MEET YOUR {OUTSTANDING} MAKER, BRANCH CREEK HONEY

In 2024 multi-year medal winner Jess Curtis of Branch Creek Honey had her Raw Clover Blend Honey, Cardrona Valley named Farro Earth Champion. Jess Curtis, was born and bred in Cardrona Valley on a fifth-generation family farm Jess developed her business after her grandfather Ray introduced her to the magic of bees, with the hives he kept to pollinate the farm’s clover pastures.

Specialising in harvesting and producing clover honey that is delicious and environmentally sustainable, Branch Creek Honey is led by owner Jessica Curtis, who inherited the basis of the company from her grandfather.

Jessica’s family began producing honey when her grandfather bought beehives for their family farm around 20 years ago. “It was to look after the pollination of pastures, and to keep things regenerating on the farm” she explains. Jessica spent much of her childhood on her family farm and was always surrounded by beekeeping. After leaving school, Jessica realised she carried with her an immense passion for beekeeping, and wanted to return to her roots. “I saw the opportunity to start a business, and to market the honey ourselves, rather than selling it off” she said. Upon making this decision, Jessica enrolled in a beekeeping apprenticeship with another local beekeeper in the community to begin learning the ropes.

When she first began running the business, Jessica faced no shortage of struggles and challenges when it came to getting things going. “There was the fact I’d never done anything like this before” she says. “I had no clue what I was getting myself into, I’m still learning so much, a lot of the challenges were mainly inexperience” she explains. But, with a mountain of support behind her, and an overwhelming sense of perseverance, Jessica continued to push through, ultimately leading her to where she is today.

Branch Creek Honey has a major focus on sustainability and education, especially when it comes to agriculture. Bees are crucial to the environment for a variety of reasons. Bees are vital for the pollination and fertilisation of plants and flowers, they control the quality of vegetation, and the honey they produce has a variety of health benefits for us as people. Because of this, Jessica focuses on environmental education alongside the production of the honey, ensuring that more awareness and knowledge is spread surrounding the importance of bees and the work they do. “Knowledge and sharing the knowledge of bees and how important they are is a major focus” she says. “The purity of the honey, and the making of that product, means there’s also a focus on regenerative agriculture” she explains.

In order to juggle both running her business and her education programs, Jessica keeps her honey production relatively small. “I don’t want to get too big, it’s a lot of work to do on my own” she says. I have between 40 and 50 hives, and I might double it, but I don’t want to go higher than 100, I want to keep it small so that I have the time to put into talking to people in terms of education, and why I’m doing what I’m doing, and the purpose of bees” she explains. The key characteristic that Jessica focuses on in her business is care. “Care for the planet, for our bees and for our future” as she puts it.

Reflecting on Branch Creek’s success in the Outstanding New Zealand Food Producer awards, Jessica says it felt incredible to be recognised by the food community, particularly for the recognition her story received. “It was so cool to be recognised, and I scored highly on the brand story which was special, grandad was really proud of that as well”.

To learn more or order Outstanding Champion honey directly from Branch Creek visit the website.