Doing what we love
We started in farming because we love taking the basic elements and bringing them together to create something that not only feeds people, but can actually make a difference. It gives us purpose and control over how we work and who we work with.
Growing food causes you to be extremely humble in your approach to life, and grateful for what you have today, for tomorrow it could all be gone in a hailstorm. By working within the natural world it is gratifying to be reminded that you are a small part in a much larger system.
Bees came into our world by chance. And they captured our curiosity and our hearts. Becoming beekeepers makes you slow down and pay attention. The gift you get in return in an invitation into their world and a way to fully connect to our ecosystems and our surrounding environment at a given moment in time.
We do what we love, and we love bee keeping.
Family farm
Our farm is located on the western slopes of Mt Warning, a central volcanic remnant of an ancient shield volcano. This extinct volcano makes up the Tweed Valley in NSW, which is characterised by its rich soils, diverse topography and lots of water.
Before we bought the property, it was used for timber, cattle, and at one point, organic banana farming. When we arrived 15 years ago, we built an off-grid house on the land, with the intention of living a lifestyle more in sync with the natural ecosystem that surrounds us. Naturally, growing our own food became part of that journey.
Soil conservation is extremely important to us, and one of the reasons why we decided to become a Certified Organic farm. For soil fertility, we rely on cover crops and green manures, rarely tilling the soil, and always adding compost. We use certified organic compost, rock minerals, and sugarcane mulch. Most of our irrigation comes from the high rainfall, and occasionally we pump from one of our spring fed dams during a dryer season.
Nature designed our farmland as a small clearing surrounded completely by forest–almost like an amphitheatre. Bees just seem to gravitate here, so it made sense for us to use the land for beekeeping. Our hives live on the property in between organic ginger rotations, and alongside carpets of vetch, dense buckwheat crops and huge sunflowers.
Our beekeeping is special
When it comes to beekeeping, our philosophy is simple: the bees come first. We plug in to the environmental systems that surround us, the weather, the heat, the wind, the changes in flora an we are led by the bees. Could you call this environmentally intuitive?
Part of our approach means our hives are stationary throughout the year, rather than moving them around the country to chase flower blossoms (that practice, which is common in commercial large scale operations, is really stressful to the bees).
As beekeepers, we never feed our colonies with sugar syrup because that’s just gross. Sugar syrup is used when commercial operations take all of the honey from their hives, leaving the bees without nourishment unless they are fed with refined white table sugar. Instead, we avoid this unnatural intervention by ensuring we only take what we need and leave plenty of honey for our bees to consume over winter.
Want to learn more about our approach? We offer beekeeping courses and beehives for sale. Head to our Beekeeping page to read more.
Our honey
Like wine, the flavour profile of honey can be highly nuanced. Season to season, frame by frame, year to year it is consistently different. And we love that! The flavour is as the bees intend it.
It can range from delicate and buttery in flavour to fruity and deep, depending on which flowers the bees source the nectar from, and the time of year. Our bees are surrounded by the following native flora and farm crops, each of which imparts its own unique floral properties to our seasonal raw honey.
Blood Wood - Rich, robust and sweet notes.
Citrus - Lighter in colour with a slight acidity.
Sunflower - Delicate and gentle sweet notes.
Stringybark - Earthy, nutty and woody notes.
Brush Box - Spicy, star anise notes.
Clover - Mellow, mild and floral notes.
Pink Mahogany - Warm, mild and buttery notes.
Sunny Times honey is a bouquet of all of these flavours. like different recipes throughout the year. We don’t separate our honey as it perfectly captures a moment in time in our region. The bees have mixed it perfectly and we want you to taste that!
To learn more about honey from the Tweed valley in Northern NSW and our current harvest be sure to follow Sunny Times Honey on Instagram. Or taste it for yourself through our online store.
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Contact us
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