Honeys and Infusions are available at:
Fremont Market : 34th Street North, Seattle, between Evanston & Phinney
Brookfield Farm : 7875 Ambridge Road, Maple Falls

Brookfield Farm Wildflower Honey comes from blooms in the foothills of Mt. Baker, the most northern of the Cascade volcanoes. Its flavor carries the delicate tones of flowers that can range from dandelion, sweet clover, and fireweed to salmon berries, thimbleberries, and snowberries; all carried above hints of Big Leaf Maple which add a rounded sweetness to the taste. The weather and the flowers vary with every year, which gives each harvest of Brookfield Farm's Mountain Wildflower Honey a unique flavor.

No pesticides, antibiotics, or chemicals are used in the hives. The honey also carries a Predator Friendly Certification from Keystone Conservation

Sharing their mountain farm with wildlife is important to Karen Bean and Ian Balsillie, who are Brookfield Farm. Their land is home to creatures which range from bears and cougars to opossums and mice. Bean and Balsillie have never harmed or killed any predator, except mice."Our livestock guard dog protects the goats and bee hives from the bears and mid-sized predators, but the 'bee guard cat'; can't always keep up with the mice,"; Bean sighs. She keeps mouse guards on her hives year round.

Brookfield Farm began as a fiber farm nearly 15 years ago. In 2003 Bean was introduced to beekeeping and acquired two hives of Russian bees. "I fell in love with the bees"; she explains. "Beekeeping is science and nature and art and just plain luck all rolled together. And you don't have to muck out the barn."

Today Bean averages 30 hives, with a goal to have 50 hives of RussianXSurvior Stock bees. "Beekeeping's a challenge, that's what makes it fun," she says. "For me, one of the most fascinating things about beekeeping is how the bees adapt to their constantly changing environment, be it reduction of egg-laying when there's no nectar or the 'I'm not dead yet'; scenes as the girls heave the drones out the door as winter approaches."

Bean has expanded her apiary primarily through splits (creating a new hive by using eggs, brood, and nurse bees from a parent hive). She allows the majority of her hives to raise their own queens. Russian queens are also purchased to expand the genetic stock in the bee yard. The surviving hives requeen themselves through open mating. "My goal," Bean says "is to have bees that are adapted to the cold, wet environment here near Mt. Baker, and can survive diseases and parasites without the use of chemicals and antibiotics."

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