Sasse’s Apiary “O
wning our own business gives us the creativity to explore what interests us,” says Beth Sasse. “If we see an opportunity to make our operation better, we have the freedom to go for it and make our business what we want it to be.” In 1990, Nathan Sasse received his first hive of bees from a neighbor to use for his 4-H project that year. With the help of his dad, David Sasse, Nathan took care of the bees and learned how to harvest and market their honey through 4-H workshops. By the time he was 11 years old, he was able to sell honey to his first store, Dave’s Food Basket in Clinton, Illinois. From there, his business grew as he earned his American FFA degree in his honey operation and chose to take on his business venture fulltime after college with the help of his mentor, Charie Ott. Today, Sasse’s Apiary is located in Chestnut, Illinois where Nathan and his wife, Beth, run the operation with the help of three full-time employees. Getting honey from the bees to the grocery store is a unique process, but honey is one of the most natural products you will find there. The process begins in April when the Sasses get a semi-truck load of
Nathan and Beth Sasse with their children Chester, Fiona, and Rachel.
bees from Georgia delivered to the integrity of the honey. From their farm. They sell some to other there, the Sasses bottle each jar of beekeepers and install the rest. honey by hand on their farm and use nearly every part of the hive for The bees’ first job is to build up their other products, letting little go to numbers before they get to work. waste. They start out at 10,000 to 20,000 worker bees per queen bee, but can Sasse’s Honey can be found in nearly reach up to 90,000 by the end of 100 grocery stores around Central the season. Each hive is installed Illinois today. They sell various sizes with a honey super which gives of honey along with creamed honey, the bees extra room to work and a beeswax, honeycomb, pollen, and honeycomb pattern to follow. lip balm. One of their employees is a full-time salesman whose priority is They begin to excrete wax into a to keep the shelves stocked. comb shape and fill up the super, beat their wings to dry down the It is important to the Sasse family, as wax, and then begin producing well as to their customers, that they honey to fill the comb. As long as do business locally. “When you buy bees are given space to work, they our products from a local grocery will keep making honey. Nathan store, you are supporting two local says that a worker bee only lives businesses, which is important to up to 3 weeks, as they eventually us,” says Beth. Many customers are bat their wings off from working so drawn to local honey due to the hard. regional allergy benefits as well as the familiar local flavor that they are Extracting the honey is a sensitive used to. process in order to keep the honey from sugaring and hardening. “Each time you choose to buy Therefore, after honey is extracted local, you are helping your local from the comb in July and then once economy and keeping jobs within again in the fall, it goes into a tank, the community,” says Beth. “It has which gently warms and mixes it to been great working in local foods keep it in liquid form for the best and we love the community we have quality. Additionally, the honey is created between our business and filtered to remove any wax, but no our customers.” other processing is done to harm
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