Welcome to
The Farm
The Farm
The Magic of the Chesapeake Bay
There’s something magical about the Chesapeake Bay area that embraces and showcases the Earth’s bounty with such splendid beauty. As the largest estuary in North America, it is a natural and expansive ecosystem in action from its peaceful marshlands to its pristine beaches. It’s teeming with thousands of species of animals and plants within its costal habitats that are feed by hundreds of rivers originating from parts of Maryland, Virginia, Delaware, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New York.
In this fashion, throughout the dew covered meadows peppered with native grasses and wildflowers, our pastel-colored beehives warm under the summer sun on our Chesterhaven Beach Farm. This is, where not only our apiary is located, but where we draw so much inspiration from the beauty and tenacity of nature.
The Healing Energy of Bees
We are a restorative farm dedicated to sustainable practices and ecological preservation. We preserve a large portion of our farmland specifically for bees. The importance of bees to our planet’s sustainability is often misunderstood. Nearly 90% of flowering plant species on the planet require pollinators like bees to aid in reproduction. This not only makes bees responsible for one-third of the food we eat, but providers of a food system and shelter for wildlife. The preciousness of honey, especially its nurturing and healing properties, is nature’s gift worth sharing and and an artistry worth protecting.
We have worked closely with ecologists, environmental agencies, and other beekeepers to re-establish the native ecosystem, buffer our coastline, and create an oasis for the mighty little honeybee. Over forty acres of land on the farm is cultivated each year to grow plants that bees love.
The Work of Sowing
We began in 2012 by removing genetically modified crops that farmers on the eastern shore planted because of their dependable yields. In their place, we replanted indigenous species including bee balm, coneflower, milkweed, and clovers. Lavender, fruit trees, and non-invasive perennials have also been added to bolster the bee’s food sources.
Throughout the seasons we planted salvia Gregg, blackberry, blueberry, germander, creeping and flowering thyme, swamp milkweed, butterfly weed, smooth blue aster, New England aster, partridge pea, oxeye daisy, lance-leaved coreopsis, plain coreopsis, showy tick-trefoil, purple coneflower, wild blue lupine, wild bergamot, beardtongue, and black-eyed Susan.
While the plants on our farm don’t produce crops we can harvest and sell, not everything is about the bottom line. We maintain these natural habitats to keep the bees happy and thriving. In addition to replanting native habitats, we’ve worked extensively to stabilize and replant the waterfront areas of the farm, allowing native crustaceans, insects, and birds of prey to establish themselves.
On the farm, we see oodles of butterflies during the summer. Monarchs, swallowtails, painted ladies, and cabbage whites make up most of the butterfly population on our farm. These beautiful insects help to pollinate flowers by skipping from bloom to bloom while they feed. Some tend to stick to one or two flowers, while others will feed on almost anything.
One of our most colorful visitors is the Eastern American Goldfinch. These bright little birds love flowers and will flock on the seed-heads once the plants finish blooming. On the farm, the birds come in droves to feed, and their bright songs add ambiance to the shoreline. Goldfinches have a distinct “rollercoaster” flight pattern, where they dip up and down in the air as they fly. This bouncy flight pattern makes them easy to spot from a distance, as do their bright color and surprisingly loud call.
The Joy of Reaping
What you put into and onto your body directly affects how you feel, look, and interact with your environment. Our intention was to create products that nourish the mind, body, and spirit by bringing nature into all aspects of everyday life, inspiring beauty from within. In replacing cash crops like soy and corn with nectar plants, we were not only able to transform the landscape back to a natural habitat for hundreds of animals and insects, but produce honey and thus our Bee Inspired Farm to Body and Farm to Table products.
Our hives give us hundreds of pounds of honey each harvest. Harvesting honey is an essential highlight in our life on the farm. Twice a year, we open the hives and collect honey from our bees: once in midsummer and again in fall. The amazing combination of plants infuses our Spring and Autumn Artisanal Honey in a way that makes it irresistibly delicious, and totally unique to our little apiary.
Small [Footprint] but Mighty [Impact]
It is important to us to craft our beautiful and functional handmade goods in a sustainable way with the hope to inspire you daily to enjoy them and share them with others. From harvesting our own lavender to purchasing responsibly-sourced materials, we aim to create goods that are good for you and the environment. We are stewards of this land and of this Chesapeake Bay area in particular where our roots are firmly planted.
We choose ingredients and practices that are as close to the Earth as possible. Our expertly-blended products are made in the USA and natural or organic any time they can be — Paraben Free, Synthetic Fragrance Free, Formaldehyde Donor Free, Phthalate Free, and ALL are Cruelty Free.
We’re committed to further reducing our carbon footprint through environmentally sound innovations in our production methods and our packaging. We’ve introduced almost completely recyclable or compostable shipping boxes for our products and are working to reduce the amount of plastic used to hold our products themselves. Our jars, along with their lids, are recyclable and reusable.
The muslin bags used to pack our soaps, gift sets, and lollipops are perfect for housing makeup or toiletries for your travels. Use our honey and candle jars to store dry goods or craft supplies. Or, use them to start seedlings for your own vegetable or flower garden.
Go Bee-yond™
None of this would be possible without the beekeeper
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