From Union Bank Farm
Honey from one hive, on one family farm.
SMOALD Honey starts small on purpose: a single hive on Union Bank Farm in Bold, just outside Widnes. The bees arrive in spring 2028, and the first jars follow once the bees can spare them.
The farm
Where the bees will live.
Union Bank Farm is our family's farm in Bold, on the Merseyside and Cheshire border, a couple of minutes from the M62. There are open fields, hedgerows and plenty of room for bees to forage.
Every jar will come from here. There's no blending with honey from anywhere else, so what's in the jar is what the bees made on this farm that summer.
The plan
Learning first, honey second.
Good beekeeping takes time to learn, and the bees come first. So here's how it goes, one step at a time.
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2027
A learning year
Hands-on seasons alongside an experienced local beekeeper, helping with real hives before owning one.
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Early 2028
The theory course
A beekeeping course with the local association: bee health, the seasons, and how to look after a colony properly.
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Spring 2028
The bees arrive
One colony moves into its hive on the farm. The first months are all about helping it grow strong.
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When they're ready
The first harvest
A new colony often needs all its honey to get through its first winter. If so, it keeps it, and the first jars wait a year. Everyone on the list hears first either way.
The honey
What you'll get in the jar.
One place
Honey from the hive on Union Bank Farm and nowhere else, so you know exactly where it's from.
Jarred by hand
Taken off the hive, strained and jarred in small batches on the farm.
Changes with the seasons
The flavour and colour will shift from year to year, depending on what was flowering that summer.
Trade
For farm shops, cafés and delis.
To be honest, one hive won't make enough honey to supply a shop. That's why there's no trade price list yet.
If you'd like to stock SMOALD Honey once there's enough to go round, send a note with your shop's name and where you are. You'll hear as soon as trade orders open.
Be first in line for the first jars.
The first harvest will be small. Join the list and you'll hear before anyone else when it's ready. No newsletter, just that one message.
Email to join the listYour email is only used to tell you about the first harvest.