New experiential honey center opens in Woodland
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The Hive grand opening will be held Saturday and
Sunday, Nov. 13-14, in Woodland. (Photos: Debbie
Arrington)
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This roadside attraction is sure to get people buzzing.
Featuring the first varietal honey- and mead-tasting room of its kind, The Hive will celebrate its grand opening Nov. 13 and 14 in Woodland.
Located just off Interstate 5 at Harter Avenue, The Hive offers a one-stop honey immersive experience. The new home of Z Specialty Food, The Hive combines honey making, packaging and appreciation all in one site – much like Northern California wineries showcase wine.
“We want to educate people about honey tasting,” explains Joshua Zeldner, Nectar Director at Z Specialty Food. “It’s very similar to wine tasting.”
Z Specialty and its sister brands, Moon Shine Trading Company and Island of the Moon Honey, offer more than 30 varietal honeys plus fruit-honey spreads and other honey-based treats. All of those will be processed and packaged at the new location.
“It’s hard to believe we are finally here, a true dream come true for our family business,” Zeldner says. “I am so excited to invite people to experience what we have created — the full circle of plants, bees, honey and mead.”
In the honey business for more than four decades, Z Specialty Food had been planning The Hive for four years. The project cost about $5 million.
The family business had operated for many years just down the road from its new three-acre location.
“It was a grass field I had driven by so many times,” Zeldner said. “It was not for sale. It took months to find the owner (and negotiate a deal).”
The Hive combines the honey business with honey appreciation. Filled with bee-friendly perennials and shrubs, a newly planted drought-tolerant pollinator garden encircles the building’s entrance. That flows into an outdoor events area.
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The Hive's logo features a bee, naturally.
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“There are all types of mead to appeal to all types of tastes,” explains Zeldner. “The educational component of what we’re doing is what I’m excited about. We’ll be serving meads from throughout the country – California, Michigan, New Hampshire. The idea is to have a rotating selection.”
The tasting room is decorated with hives and beekeeping equipment that belonged to the company’s founder, Ishai Zeldner, who died in 2018 at age 71.
“They’re not any old hives,” said Zeldner. “They’re my dad’s equipment.
Shoshana Zeldner, Joshua’s sister, and mom Amina Harris also are integral parts of the business.
Harris, Z Specialty’s Queen Bee, has long been a proponent of varietal honeys.
“I am passionate about introducing people to taking the time to taste honey properly, noticing every unique color, flavor, aroma and texture that comes through,” she says.
The tastes can be surprising.
“Most of our honeys are collected locally,” says Joshua Zeldner. “We also offer unique international honeys. We have two from Mexico – coffee blossom and mango – and their taste is mind blowing.”
Mango honey? Imagine liquid smoke mixed with barbecue and marmalade. Better yet, ask for a taste.
Open free to the public, The Hive’s Grand Opening will be held from 1 to 7 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 13, and 11 a.m to 4 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 14. The Hive is located at 1221 Harter Ave., Woodland.
Festivities include live music, games, craft and food vendors, yoga and movement classes, a mobile plant nursery, food trucks, big discounts on Z Specialty products and lots of honey.
Guests are asked to provide proof of COVID-19 vaccination or recent negative COVID test.
Before and after the grand opening, The Hive’s tasting room is open from 11 a.m to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday.
Details: www.zspecialtyfood.com .
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Food in My Back Yard Series
June 10: Battling early-season tomato pests
June 3: Make your own compost
May 27: Where are the bees when you need them?
May 20: How to help tomatoes thrive on hot days
May 13: Your plants can tell you more than any calendar can
May 6: Maintain soil moisture with mulch for garden success
April 29: What's (already) wrong with my tomato plants?
April 22: Should you stock up on fertilizer? (Yes!)
April 15: Grow culinary herbs in containers
April 8: When to plant summer vegetables
April 1: Don't be fooled by these garden myths
March 25: Fertilizer tips: How to 'feed' your vegetables for healthy growth
March 18: Time to give vegetable seedlings some more space
March 11: Ways to win the fight against weeds
March 4: Potatoes from the garden
Feb. 25: Plant a fruit tree now -- for later
Feb. 18: How to squeeze more food into less space
Feb. 11: When to plant? Consider staggering your transplants
Feb. 4: Starting in seed starting
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Garden Checklist for week of June 8
Get out early to enjoy those nice mornings. There’s plenty to keep gardeners busy:
* Warm weather brings rapid growth in the vegetable garden, with tomatoes and squash enjoying the heat. Deep-water, then feed with a balanced fertilizer. Bone meal or rock phosphate can spur the bloom cycle and help set fruit.
* Generally, tomatoes need deep watering two to three times a week, but don’t let them dry out completely. Inconsistent soil moisture can encourage blossom-end rot.
* It’s not too late to transplant tomatoes, peppers or eggplant.
* From seed, plant corn, melons, pumpkins, radishes, squash and sunflowers.
* Plant basil to go with your tomatoes.
* Transplant summer annuals such as petunias, marigolds and zinnias.
* It’s also a good time to transplant perennial flowers including astilbe, columbine, coneflowers, coreopsis, dahlias, rudbeckia, salvia and verbena.
* Feed camellias, azaleas and other acid-loving plants. Mulch to conserve moisture and reduce heat stress.
* Cut back Shasta daisies after flowering to encourage a second bloom in the fall.
* Trim off dead flowers from rose bushes to keep them blooming through the summer. Roses also benefit from deep watering and feeding now. A top dressing of aged compost will keep them happy. It feeds as well as keeps roots moist.
* Pinch back chrysanthemums for bushier plants with many more flowers in September.
* Tie up vines and stake tall plants such as gladiolus and lilies. That gives their heavy flowers some support.
* Dig and divide crowded bulbs after the tops have died down.
* Feed summer flowers with a slow-release fertilizer.