Okay.
So as far as the names Zack and Zoë Sweet Bee Farm -
Zack and Zoe.
So we found out that Zachary had allergies.
We were in Brooklyn visiting my husband's sister in Williamsburg,
and we ordered Thai food.
We found out that they had tree nut and peanut allergies
the hard way.
When it comes to seasonal allergies, just growing up...
it wasn't like a huge detriment, but it was just rough
just in the spring, always just like having to stay inside, sorta
just hunker down.
Couldn’t play as much like sports and things that I wanted to.
But honey just kind of change all that.
The honey is acting as an anti-inflammatory agent and calming
all the inflammation down at the same time.
It was really my dad's idea
to start actually keeping bees and just having them in the backyard.
At first it was just like we were buying them.
My dad has a mentor that we used to get honey from all the time,
just like hey, and just switched gears like,
this could be our own thing, we can keep our own bees.
So we got some bees from him.
Just set up in the backyard,
and it's just been having more and more hives ever since.
Thought it would be exciting because living out here,
you get a real opportunity to like build your own kind of farm.
When we started beekeeping, we had no idea that there would be so many,
or so much honey, we really got an excess.
So we gave it out to friends and family and then we said, you know what, next year
let's start a little business with the children.
They'll learn how to have a business and the ins and outs of that
since Dad's a business man, we got these little labels going.
Started to sell it online a bit.
Eventually we thought, Well, let's make it a little more serious.
Ended up being really, really a good idea.
We went to some artisanal markets and started to sell the honey
and it really took off.
Is that small enough? I hope so.
It doesn’t have to be a full thing.
Stuff this....lot of smoky stuff.
That's not...
Okay. Yeah.
Okay. Oh, see, how it...
Yeah, that's perfect.
Yeah.
That's actually a perfect like, not too much.
Not too little.
So when you're out beekeeping, you need four things.
You need your bee suit, you need a hive tool,
you need the smoker and you need the bee brush.
Basically, the smoker tricks the bees into thinking there's a fire,
so they're more focused on that situation than you going into the hive
and taking the honey.
We approach the hive as a team, so one person will usually be smoking
and the other will use the hive tool and lift up the beehives.
And so we definitely need to communicate with each other, that's one thing.
If you're beekeeping by yourself, then make sure you have both of those ready.
Just be alert and attentive to what the bees are doing.
Bees are pollinators, right?
So bees will typically they eat pollen from the plant.
They also eat the nectar and they go in, ingest that
with kind of enzymes in their own body in that they reproduce honey.
So that honey is a food source for the bees.
It's a food source for their young ones.
They’ll eat the honey, but they'll also store it and save it
as their food source for the wintertime.
I mean, it's
literally hundreds of types of of honey, depending on the floral source.
You've got honey that's got more of a blueberry honey
that pollinate the blueberry groves or the cranberry bogs, even,
you know, honey
bee pollinate in the California almonds has a different like a more of a nuttier,
you know, profile
than, you know, honey, that is just a more more of a floral source.
And so it really is fascinating to understand
and just taste the different notes and to see, you know, all honey is not the
same.
And so it's really cool to see people experience it.
Once you go into the hive, you've taken off all the protective coverings.
There's about nine frames in each box.
And so you're going to remove a frame to harvest the honey.
And we're just taking out one for breakfast tomorrow.
And so when you take the frame out, you just make sure that
there's honey on it, first of all, in that it's not a frame
that might have babies in it, brood, they call it.
When there's honey, they'll have little capsules over it.
So you'll see the same sort of hexagon pattern
where there's honey or whether without honey.
But when there's no honey there, they're just not, you won’t
see the little cap over it, which is where the honey’s stored.
So like us, the bees are storing up food for the winter.
And here in North America, essentially,
that's an important part of their day.
They're thinking about how to make sure they have enough for the queen,
the whole hive, the brood, just to make it through the winter.
So you don't want to take too much honey
when you're harvesting, you want to make sure they have enough
food to make it through to the next warm season.
