JULY AT HIVE & KEEPER: BRITISH HONEY IS ON THE MOVE!

Dear Diary,

Good news, the sun’s peaking out again and getting braver about hanging around, and cricket’s back on which means summer has at last started! It’s been lovely seeing the familiar coming back to life, albeit slowly and re-imagined.  For us it was our first post lockdown order from Love Brownies café in London for honey that lifted the spirits and felt like a green shot: so much so that I delivered the honey myself and found it all rather over-exciting, especially the coffee they made me – my first ‘proper’ coffee in months!  And today I’ve just sent our Breakfast honey range off to a Woodlands Farm pop up shop in the centre of Cardiff. Fingers crossed our cities, cafes and shops continue to emerge as places we all enjoy going to, especially if there’s honey to be had there!

July’s also been the month we moved all our honey, equipment, swivel chairs, kettle and desk into a new unit, just round the corner from our old one – but this is newer, smarter and with lots and lots of windows!  James, our landlord, helped us move the honey – my arms would have fallen off if we’d moved it ourselves!  The only thing left to do now is adding a bit more worktop, cupboards up, and then it’ll be time for ribbon cutting and an opening party!

July really does feel like a new chapter which I hadn’t really appreciated until I wrote this diary entry; and just to make the point even more, I’m off this week on my first honey road trip for months and I can’t wait!  I’ll be heading off to Ramsbury, Wiltshire to visit Mark Rees and the bees he keeps in his back garden. To add to the excitement, we’re going to be filming with Foodchain as they’re keen to promote small scale British producers to chefs and the public alike. Let’s hope I don’t get stung in a crucial bit!  Sods law I will… 

Onwards and upwards, and looking forward to August!