Honey from bees kept in a back garden, near Pickering, North Yorkshire (May)

180 jars from a Yorkshire garden in May — and a honey that tastes of the season it came from.

The same bees that produced Stephen's bright, citrusy August honey were doing something completely different three months earlier. This May harvest is pale but substantial — a warm, comforting toffee flavour with a naturally solid texture that softens perfectly on warm toast without running everywhere. Where the August honey is light and zingy, this one is rich and settling. Two harvests, one garden, no resemblance whatsoever. That's the extraordinary thing about raw honey — the bees are always telling you exactly what was flowering, and when.

Stephen keeps around 11 hives in his rural garden near Pickering, overlooking the old hunting grounds of Pickering Castle. By day he's a large animal vet, caring for farm animals across the North Yorkshire countryside. Beekeeping arrived in 2015 as a gift — literally: a friend gave him a swarm to get him started — and it clearly suited him from the beginning. There's a patience and attentiveness to good beekeeping that maps naturally onto someone who spends his days looking after animals for a living.

The details

• Limited edition: 1 of 180 jars
• 224g / 8oz
• Stephen's story on the label — name, location, harvest date and number of jars produced
• The perfect "saw this and thought of you" gift — especially paired with the August harvest for someone who loves honey
• British-sourced jars and labels

Delivery Sent 48-hour tracked with Royal Mail. Postage is charged by weight — two jars costs the same to send as one, and these two honeys together make a wonderful pair.

Our beekeepers We visit every beekeeper before we work with them — to see the landscape, understand what the bees are foraging, and discover what makes each honey its own thing. All of them actively protect the habitats their bees depend on, working with local farmers and landowners to support the natural world around their hives.