Hi Lizzie here.  I wanted to tell you about a recent visit that Claire and Tim made to see Luisa in Asturias, a region of Northern Spain.

It’s always fascinating to learn about these trips and I personally love hearing about exactly where the honey comes from and about the passionate people that are involved in producing every jar.

I interviewed Tim and Claire when they got back and also spent time looking through the many photos and videos that they had taken. I thought you would like to hear about this and see them too, so will share some of these here.

Tim had visited this area several times, but although Claire has worked with Luisa for many years ordering her incredible honey, they had only ever communicated by email. This was the first time they would actually meet in person, which I think was lovely for both of them!

Tim first started working with Luisa at the end of 2009 having met her at an organic fair in the south of Madrid the year before. It was at the same fair that he met Antonio and he’s always said how grateful he is to have made these connections there.

Both are organic beekeepers with huge passion for what they do and right from the start, have become so important in Tim’s personal honey journey and the creation of The Raw Honey Shop.

He told me he remembers the first time he went to see Luisa (Karen his wife was with him at the time) was at Christmas time and it was absolutely freezing. They met in her village of Felechosa in Asturias - northern Spain. The mountains were covered in snow and the roads so icy it was hard to stay upright!

At the time, Luisa’s family were still young, her daughter Olaya and son Mario were both studying and hadn’t yet become involved in the business. Olaya is actually a very accomplished musician, so could have easily gone in a different direction. She is now an instrumental part of the family business, though does still find time to teach violin to children in the area.

And it really is a family affair, with three generations still involved in the day to day running of the business. Luisa’s mother, Jacoba is 88 years old and is still going very strong! A true matriarch, she still goes to the warehouse every day to help the family, bringing food and helping with labelling the jars.

Whilst Tim and Claire were there, they were also treated to her famous Spanish omelette, which she was keen to tell them she had started to prepare at 6am! It sounded delicious! Oh, and it was washed down with the famous local cider, which is produced in the area, as nearly everyone has apple trees on their land!

I gather they enjoyed some really special meals with the family and heard so many wonderful stories about how honey has always been part of their family history. They were even treated to a song by Jacoba which she remembers singing to the bees as a child. She would collect honey from holes in the trees and would sing to the bees encouraging them to stay! Although singing in Spanish, there was no mistaking her enthusiasm!

The passion that the family have for the honey they produce and for the area where they have lived for generations, really comes across. There is clearly a real connection with the environment, even the warehouse is located in a stunning area overlooked by a mountain called La Milera – which literally means ‘Honey Mountain’.

Luisa now runs the business with her children Olaya and Mario, her sister Innes, with help sometimes from Innes’ children and of course the formidable Jacoba! The warmth and the passion they have for what they do as a family is so special.

Mario is the main beekeeper and looks after the hives and the welfare of the bees. He is passionate about being out in nature and working amongst the hives.

As a family they have great respect for the environment. Mario was keen to tell Claire about the challenges they face with bears who help themselves to the honey and destroy the hives, often throwing them off the mountains and into the roads below. For most beekeepers, bears are seen as a problem to be dealt with and so often are killed.

Mario thinks differently though, saying however challenging it may be to lose honey in this way, he accepts the bears being there as simply part of sharing the natural world, another example of his ethical approach to beekeeping and love and respect for the area in which he and his family live.

Together they are committed to organic beekeeping and work incredibly hard to ensure that they maintain such high standards. There is a significant time and financial commitment to being certified organic, so for many, it is much easier and cheaper not to go down that route. Their organic commitment is something we particularly value.

Luisa is incredibly proud of her children and all that they have brought to the business and the legacy that they are creating for future generations.

And what do the family actually do?

Well, they are all involved! Obviously as I’ve mentioned, Mario is the beekeeper, so he is in charge of looking after the hives and the welfare of the bees, but everything else happens at the warehouse which is located in the village of Felechosa where Luisa grew up and where Jacoba her mother still lives.

Overlooked by La Milera – literally translated as ‘Honey Mountain’, it is a place of natural beauty and is clearly an area that the family feel strongly connected to. All of the processes take place here, from extracting, filtering and jarring the honey, through to labelling the jars by hand and packing every one of our orders for The Raw Honey Shop.

The very fact that all these processes happen under one roof is incredibly reassuring to us. It is Luisa and her family who are controlling every stage of production, which means that we can absolutely vouch for the purity of the honey and the passion that goes into every jar of honey they produce.

No middlemen, no outsourcing, just a close-knit family who have made a business doing something they love!

The first stage of the production process is the extraction of honey from the frames that are removed from the hives. They are placed into a huge centrifuge which spins the honey and collects in a tank.

From there, the honey goes through a coarse filtering process. This removes any hive debris but the ‘good bits’ of the honey like pollen, propolis and beebread remain.

As ever, it’s really important for Tim to spend time with our beekeepers, to see their hives, their processes and more than that, to nurture relationships with them. It makes such a difference to work with such passionate and authentic people.

Both Tim and Claire said that spending time with Luisa and her family was a real privilege. Seeing how well they all work together, their incredible passion for organic beekeeping and love of where they live is wonderful to see. They are very special people with a warmth and generosity that is rare to find and we are delighted to work with them and continue to offer you their incredible honey!

Lizzie - Customer Service