Siblings Julie and Jason O’Steen grew up eating the season’s best harvest from their parent’s farm: corn, squash, cucumbers, tomatoes and beans; their mother made sure they were turned into dishes that were both healthful and beautiful. It’s this kind of connection to freshness and quality of food that drives their passion for pure, raw tupelo honey.
Growing up in North Florida, which is culturally more akin to southern Georgia or Alabama than the beach-and-Disney Florida most of us think of, there were two condiments always on the O’Steen dinner table: Ketchup and honey. Jason thinks there may have been a permanent ring on the table where the honey resided.
It wasn’t until they were grown and had gone beyond the confines of their hometown that they realized that the honey they grew up with tasted different than what was available out in the rest of the country. They learned that the honey they had taken for granted their entire lives was raw tupelo honey, treasured throughout the South for its quality and flavor.
They began to give tupelo honey as gifts to friends, and they always came back asking for more. They were proud that this honey was special, representative of their region; one might even say it had terroir. So, they decided to make a business out of it.
They began working with family beekeepers in the Apalachicola River area, a protected region with a high density of tupelo trees. Families here guard their areas carefully, passing their best spaces from generation to generation in their wills. This dedication to quality beekeeping combined with the pristine condition of the tupelo in the region conspire to create a uniquely high-quality honey. In fact, honey from one of the hive locations has been tested by Dr. Vaughn Bryant at Texas A&M as being one of the “purest examples of superior Tupelo honey.” This honey appears as code number TWL20 on HoneyPax’s packaging. (All HoneyPax honey has a code on the package, that allows you to trace its origin. This is a part of their commitment to purity and transparency.)
Tupelo grow in low, swampy areas, and so groves of them have been destroyed for development throughout the South. However, the Apalchicola National Forest is a protected area, and so retains a high density of the trees. As well, in a time where bee hives are disappearing all over the country due to Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), HoneyPax’s beekeepers have seen little impact. While no one is sure of the cause of CCD, it seems likely that, since these bees are used exclusively for honey production and not for farm pollination, their lack of exposure to pesticides has contributed to the health of the hives — and therefore the quality of the honey you get from them. It further underscores HoneyPax’s motto: Obsessively pure honey to go.
