Updating Some Branding

Since we are in a new town and new neighborhood, of course we want to label our honey appropriately.  I had just decided that I would keep our original logo and font for the jar labels, and simply change the text to the East Sacramento origin of the nectar.

However, it occurred to me (if a bit late) that East Sacramento actually has its own branding from 2009.  The McKinley East Sacramento Neighborhood Association and the East Sacramento Improvement Association joined forces with the East Sacramento Chamber of Commerce and commissioned 7 Welcome to East Sacramento Signs.

From the East Sacramento Community Assn.

The outline and frame of the signs echoes the shape of the East Lawn Cemetery clock.

Eastlawn Clock, SacramentoRevealed.com

It has since become popular for homes to display replicas of the signs in yard or on house-fronts.

A little searching for a decent imitation of the typeface and adapting the scale to fit a label and I present:

What do you think?

We'll keep the original for the shop branding, but this will go on the local honey jars.

Orientation

Bees spend the first few weeks after emerging from the brood cells working inside the hive caring for other brood, managing the food supply, guarding the entrance from intruders, cleaning.  After about three weeks the venture into the outside world and become foragers.

In the days leading up to this change in responsibility, they begin making forays outside: orientation flights around the hive and surroundings, so they can recognize home and the landmarks that will lead them back. For whatever reason, the bees often choose to do this activity in the mid-late afternoon, all at the same time. This can often look like the bees are planning to swarm, as I thought a few days ago.  There was a particularly large orientation flight happening, and bees began clustering on the front of the hive, not normal bearding to keep cool, but clumping in the middle of the top hive body.  The airborne bees were making the distinctive 8-shaped patterns of an orientation flight, though; and sure enough--within about 5 minutes of me convincing my partner we needed to try and capture the swarm--the bees began to flood back down and into the hive entrance. 

While the prospective foragers are exploring, some of their sisters will gather outside the entrance and fan the hive scent outward with their wings, nature's air traffic control signaling the path to the runway.

New extraction today

Last week, we were able to remove one of the two supers from the hive.  The other super (put on about two weeks ago, when the existing super was about 85% full) has most of the wax drawn out by the bees, but they have only just started adding nectar to the cells so it might be another two to three weeks before we will consider adding another super, or just letting them fill that second super and leave them to prepare for autumn.

It is a not too sweet and rather dark honey, much darker than our first extractions last year.  Sadly, we had a little wax moth damage in part of one frame so we didn't extract that frame.  We set it in the freezer to kill any remaining wax moth remnants and will return the frame to the hive for the bees to clean out, along with the empty comb.

We're filtering the resulting 2 gallons of honey as we speak (type...read...?) and will be ready to put in in jars by this coming weekend, so then we will have 6 variations on offer in our little stand.  Though we are down to less than half a gallon of two of those variations.

[The little stand has received a few visitors already.  Thank you if you were one of them.  We're working on getting some signs up to direct traffic our way, and maybe a few little jars with samples and some coffee stirrers for tasting...?]

And we're stocked!

We have our honor stand up and available!

Stand stocked and ready to sell

Come get some to take home yourself!

Almost Ready to Sell Again

This weekend we were able to remove a super for extraction.  We have another super on top, but it did not have comb built out, so the bees had to take the time to draw the wax and it has very little honey added to it yet.

The weekend also sees us almost ready to start selling our honey again.

I ordered new jars a few weeks ago, and we filled them and labelled them.

We have just about finished a little cabinet where we can put the jars for sale near our sidewalk.

I've made a little poster/price list with a QR code to accept payments, and there is a cash slot in the cabinet as well.

The honor system honey cabinet

I've printed up the descriptions of each harvest to hang on the shelves by the jars.

The cabinet still needs a couple shelves, and I should find a way to put a little color code sticker on the jars to distinguish the different harvests.

I have sold ~15 jars to staff at school already, but now we can reach more of the local residents.

I'll put up a new post once we have the stand set up and ready.

Find us in East Sacramento.

Grape Harvest

In non-bee news, we just harvested our syrah grapes.

Syrah bunch going into the colander

When first we moved into our home in East Sacramento, a good friend was helping us move some furniture with her truck.  She looked at out porch and said: that's going to get hot in afternoons; you should put a grape vine on the corner to shade it.

She was very right.  The porch did get hot in the summer and the grape vine has provided enough shade to make a marked difference.

Veraison last year

Next stop: attempted rosé of syrah.

New Bottling - Updated

New jars arrived.  I have dug up the old labelling materials.  Spent a little time this morning bottling some of the honey that we harvested last year.  There is one more batch of honey from the year prior that can be bottled, once we have warmed it slightly; it has crystallized in the intervening year and I want to gently re-liquify it. [Update -- I have bottled a few jars of this now too!]

I've updated the labels to reflect our new location.

The artists and their work.

We have four different harvests from last year ready to go: 

top: Spring 2024
bottom left to right: early and mid-summer, and early fall

Summer 2023

This light amber honey, harvested in 2023 from our East Sacramento garden, is bursting with the taste of summer. It has a beautiful fruity essence, evoking notes of stonefruit (almond, peach and apricot). The finish is a beautiful combination of a soft, floral undertone and a unique marshmallow-like sweetness. (not pictured)

Late spring 

A delicate and light amber honey harvested from the early spring blossoms of East Sacramento. Bees forage on blooming early almond,  fruit trees and local wildflowers, creating a mild, floral flavor with subtle notes of almond blossoms subtle herbs and a nice floral finish.

Early summer

Crafted from the rich, summer bloom of East Sacramento, this honey is a bolder expression of the season. Our bees collect nectar from hearty plants like sages, mock orange, and lavender, giving the honey a distinct golden color and a complex, aromatic sweetness with distinct herbal notes and amazing orange blossom inspired finish. 

Mid summer

A robust, deep amber honey harvested from East Sacramento's mid-summer bloom. Bees forage on late-season wildflowers and tenacious urban flora like star thistle, sunflower and summer herbs like basil, oregano and thyme. The result is a viscous, crystalline, honey with a complex, herbal and earthy sweetness with a somewhat bitter finish.

Fall

A silky, deep amber honey, capturing the last blooms of an East Sacramento fall. Bees forage on late-season flowers like allium, goldenrod and herbs. The result brings a lovely clean sweetness with light hints of clay and spice. 

Now for marketing. I am disenchanted with Etsy, where we used to sell, and we don't have a relationship with any local market yet like we did with Bi-Rite in San Francisco. I am half-tempted to just create a little honor-system stand in the front yard with a little cash box, or a QR code to my square....

I have only bottled less than half so far; I want to see what sizes sell in which harvest before I commit all of the jars.  I'd rather sell out of a particular harvest than have to backorder while I get more jars.

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