiful, wild honey produced in a wild landscape.

Red Bloodwood is defined by beekeepers as a ‘short budder’ in that it sets buds in the month before flowering (unlike many other Eucalypts, Corymbia’s and Angophora’s that set their bud one year or more before flowering). Therefore, blossom is highly influenced by environmental conditions immediately preceding and during flowering.

In recent years, changes to the climate patterns in the region have resulted in periods of very high rainfall during flowering, affecting the honeyflow and making the small batch of Red Bloodwood we currently have available very special indeed!

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Spreading the Word

In case you missed it, we were blown away that world-renowned culinary genius, Clare Smyth, selected our Wild Honey as a featured ingredient for the Service Challenge held a few weeks back on Masterchef Australia!

Not only does Clare use our honey in her acclaimed new restaurant in Sydney, Oncore, but she also made the trek up the mountains to visit our apiary and chat with Tim in order to better understand the unique work we do (more on that in our last newsletter).

We are incredibly grateful that a megastar of the food industry has taken such a keen interest in our produce, and that of other Australian and International fine food producers - thank you Clare!

Another huge thanks to the Masterchef team for supporting Aussie producers, and to the Fans who conjured such beautiful dishes under immense pressure with our Wild Honey and won the night!

If you missed the episode, never fear, we have excerpts loaded on our Media page, and links to the full episode and recipes that won the first and third courses featuring our Wild Honey.

Fast Ed has long been a supporter of our beekeeping endeavours and our honey, having used it in dishes on Better Homes and Gardens in the past and again this month.

Ed whipped up a beautiful plum cake at our mate (and apiary host) Cedric's picturesque Bilpin Springs Orchard.

It is wonderful to see our local area on the small screen, and Ed using Cedric's plums with our Wild Honey in such a complimentary and delicious way. Thanks Ed!

Hive: Post Brood is an ongoing collaboration with our mate Topher of Wildflower Brewing and Blending. It is a barrel aged, golden Australian Wild Ale refermented with our natural formed, Warré hive post-brood comb.

It is a very popular brew and will sell out fast so if you are interested you should head on over to Topher's online shop and snaffle some up!

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For more information on Tim Malfroy and Malfroy's Gold in the public eye, visit our Social, Awards, Blogs and Media pages (the latter also includes recipes from some of Australia's finest chefs who champion our produce!)

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The Sweets of Nature

Product News

In addition to our release of Red Bloodwood Wild Honey, we have on offer our usual bounty 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 left from the 2021/2022 season and mixed Wild Honey 4 packs, some including our recent and rare release of Red Stringybark.

As always we have E-Gift vouchers available so you can give the gift of honey!

Shipping and Housekeeping

We have decided to permanently fix our shipping rate and minimum spend requirement at the lower rates we have had in place over the past year.

We feel everyone should have access to good quality food, particularly during these times of hardship for so many and we hope this small gesture goes someway towards achieving that.

Please be aware when ordering that 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

* Please note we are bound by Australian Biosecurity regulations so are not permitted to send honey to TAS, NT or WA

Social Insects

Tim's Warré beekeeping adventures in the Blue Mountains and Central Tablelands

The last few months has seen the cool, rainy weather continue (a result of the persistent La Niña system) and, therefore, a lack of suitably sunny days to get any beekeeping work done. It’s been quite frustrating, and as I write, I’m about two months behind schedule in terms of ‘end of season’ beekeeping work.

I was concerned for the colonies on the eastern side of the ranges recently as the rain was voluminous and unrelenting - I can’t remember it ever being so wet for so long! This can be an issue as the rain washes out the nectar from the flowers and prevents the bees from foraging for food for extended periods of time.

Keep in mind that these conditions are on the back of a record breaking drought and the worst bushfires ever experienced in this country, so the soaking rain is welcome in many ways. However, coping with the ever expanding extremes of climate during the pandemic has challenged us like nothing before (as it has for so many). We appreciate your support during it all!

Back in 2006 when we started the honey label, we understood that these climate changes were coming and have done our best to adapt and prepare in order to make our bees and our business as resilient as possible.

Despite the poor weather, the colonies are looking strong and healthy and we didn’t have any significant losses. Only a handful of colonies went queenless and none starved or succumbed to disease, a remarkable result that I’ll put down to a combination of locally adapted wild genetics, the bee friendly design elements of the Warré hive and a conscious decision to always leave plenty of honey on the hives to provide a buffer against extreme periods of dearth.

A very small harvest of Red Bloodwood (Corymbia gummifera) eventuated in the lower Blue Mountains and we’re proud to be able to share this increasingly rare honey with you. We also harvest our 5 year aged comb at this time of year, which is pressed to make the cult favourite ‘Post Brood’ honey.

As I write, the Banksia species of the Blue Mountains have started flowering, offering crucial nectar and high quality pollen for many animal species.

Closer to home I was thrilled to see our coastal banksia’s flowering in the paddock recently, covered in bees from our home apiary. We have planted dozens of species and hundreds of shrubs and trees on our small property and it’s wonderful to see them provide food and habitat for the bees and local wildlife.

A small harvest of Yellow Box was achieved in the Central Tablelands which will keep that variety in stock in the short term. Tthis is wonderful news as it is a classic honey loved by so many. Another 'secret' variety of honey was produced that I’m very excited about - more details to follow in the next newsletter.

On that note, if you enjoy reading these newsletters you can view archived copies of them here, as well as articles that I’ve written which I hope to continue to add to over the years. I always have lots of ideas and half finished pieces - it’s just a matter of finding time to finish them, which is difficult when the bees keep me busy most of the year!

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You can also view our instagram account for more bee and honey related news of the instant variety below.

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As always, a heartfelt thank you to our readers for taking the time to follow what we do, and a warm welcome to our new subscribers who discovered us through Masterchef and Better Homes and Gardens this month.

We are especially appreciative of those who take the time to contact us about our products, and the customers who purchased items after reading our previous newsletter or watching the TV spots. We are so grateful for your support of what we do.

We hope our fifth newsletter provided you with some inspiration and food for thought!
(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 Light