Treasuring the Little Things at Christmas Time
Christmas is such a busy time for our bees – right now they’re happily foraging Kāmahi Honey. For our little team at Mountain Valley Honey, this is a happy time too, as we look back on the year and treasure all the little things that make life good.
2022 certainly had a habit of throwing bad weather at us, beginning with last summer’s unpredictable conditions. The start of the honey season was quite a tricky time for honey producers, but our clever bees presented us with a wonderful surprise — lots and lots of Beech Honeydew Honey. There was such a golden hoard the bees had to build their honeycomb on the outside of the hives. There wasn’t any room left inside!
Mountain Valley Honey welcomed some new members in 2022. Jessie, Jonatan and Will joined the beekeeping team and Clare started in the warehouse. It’s been great to see our new people settle into the fun (and sometimes quirky) business of beekeeping.
This year it was fantastic to see the end of the COVID restrictions and the opening up of the Nelson Markets. We’ve so enjoyed welcoming back our international and domestic tourists. Life just wasn’t the same without them!
Of course, COVID made shipping honey overseas very difficult, with delays and long lead times. Together with the absence of visitors to New Zealand, this has a real impact on the retailers who stock our products. It made us appreciate just how lucky we Kiwis are to have high-quality honey on our doorstep.
The launch of our US website was a real highlight for us in 2022. Now our American friends and family can enjoy Mountain Valley Honey at home, without having to pay those costly shipping fees.
We always say it’s the little things that count. Like watching a single bee collecting nectar from a flower, seeing the sun rise over the waters of the Marlborough Sounds or having a friendly chat with our landowner partners.
We hope that Christmas and the holiday season bring you lots of fun and many little moments to treasure.
Merry Christmas everyone!
From the team at Mountain Valley Honey