The Muscle Honey Story
The lady in the picture is the inspiration behind Muscle Honey - my mother Bhupinder Kaur.
In July 2008 my father sadly passed away, and a few months later my mother was diagnosed with a stage 3, borderline 4, ovarian cancer. Mum showed tremendous strength during her chemo and recovery from surgery (despite being recently widowed and given a life expectancy of 2-3 years).
To aid in her healing, I decided to turn my backyard into an organic garden. I started growing power packed foods like beetroot, turmeric, ginger, okra and numerous other vegetables and herbs.
My mum has always been into Ayurveda, and was often making little mixes of herbs and spices with honey, as well as explaining to me the healing properties of pure honey from its uses in sleeping, digestion and overall immune function.
Because of Mums love of this, I wanted to get her some pure honey, but was struggling to find something different from the regular honeys on the market. I wanted honey that was straight from the honeycomb. I wanted the honey raw, not heat treated, not finely filtered. I wanted honey straight from the bees, just like picking a fruit off a tree and eating it. That's the honey I wanted to get for mum, and I couldn’t find it, so I took action.
I already had years of information on beekeeping through general interest and casual reading, but now I turned it practical.
My first hive was on my uncle's avocado farm located in Mangrove Mountain. It was a beehive to provide honey for my mum and wider family. Unfortunately it didn't survive the first season. Seeing a dead colony was, and always will be, heartbreaking.
So I decided to start again, and dedicate all my spare time to studying beekeeping; reading, getting in my new hive as much as possible, experimenting with techniques, speaking to big commercial and local beekeepers - I didn't want to fail the bees. My focus changed from wanting honey, to having a strong and healthy bee colony, and this is what still drives Muscle Honey today.
That season we were rewarded with a small honey harvest. The taste was amazing and complex, nothing like I had ever previously experienced from honey.
I was hooked and, naturally, a beehive went in my backyard in Yagoona. Then one went into my sisters in Greenacre, and then friends started wanting hives in their backyards. What surprised us all was that the honey tasted, smelled and even looked different. Even if the hives we were only 6kms apart.
30 apiary sites later, with the help of many amazing hive hosts who I call ‘Bee Guardians’ helping to ensure their survival, Muscle Honey became what it is today. Creating pure raw crushed comb honey, from various Sydney and NSW areas, each with their own distinct aroma, texture, taste and natural health benefits.
We still take care of the bees first, ensuring their health and survival. Then when there is enough honey to take off, the honeycomb is either cut or scraped out, then crushed in a honey press, where it's roughly filtered at only 120 microns (just to take the chunky wax bits out). After this it’s simply poured straight into the jar.
This process is much slower, is a-lot more work, and doesn’t yield as much honey per season. But, the end result is pure unadulterated honey, containing everything that was in the comb straight from the bees. Which we feel is ultimately more important.
I’m still blessed to have mum around, and she loves to accompany me on beekeeping trips. We hope you love and enjoy our honey as much as we do.
Thank you and peace
Harpreet (Harps the beekeeper)