Grow Local: Aquidneck Honey

Monday, May 10, 2010

David Dadekian, GoLocalProv Contributor

In the mid-90’s, during a moment of appreciation of how beautiful Rhode Island is and thinking about how he wanted to give something back, Jeff Mello decided on honey.  Have a conversation with Jeff, the owner of Aquidneck Honey, and you’ll quickly realize the man really loves pollination.  For the last fourteen years he’s been making honey.  Well, technically Jeff harvests honey; the actual production work is done in small box-like factories of about 80,000 workers.

Jeff was already growing his own herbs and vegetables at home and he didn’t see a lot of bees around, so he built some hives.  For two years Jeff raised bees in his backyard in Portsmouth, continuing to hand-make hives until he found what worked and testing the process until he felt he had a good honey product to sell.

Now there are more than 300 Aquidneck Honey hives, all still hand-built, placed in farm locations around Rhode Island and Massachusetts.  Each hive colony has approximately 80,000 bees.  With a little attention to making sure they have enough space and good flowering plants around, those are 80,000 happy worker bees.  Aquidneck Honey is always been chemical-free and is now certified organic.  Some of the many farms that host Jeff’s hives are Simmons Farm and the Newport Restoration Foundation’s Prescott Farm, both in Middletown, and Allen Farms in Westport, Mass.

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The crops on these local farms give the bees some wonderful nectar to turn into honey, which Aquidneck Honey turns into a number of great products.  You can find these products at some farmers markets and many local grocery stores, including Whole Foods.  Of course there’s honey in jars, but there’s also honey straws (which my daughter loves), six different flavors of honey lip balm and cut comb honey, which is spreadable and is the basis for my Honeycomb and Cheese Crostini recipe, below.

In addition to the honey, bees are extremely important to generally producing most of our crops. With signs of colony collapse disorder over the last few years, Aquidneck Honey is also helping to keep the bees around.  If you think you could be as passionate about pollination as Jeff, contact him--he loves to teach students, interns and volunteers.

Aquidneck Honey is featured at the Springtime Farmer's Market in Pawtucket at the Hope Artiste Mill, through May 29. For other local outlets, check here.
Aquidneck Honey, 401-862-2171, www.aquidneckhoney.com

Love beef?  Check out David's Grow Local profile of Blackbird Farm, plus a great shaved steak recipe from Tini's Darius Salko.

HONEY COMB AND CHEESE CROSTINI

Ingredients

Aquidneck Cut Comb Honey

Baguette, sliced into ½” thick slices

Semi-soft cheese

The beauty of this dish is that you can vary the types of cheese and bread that you use to suit your pantry and mood. You could try a wheat baguette and Taleggio, a French baguette and a goat cheese, a sourdough baguette and Asiago cheese, or a rosted garlic baguette and Boursault. 

Procedure

1. Pre-heat oven to 250 F.

2. Spread cut comb honey onto bread slices, then spread or top over the honey with your cheese.

3. Bake in oven for about 15-20 minutes or until bread has lightly toasted and cheese is melting.

Photo David Dadekian

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