When you’re brushing the bees off to get your honey..
just brush them back into the hive, you know, just down
motion and straight back in.
So they don't have to get like confused or dazed.
I'll just be right back where they belong and just make sure they're none left.
You don’t want just like one last bee around your house.
Yeah, expect one or two to follow you home.
Beekeeping is just as easy as it is that you're brave.
So if you want, honey, all you have to do is have some courage
and enjoy yourself.
At first, I thought mixing superfoods
with the honey would be really strange and it wouldn't really take off.
But once Ma tried it, it tasted amazing and everyone
we sold it to really, really loved the idea.
I would go to the organic markets and when I would look at the shelves
I was like, How are we going to fit?
To stand out I just said,
Well, let's add matcha, let's add, you know, raspberries, let's add ginger.
And yeah, lavender is a big one.
The hot honey just came out last year.
Oh, cardamom if you haven't tried the cardamom,
it's just like...
by the spoonful.
But, yeah, there's plenty of options that you can choose from.
There's, like 23 right now.
Once you bring a frame in, there's
something called an extractor
and so you have a big barrel, and then inside
there's just something that spins the darn honey right out of there.
All the honey just goes to the bottom of the whole machine.
It goes right into the barrel. With a tap.
Yeah, with the tap on it and those barrels
go to our production studio.
We bring the honey in from the trucks and we take the lids off, stir it up,
make sure they're nice and settled and mixed properly.
Then we take them and put them into the reservoir.
The machine holds the honey and then it's pumped up
into a larger machine where the superfoods are added.
And that's where the magic happens.
Then just, the employees come and jar them very easily,
and we're able to label them in the labeling machine,
put them in the box, and then they're ready to go.
So everything you get is just really literally that honey
and that organic superfood.
And that's the only process really that we have going there.
So a lot of the honey goes out to direct to consumer, others
go to larger retailers, but a portion of it goes to Chelsea Market
where we're able to sell it face to face.
The best part about Chelsea is just everything,
but the neighborhood is what we were so excited about.
And having a spot there is like has been epic for us.
Interacting with the customers, people all over the world, an amazing experience.
So we bring in the honey as a family.
We have a good time with it.
So and we have an amazing team that works there too.
People have said to us like your, you know, workers are so sweet
and I’m like it’s the honey.
You guys, this is Zach and Zoë, from Zach and Zoë’s farm.
Made my day! You guys are cuter than your picture.
After that, we just make sure that the customers
are satisfied and everything is running smoothly.
And at the end of the day, if everyone has their honey,
then we're good to go.
The kids have literally grown up with bees, and so, it's fun
because as they get older, I mean, Zach is 14, Zoë is 15, going to be 16 next week.
As they get more independent, you miss the moments, and the times
you spent with them. And so it's a little, little bittersweet.
I mean, you're you're happy to see your kids grow up, but you certainly miss them.
And you miss the memories and you miss them putting on the bee
suits, or holding a smoker for dad or bringing me the the hive tool.
So, you know, hopefully right, when they get older and get married,
their kids want to come spend time with grandpa doing bee work.
So we'll see.
When the business started, it began to become tied with my upbringing
and even before I felt like that we were prepared
to be raised into this business and we were equipped with the skills
to keep the business running forward even after like mom and dad eventually
like retire. I don't know. You don't seem like the type to retire.
She keeps saying can say, I'm never going to,
but yeah, I'm really, really grateful for that,
that we have something that has set us up for some serious
success. Aww
It's a lot to have a business with your name on it, just like a big deal.
And I like thank Mom and Dad, of course,
because they did most of the heavy lifting.
Obviously, you can't really run a business when you're seven, but
it's definitely just a huge thing that’s like just a kind of a part of me now.
I like pitch in, help.
Just something on my mind, I’m always thinking about it,
what's new and like what's coming up over the horizon.
But it's like a
just a nice state of mind to be in, just like hey, like this is my own thing.
And then this is like eventually I have to just carry on on my own like,
they can't run the business forever, so like this is going to be my own thing
in the future, which is a big deal for me.