My last port of call, on the trip, was to drop in on Thomas, Christina and new baby Giorgios at their flat in Karditsa, central Greece.

Thomas is creating a new honey for us, that has been missing from our range since David, the Galician beekeeper passed away. Details below.

Giorgios is an absolute dream and I got to hold him for a little while, which he didn’t seem to object to – definitely a happy baby and Thomas says a future beekeeper.

It was a pleasure to sit out on their balcony each morning to eat pastries newly arrived from the bakery of Thomas’ friend Alexandros and just to generally chat about beekeeping and honey.

One of the really great things about Thomas is that he is closely tuned into our needs and is very flexible with his approach. There was a particular kind of honey that had been missing from our range for 4 or 5 years and he was coming up with a solution for us. I will come to this.

Whilst there was no definite plan, it was more a case of hanging out with Thomas and generally catching up – and checking the lie of the land in a few places.

First, we went to Rendina, where Thomas’ Oak honey hives sit in the summer. In the Spring he leaves a couple of hives there to reserve his place for later in the year.

It was at Rendina that I saw one of the tough sides of beekeeping—one hive had been vandalised and thrown down a slope. Thomas retrieved it, swearing under his breath and anchoring it back with stones to reserve his spot.

On a second day we went to Kastanea, a place in the mountains close to Karditsa. Here Thomas’ bees create a Mountain Blossom honey from the wild herbs and mix of trees growing in this place.

It is in this place that Thomas was planning to use the honey to create a special product that has been missing from our range for a few years.

That product is a honey blended with a solution of propolis. Thomas explains about the source of this honey in the video above.

Later we headed to his parents’ house, for a late afternoon lunch. Spinach pie, salad from the garden and homemade yoghurt.

Then it was a quick selfie with the family and hitting the road for Athens and bedding down in a hotel near the airport. Next morning on the plane and back into a grey Gatwick 😞