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

Pale, smooth and gently sweet. Like eating a really good sweet — but one that happens to be honey.

This is the kind of honey that doesn't demand anything of you. No complexity to unpick, no surprise in the finish — just a warm, comforting sweetness that's easy to love from the very first spoonful. The natural texture is beautifully solid, softening perfectly on warm toast without running everywhere. A quiet pleasure rather than a dramatic one, and all the better for it.

180 jars from a Yorkshire garden in May. One season, one garden, one chance to taste it.

Stephen keeps around 11 hives in his rural garden near Pickering, overlooking the old hunting grounds of Pickering Castle. The surrounding landscape — woods, hedgerows, neighbouring village gardens — gives his bees an extraordinary range to forage across all spring, and this May harvest reflects that gentle abundance perfectly.

By day Stephen is 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 name, location, harvest date and jar number on the label
• Sent 48-hour tracked with Royal Mail — two jars costs the same to post as one