Maple syrup has been a fascination of mine for years now. Maybe it was when I had my first honey harvest, but something a few years back really clicked with me about the magic of all natural sweeteners. Like honey, maple syrup is a season food, but unlike honey, maple syrup can only be produced in one part of the world. A part of the world where I come from! My home state of Michigan has seen for the majority of my life, a downturn in it's economy due to the decline of the auto industry. When detroit gets a cold, the entire state gets the flu! I left my home state after college because there just weren't the opportunities...
One of the things that really sets Sunny Honey Company apart from other honey brands is our commitment to producing and sourcing from close personal beekeeper peers and carefully vetted honey operations. We will not ever, and I mean never, go to a large distributor or commercial packing house to source honey if we run out. We will just stop doing business. Period. No exceptions! One of the best things about our little business of bees and honey being busier than expected is that we get to grow and become a larger employer and supplier and producer than ever before. One of the bad things about our little business of bees and honey is that we are always facing...
Because of a confluence of recent events, we are backpedaling on our earlier claim of opening a second retail location in bellingham, wa. Well, sort of... In our haste to find a new production facility, we found this one on ohio street and really thought we'd make a go of opening an additional little honey shop. We rented a rototiller and replanted the entire front garden bed with bee friendly flowers, we had custom signs made for the marquee we painted the interior and exterior of the building and set up a rudimentary honey shop that has garnered quite a bit of attention. The momentum was there and then a couple very important variables emerged that gave us pause in...
Like, chill out? like take time to sleep in and watch movies and write letters and read the paper and maybe even go somewhere with a beach and some cocktails? I watch all summer as my michigan family and friends enjoy the worlds greatest beaches and lakes, but i trudge along thinking about january like a carrot dangling in front of my face. then january comes along and all my farmer friends go to mexico and ugh i still have so much work to do! I knew we needed to move our production and bottling facility, that we needed to renovate the back of our tiny shop in order to accommodate more storage, and i knew we needed a new...
It feels like August was just yesterday, with throngs of tourists packing the main arcade at Pike Place and bees getting ready for a long break in available forage. And then it was all of a sudden October and I had only done two rounds, maybe three on a few locations, of 2 to 1 thick sugar syrup feed to fatten up food reserves for all our hives. And now it's mid December, and I've let myself continue to prioritize other tasks, projects, and worries over my baby bees. I think, though, that I tend to be really hard on myself, always driving to do everything to its fullest and to the far reaches of my best try...and I...
