CBD Honey

I think, in a way, CBD and the cannabis industry can save beekeeping in NJ. In my last post a talked about a great restructuring that is taking place both in my personal and in the HarBee lives, which in that post I talk about how they are actually the same time.

Something that I also mention in the last article is that the economics don’t work for beekeepers here in NJ. When you work the problem backwards and I ask myself what it would it costs to live in New Jersey and then how much honey it would take to sell to make that amount of money I look at what it would take to provide myself with the life my parents have provided to me. I would need about a thousand hives with the price per bucket of honey at $220. It is my opinion that I have been able to do what I have been doing for as long as I have been doing it because of the support of my parents and the willingness to live the way that I do.

So how does that CBD industry save this little brain child of mine that I call HarBee? They are able to pay what the honey is worth. Working with TJ from Grow Works for the last two years we are able to come up with a great product that he is able to make money while paying that $220 per bucket mark. It is great and frees like a truly beautiful endeavor. I have this honey for sale at my store in Andover and at the Denville Farmers market.

In the next couple weeks, I will be working with Isabel Arrieche with Wild Domestic to make a Garlic honey and hopefully other food medicines. It is with these beautiful collaborations I am able to do what I love – work bees – and make a living.

This is all while I continue and will always be selling at the Denville market every Sunday and HarBee HQ where I have a self-service honey stand. When you go to the store and you see “local Honey” do you want it do be from New Jersey, do you expect it to be from New Jersey? Most of the time it is not… nearly all of the time it is not and it isn’t because they are scamming anyone it is because it wouldn’t sell if we put it on the shelf for what it would need to cost for the grower, distributor and the store owner to make their living.

So thank you for want is turning in to my diary. In the coming weeks I will be reaching out to land owners in Sussex County soliciting them for the use of a part of their property to house my bees. I keep about 200 hives across northern NJ and I hope to consolidate that into only be in Sussex. So to be able to focus on what works. Thank you.