Nercwys honey producer enjoying a taste of the sweet life in North Wales

If you know of or are a business that goes above and beyond, or has a great story to tell, we want to hear from you, and celebrate our local traders and producers. You can let us know via our Q&A or email claire.pierce@newsquest.co.uk for more details.

BLACK MOUNTAIN HONEY, Nercwys

Today we meet Laurence Edwards, the busy bee who has been behind Black Mountain Honey, based in Nercwys for the last five years...

Above: Black Mountain Honey - Runny Honey, Soft Set Honey, Heather Honey, Borage Honey. Photo by Nat Moore - The Photographers Table

What does the business do/make/sell?

Black Mountain Honey is a small scale, bee farming company that makes Great Taste Award winning, artisan honey products.

We sell four varieties of honey - runny wildflower, soft set, heather and borage.

We produce luxury honey gift boxes and ship our products across the UK and Europe, as well as selling locally within North Wales.

We manage roughly 150 colonies of bees at apiaries dotted around North Wales. We collect honey from the colonies of bees twice a year and extract the honey in a purpose-built facility that achieved a five-star food hygiene rating with Flintshire County Council.

We are passionate about good quality, local food, and regularly partner up with local food producers to create limited edition collaborations, which showcase our products.

Over the past six months, we worked with the fab Doughnutology to create a limited edition Black Mountain Honey vanilla cheesecake doughnut and with Amber Maze (an award-winning chef) to create Black Mountain Heather Honey glazed carrots as part of their 'Cooking Together' home cooking packages.

We have lots more collaborations lined up for the future so keep an eye out for them!

Above: Laurence Edwards tending to the bees. Photo by Department Two and Black Mountain Honey's best-selling runny honey, which won a Great Taste Award in 2020. Photo by Nat Moore - The Photographers Table

What is your most memorable or proudest moment in business?

My proudest moment in business came earlier this year when we landed two Great Taste Awards.

We focus on producing premium quality, artisan honey products and to achieve such prestigious awards for our products was truly humbling.

Our Runny Wildflower Honey was awarded one star and our Soft Set Honey achieved two stars! Some of the judges' comments about our honey included "A wonderful soft set honey that melts in the mouth, releasing a comforting, nostalgic taste of how honey was and how it still can be when produced like this", "It is not overly sweet and the wildflowers the bees are sourcing are allowed to stamp their distinctive character", "The finish is smooth and balanced and lingers delightfully", "A very lovely characterful honey, with mineral qualities in it", "You can taste the hive, the pollen and all the hard work that's gone into producing this delicate and very delicious honey", "The finish is long, floral and gently sweet. A really gorgeous honey - we keep wanting to say cute and sweet because that's it's character", "A friendly honey which you would happily put on your toast and in your cupboard. You can tell it was made with love and care".

Any strange requests or stories from customers?

In the summer months we often get called out to swarm calls from members of the public. Swarming is the honey bees' method of reproduction and results in often in excess of 50% of the bees in the hive leaving their hive in search of a new home.

Swarming colonies are generally very placid and not likely to sting unless provoked.

In 2015 I received a call from a lady in Flintshire about a swarm that had landed in her garden. I entered the garden and confirmed that a very large prime swarm of circa 40,000 bees had taken residence on the underside of a pergola.

I went to get a closer look when I managed to trip over a paving slab and fall straight through the clustered swarm of bees. Pandemonium ensued and I was covered from head to toe in very angry swarming honey bees without my bee suit.

The bees took to the sky and flew away. I took in excess of 200 stings to the face, arms and legs and went home with my tail between my legs and no swarm of bees!

Above: Black Mountain Honey gift boxes. Photo by Nat Moore - The Photographers Table

Anything else we should know?

We are committed to reducing our environmental footprint, where possible. We have eliminated single-use plastics from our packaging and mail order processes.

Our honey is packed into recyclable glass jars and metal lids and our mail order packaging consists of fully compostable cardboard sleeves and shredded fill.

Ordering honey from us doesn't leave unnecessary waste for future generations to clear up.

We are passionate about improving and diversifying habitats for pollinator species across North Wales. That's why all of our honey boxes contains a specially selected, pollinator-friendly mix of wildflower seeds for you to plant in your garden or an untended verge.

These seed mixes are self sowing and will continue to provide food for pollinator species year after year.

At the end of 2019, we started filming and uploaded beekeeping videos to YouTube. In less than 10 months we have grown the channel to reach over 100k views and nearly 2,000 subscribers.

If you are interested in learning more about what we do you can follow us on Twitter (@blackmounthoney), Instagram (blackmountain_honey), Facebook (@blackmountainhoney), Pinterest (@blackmountainhoney) or YouTube (Black Mountain Honey).

We regularly post videos/pictures of our bees and how they go about their business.

If you are interested in buying any of our products please take a look at our website - www.blackmountainhoney.co.uk.

Finally, I would like to thank every single person that has supported our company since we started trading five years ago. We wouldn't be where we are now without the support of our local community. Thank you.

• Black Mountain Honey

www.blackmountainhoney.co.uk

blackmountainhoney@gmail.com

07886 628 219