Beekeeper Adam from New Zealand has been supplying high-quality organic manuka, clover, and thyme honey from New Zealand’s unspoiled wilderness for decades. His honey is known for its rich flavor and sustainable sourcing from one of the cleanest ecosystems in the world.
Adam’s bees primarily forage on manuka, wild thyme, and clover. The clover grows in the high mountains and valleys, while the wild thyme is found on the dry hills of Alexandra and Cromwell. The certified manuka honey is a unique variety that is harvested anew each season by Adam’s bees.
Adam’s beekeeping business has a particularly long family history and has been carried on with dedication for five generations now. It all began in 1860, when pioneer Andrew shared his passion for beekeeping with his nephew Adam and Adam’s wife, Lucy. This marked the beginning of a family tradition that continued to evolve through the generations. Lucy’s youngest son, Bill, carried on the work and, in 1930, moved his bee colonies to Central Otago, a region with vast clover fields that proved ideal for beekeeping.
The next generation—brothers Ernest and Walter—took over the family business. Eventually, the business was split up, with Ernest moving his bees to Alexandra and Walter continuing to expand his own apiary in Wedderburn, with about 1,500 hives focused on clover and thyme honey.
Adam’s current beekeeping operation was founded in 2008, when he and his wife returned from a volunteer project in Tanzania. They took over the hives from the family and expanded the business to about 550 hives in Central Otago. Although they struck out on their own, they still work closely with Walter and the rest of the family. Adam and his wife are now the fifth generation of beekeepers and have been operating entirely organically since the 1990s, with certification since 1995.
The unique quality of their honey is partly due to New Zealand’s extraordinary natural environment. About 30% of the country consists of protected natural areas such as national parks and reserves. These vast, unspoiled landscapes ensure rich biodiversity and low levels of pollution, which is directly reflected in the purity and low residue levels of the honey.
An important part of their production is wild thyme (Thymus vulgaris), which has spread naturally throughout Central Otago. This dry, sunny region with little rainfall closely resembles Mediterranean climates such as those found in southern Spain, Italy, and Greece. The plant was once introduced by Chinese gold prospectors as a culinary herb but has since spread widely across the region’s hilly and arid landscapes. This results in a distinctive, aromatic thyme honey with a pronounced flavor profile.
Thanks to this combination of family history, organic practices, and an exceptionally natural environment, Adam’s apiary produces honey of consistently top quality, straight from New Zealand’s wild landscapes.
