For Scott Williamson and Jezebel Cleveland it was the culmination of a lifetime of work, to win a national award at the National Apiculture Conference in Blenheim, in July.
Bringing home a gold medal in the ‘Best products of the Hive’ section, for their pollen product, was confirmation of their fantastic product.
“We are absolutely chuffed,” says Scott, “we collect our own pollen and work with the best in Nelson and the West Coast. To have international judges says it was the best product they have ever seen was thrilling!”
Scott has been beekeeping for 25 years and is the former president of the Nelson Beekeeping Club. Jezebel has ‘bees in her blood’ as her family have been in the bee business since 1975. Since her father’s passing, she wanted to carry on with what he began.
“Dad was one of the early people doing pollen back before manuka honey became popular,” says Jezebel, “we don’t have a lot of manuka honey around in Nelson and I wanted to carry on in my father’s footsteps. People are starting to discover the benefits of pollen again, and it’s exciting.”
“I believe New Zealand produces the best pollen in the world. We have a wonderful environment, we don’t use antibiotics to treat diseases and a lot of the pollen on the worldwide market has been contaminated with herbicides and pesticides. With our New Zealand beekeeping policies, we have a reputation for a clean environment.”
With their meticulous procedures and hive monitoring, Scott and Jezebel keep a very close eye on the health of their bees. “We make sure to only take the surplus from the hives, you have to leave enough honey and pollen for the bees to be healthy.” They then process and package it for selling.
“It’s raw, it’s pure and people can eat it by the teaspoon or mix it with yoghurt or cereal or make chocolate with it.”
Jezebel says pollen contains almost all of the nutrients needed to sustain life with over 250 known nutritional ingredients and thousands of beneficial enzymes, co-factors and hormones, “a teaspoon a day, contains everything you need to be healthy. It contains absolutely every vitamin and mineral you need, except for Vitamin E.”
For more information go to their Facebook page, www.facebook.com/pollennationnz