After seeing the Boston Globe article, Mike Graney, a local beekeeper with beehives in Mattapan and Jamaica Plain contacted us. Mike has been beekeeping as a hobby and passion for over ten years. Though his honey is not certified organic, we’re now offering it as an add-on item. You can order it in the Snacks and Specialties section here.

In addition to supporting a local business, and urban food production, many claim local honey helps to boost the immune system against allergies and asthma.

Bees also play a critical role in the food chain. According to the US Department of Agriculture, bees pollinate 80% of our flowering crops which constitute 1/3 of everything we eat. For some unknown reason, the bee colonies are vanishing at an alarming rate. Their loss could effect not only dietary staples such as apples, broccoli, strawberries, nuts, asparagus, blueberries and cucumbers, but may threaten our beef and dairy industries if alfalfa is not available for feed.

Not Certified Organic
Of all food items that can be produced and grown locally, honey is one of the most challenging if not impossible to certify organic. Probably the greatest challenge for local honey producers to get certified is that the bees need access to a large geographic area of uncontaminated land to forage.

“Organic honey must be produced by naturally foraging colonies that are located at least 2 miles distant, in straight-line flight, from any pollution source which could cause the honey to become contaminated by, or as a result of, returning foraging bees (e.g. synthetic-chemical sprayed agriculture, industrial centers, urban centers, etc.).” (http://www.beekeeping.com/articles/us/organic_standards.htm).

Even though Mike’s honey is not certified organic, we feel it is important to support him given the unique challenges to beekeeping and the perilous times bee populations are facing.

You can learn more about Mike’s local honey on his website.

We thought this was super cool, so we’re posting it here!

Proceeds from these plates will go to the Massachusetts Agricultural Trust Fund, and you can target specific organizations to donate to (NOFA, Red Tomato, etc.).

Learn more at the Mass Department of Agricultural Resources or download the application form (which has some great farm facts on it).

We wanted to take a minute to talk a bit about our award-winning organic cheese supplier, Neighborly Farms.

We’ve offered their Colby, Feta, Green Onion, Monterey Jack, Jalapeno Jack, Raw Milk Cheddar, and Sharp Raw Cheddar for quite some time, and now we’re adding their brand new Chipotle Cheddar to our line-up!

They added smoky ground chipotle pepper into a delicious cheddar, and it very well may be our new staff favorite! Order here!

Neighborly Farms sits on 168 acres of land in Randolph Center, VT, and contains cropland and grazing fields for the 48 Holsteins that produce the milk used to make their cheeses. This family farm has been owned and operated as a dairy farm for more than 30 years by Rob and Linda Dimmick.

Their cheeses are made with vegetable rennet and all of the cheeses except for the raw milk cheddar are pasteurized. They have some great pictures of the process on their website!