We were lucky to catch up with Kelley Edkins recently and have shared our conversation below.
Kelley, appreciate you joining us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?
I started building gardens professionally in the year 2000. I noticed there were plants in the gardens people call weeds. So I started to research the flowers and found evidence that the plants were beneficial for pollinators and humans. I convinced my clients to leave the weeds and started to harvest the weeds and formulate the herbs into medicinal tea blends. Back then everyone thought I was selling cannabis but now 24 years later I am thrilled to see the herbs are revered as medicine. Studying permaculture methods I noticed that the herbs and plants I left in the gardens were food for honeybees so I dove into the world of beekeeping and started to keep honeybees.Loosing many hives year after year I had and abundance of beeswax and dead bees. So I formulated a line of Honeybee Face and skin products.Now I focus on planting enough food for my bees on my property and leave the formulating of tea blends up to my girls. Once they have collected what they need I harvest the plant and use it in teas, salves, oils and tinctures.
Kelley, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I started my business in the year 2000. I was a solo mom with no family or education. I started my first business called Gardens by Kelley. I would help homeowners build their dream gardens. On my own schedule I was able to be home for my 2 children.I noticed a decline in honeybees so I started to educate myself on pollinator plants and found a correlation to medicine. We did not have insurance so I started to experiment with the plants around me which lead me to studying with several herbalists from The Catskills.I continued to build gardens professionally integrating the weeds and ornamentals in the landscape. In 2008 I started my first beehive with a grant from a Not for Profit in my community. I built and designed the first Bee Green Community Compost Garden in Ny. The garden was an educational site to learn about bees, compost and native plants. The garden caused an outbreak of compost enthusiasts which lead to me educating several schools in our county. I also designed and taught to The Sullivan County Community College.The Bee Green was put on The Cornell Waste management map and Walmart found me and started to dump 10,000 pounds of food waste per week. We turned 500,000 pounds of waste into a healthy, clean , organic soil for my community. Besides my children , I would have to say that is what I am most proud of. Not to mention I got paid over 20,000 from walmart.Unfortunately that ended in a few years and they turned the garden back into a parking lot. I focused my energy on honeybees and started to apprentice with Chris Harp the Bee Doctor. My challenge was to convince people to let the bees be and not to spray them with toxic chemicals. Sullivan county kept on spraying so I moved my operation to Delaware County where they do not use harmful chemicals on the wildflowers . The bees need all of the flowers around them in abundance ,22 million flowers for one pound of honey. I was loosing bees to poisons so we took off further north. I now farm on 1 acre with 10 hives. I have 4 bee students and the girls are thriving here. I would set out every weekend to farmers markets to sell my wares but in 2018 I was able to open a brick and mortar in Margaretville New York. A magical experience awaits you when you enter into my healing space. My herbs are drying throughout the store. A healing space with no chemicals or toxins.I am now getting calls to replace the exterminators that poison bees and extract bees from walls naturally..Years of practice I am finally able and willing to take on the challenge. Having honeybees around you is an extremely humbling experience , They are so strong yet so fragile. With the inconsistent weather patterns they get sick and confused.I continue to educate myself on the medicinal virtues honeybees offer. From the honey, to the sting , everything a bee offers is true medicine. I practice BEEVENOM therapy on myself as well as other clients open to benefits. Yes , the bee dies but I am sure to use the elders that are on their way out.
Can you open up about how you funded your business?
I started my business Gardens by Kelley with no money. Just a strong , willing and able solo mom that needed an income to survive. Back then the living wage was 7.50 per hour and I could not survive on that which catapulted me to building gardens at 20 an hour.The gardens gave me a product to sell .
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
In 2010 I lost my house and was moving around place to place for 6 years. Not only moving my children and belonging but also uprooting my plants and beehives where ever I go. It has been a long hard journey but I never gave up and now I am surrounded by abundant crops and strong honeybees.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.honeybeeherbs.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/honeybee.herbs/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HoneyBeeHerb/
Image Credits
Brian Smith