Sue Roseman and beekeeper Andy Wilson at Nerimbah Farm. Photos: David Rogers Photography.
Bermagooey honey is unlike any other, thanks to its coastal location south of Bermagui and the incredible diversity of flora in Nerimbah Farm’s garden and adjacent forests.
That variety enables four distinctive batches of honey to be produced each year, each with its own flavour, colour and consistency. It is worlds away from the largely homogenous blended commercial honey that is generally harvested in spring and summer.
Sue and David Roseman bought Nerimbah Farm in December 2023. They wanted to produce something from the breathtaking landscape. As honey producers and environmentally beneficial pollinators, bees seemed perfect. Ms Roseman said after a friend introduced them to Sydney-based beekeeper Andy Wilson they knew they were onto something.
“We were really encouraged by Andy’s excitement about the enormous variety of flora around us,” she said.
In May 2024, they installed 36 hives that house up to 2,000,000 bees at times. They produced more than a tonne of honey in the first year.
The single-estate, cold-pressed coastal honey complements the area’s other artisanal and high-quality gourmet offerings such as Tilba Dairy, Honorbread and Gulaga Gold truffles from Dignams Creek.
Mr Wilson said there were very few large honey producers on the South Coast. The larger operations tended to be migratory, and the smaller ones were either seasonal or backyard beekeepers.
He said Bermagooey’s uniqueness also came from mixing breeds of bees and hybridising them by merging and separating to create different colonies during the season.
Some bees are Italian breeds and others are from northern Europe that tolerate bad weather and the windy coastal environment. Mr Wilson said having a winter batch was unusual because winters were usually too cold for honey production.
Nerimbah Farm, a few kilometres south of Bermagui.
The bees forage for pollen and nectar as far as five to eight kilometres away, meaning Bermagui’s gardens benefit from the pollination, as well as Nerimbah’s gardens.
“Everything is putting out huge quantities of seeds because of the pollination,” Ms Roseman said. “There are some really good pollen sources such as wattles. The bees’ feet are dusted in white or yellow pollen, and there is a large variety of eucalypts with nectar.”
She said the honey benefitted from the clear air and no chemicals were used.
Most honeys are heat-treated, but Ms Roseman insists on cold-pressed honey.
Mr Wilson got extracting equipment from Melbourne – and sourced one part from Finland to remove the wax – agreeing that “cold-pressing preserves the delicate flavour and antimicrobial qualities”.
Varroa mite has had a devastating effect on bee colonies around the world. Mr Wilson said in Sydney beekeepers had replaced their bees only to see them reinfected, but that was not happening in Bermagui.
Being isolated to a certain extent from commercial honey operations helped, but Mr Wilson credits using organic acids and oils such as thymol, derived from thyme, for managing varroa mite numbers at Nerimbah Farm.
They keep Scottish Highland cows as ‘pets’.
“We use thymol when we take the honey off the hives so that the honey doesn’t taste like thyme,” he said. “They assist the bees with their own management of varroa mite.”
He said the new varroa mites were fully resistant to the chemical treatments.
Ms Roseman has plenty of ideas for the future, but first she wants to get into a rhythm with the seasons and to build relationships with stockists and restaurants.
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She is interested in the medicinal qualities of Manuka honey and has planted 500 of the plants near the hives, plus added more lavender, coastal rosemary and banksia to the farm’s stunning gardens.
Farm visits are also on her radar so people can learn about the bees and the unbelievably wide range of pollens and nectars they forage while enjoying the views of spectacular coastline with rugged sandstone cliffs and sandy beaches and meeting their family of Scottish Highland cows.
The Rosemans have applied for land inland of Bodalla so they can have a forest apiary to complement their coastal one. It would have between 12 and 24 hives across 200 acres so as not to overpower native pollinators.
“We are trying to balance honey production with pollination and the environment,” Ms Roseman said. “We let the seasonal forage and the needs of the bees set the pace.”
For a list of stockists or more information about Bermagooey, check out their website. You can also follow their Instagram.
Original Article published by Marion Williams on About Regional.
