Holly Honey

Every Honey Tells a Story

I started beekeeping six years ago and covered all of the details in my blog and my YouTube channel. My mentor, Dale Large, a fifty-plus-year beekeeping veteran has taken the lead with my apiary and I am his devoted protégé. I am blessed and humbled by the amazing honey that the bees are making – from our farming efforts, and continue to expand to increase the amount of honey that I can offer from my own apiary on Chesterhaven Beach Farm.

About Small Batch Artisanal and Varietal Honey

Like wine reflects the complexity of the soil and weather, honey tells the story of the hive surroundings in the same way. Our Waxing Kara® honey is nature’s blend from Chesterhaven Beach Farm. Each year, we add more plants and trees to support the bees. This is a years-long process, and each year the honey will be different.

Varietal Honeys (made with nectar from one type of crop) are true labors of love by the beekeeper, who carefully sets hives in the center of cultivated fields for bees to provide pollination services just for the brief time of blossoming. Since bees will fly up to six miles to find nectar, the challenge in achieving varietal honey is to provide enough crops of one type to satisfy the hive.

We don’t do any fancy blending, colorizing or infusing, nor do we pasteurize or boil honey. Pasteurization destroys all of the pollen, enzymes, propolis, vitamins, amino acids, antioxidants and minerals in honey. We sell only raw honey that’s been minimally filtered. We grow our own and buy from other small growers to keep pace with growing demand for honey in our region. We bottle, label and package by hand at our Honey House in Owings Mills, Maryland.

Care of Honey

Honey is a “perfect” food with an indefinite shelf life. Store in airtight glass, away from direct sunlight. Do not refrigerate. It’s not unusual for some honey to crystalize over time. It’s not a bad thing, it proves the honey is raw. If cloudy or crystallized honey doesn’t appeal to you, reconstitute by placing the glass jar in a pan of water that has been brought to a boil and removed from heat.