Meet one of our beekeepers

Meet one of our beekeepers

At the Queen B Hive in Brookvale we stock both honey and beeswax candles... 22 varieties of Australian honey and over 40 varieties of candles (plus another 100 or so candleholders). We try to share the joy buying beeswax from some beekeepers and honey from others. One of our honey beekeepers has a little celebrity following of his own. Yves Ginalt was features in an SBS series called The Passionate Apprentice. Whilst I would like to think that the swooning was over his occupation, I suspect that it may have had something to do with his strong, French accent! Accent aside, his honey is absolutely extraordinary. Branded Miellerie, meaning Honey House, it is seriously special honey. Being French, Yves soft sets each jar of honey in its own jar. Following is an article on Yves from the Sydney Morning Herald. Read the transcript below, or click on the link at the bottom to see a pdf of the article. When you pop into the hive, be sure to try all of his honeys... in the meanwhile, read (in a strong French accent) and enjoy! Take Your Sweet Time 9 March 2010, Good Living, the Sydney Morning Herald A Steady, old-fashioned process results in distinctively delicious honey, writes Lucy Barbour It’s an early summer morning in the bushland overlooking Tasmania’s Lake Pedder. Artisan apiarist Yves Ginat wakes in his caravan and brews a pot of tea. He then sets to work among swarms of bees bringing native floral nectar to the hives. Then hours and about six stings later, he drives home to prepare organic, cold-extracted honey. Ginat’s passion for raw, unprocessed honey began in Bourges in central France, where he grew up keeping bees as a hobby with his father. “we are going every summer to meet the beekeeper just to try his honey from the flowers. That’s the connection between and now,” Ginat says. The “now” is Ginat’s life in Woodbridge, southern Tasmania, where he set up Miellerie (French for Honey House) in 2005. His range consists of Blue Gum, Prickly Box, Leatherwood, Tea Tree and Lake Pedder’s Nectar. All the honeys are prepared using organic and biodynamic techniques, with an emphasis on French tradition. “The French are very fussy about the timing of collecting the honey. It has to be when it has got the pure flavour of the flowers,” Ginat says. Most supermarket honeys are heated during preparation to achieve a longer shelf life. Heating can affect a honey’s flavour, colour, texture, nutrients and aroma. Miellerie honeys are cold-extracted, straight from the comb, so all original qualities are retained. The colour varies according to the type of flower. While the Leatherwood is a light creamy shade, the Lake Pedder’s Nectar honey is darker brown and the Prickly Box is a buttery yellow. They’re also unfiltered, so it’s not unusual to find the occasional speck of pollen or honeycomb spread over your toast. Savour it though. It’s all part of the raw-food experience. The task of cold-extraction is time consuming but Ginat wouldn’t have it any other way. “we just try to have something coming from the land and the trees,” he says passionately. “We’re trying to take time to appreciate it so it’s not too rushed and so the honey tastes good. It’s just like good wine. It has to be made slowly.” 201003 Miellerie article Josie Rickards of Wholefoods House in Woollahra says Miellerie is her best selling honey range. “It’s an artisan type product that’s locally and sustainably produced and it tastes excellent. The process that uses, the French , gives it a creamed honey flavour. It’s quite distinctive.”
Queen B beeswax candles are made with 100% pure Australian beeswax a pure cotton wick and copious amounts of hand made love. We stock beautiful and stylish candle holders, personalised candles, votive candles and pillar candles that nourish the human spirit and our environment.

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