TALKING SHOP Chatting with beekeeper and businesswoman Tams Ford

SHOW ME THE HONEY

In our new, regular Talking Shop feature, we visit local businesses that add colour and creativity to our city. Here, we buzz around Blossom & Nectar in Pontcanna Mews and get to know beekeeper and environmentalist Tams Ford Photography on this page and words by Sin Mei Lam

Troupes of bees dance between the leaves of my mint garden every summer; they never bother me and their presence makes me feel as if I am in the middle of a wild flower field. I love bees; they are hardworking and the amount of goodness they bring us is unlimited. According to Greenpeace, you have a bee to thank for one in every three bites of food you eat, and bees perform about 80 percent of all pollination worldwide. The bee population worldwide is in sharp decline though, for reasons including pesticides, air pollution and global warming.

A huge supporter of their plight is Tams Ford, an ethical beekeeper and the founder of Blossom & Nectar in Pontcanna Mews. Many of the products at her store are made by Tams using products from her hives based in two sites in Cardiff, and the wellbeing of her free-range bees always come first.

“We believe in treating our bees with complete respect and they are free to fly as far as they wish to forage and we only use the surplus reserves,” she says. “We do not add anything to our honey or pasteurise it, this keeps all the natural health benefits in the honey, know as raw honey. Our labels are made from plantable paper that contains native wildflower seeds to help keep growing a food source for our pollinators. We are all about nature, being kind, wellbeing and looking after nature so it can look after us.”

Some of the other products they offer – a mixture of self-made items and a curation of goods made by local businesses, so there is little to no carbon footprint – are beeswax candles, natural air purifiers which can clean the air of allergens; fine china featuring hand-applied bee motifs; soaps blended with raw Welsh honey; and their own honey-infused Blossom & Nectar gin made at the Gower Gin distillery.

The shop is bright and airy, and, when I visited, the interior design featured a blossom display in the window, an eye-catching beehive ceiling decoration and a large bee house shelf at the front of the store. Walking towards the back of the shop, I found a chunky barrel full of pure honey in the corner; I could almost imagine Winnie-thePooh digging in.

During my visit, Natalie, the warm and welcoming face at the shop that day, told me that Tams is inspirational, artistic, thoughtful and a true environmentalist. Tams once had a longstanding corporate career but she decided to take a step back from her work life. She started looking into the benefits of honey and bee keeping, and Blossom & Nectar was born. Her passion as an environmentalist is truly reflected in every bit of the store; all of their packaging is recycled, recyclable and is entirely plastic free.

Bees may be small but they are mighty. Their importance to the world is, in my view, almost second to none. If we made some small changes to our lifestyle such as using fewer pesticides or planting bee-friendly flowers in our gardens, we may be able to reverse some of the damage to the colonies and our collapsing ecosystem. Bee the change you want to see. With thanks to Cardiff-based photographer and blogger Sin Mei Lam; www.cardifflocal.co; @cardifflocal

OPPOSITE: The products at the shop are a mixture of Tam’s self-made items and a curation of goods made by local businesses, so there is little to no carbon footprint; THIS PAGE: Tams at the shop

“We believe in treating our bees with complete respect”

IN THE BEE-GINNING Tams tells us the story behind Blossom & Nectar…

“We had bees when I was younger on a city farm in Cardiff. The next 35 years consisted of being in a high-level corporate job, London commuting, European travel, raising a family and then setting up a business with my Father in 2011. In 2012 my father was diagnosed with cancer; my life changed dramatically and I took some time off to care for him. We researched the health benefi ts of using local honey and beeswax; I found being around the bees in the hospice gardens more and more relaxing and started drawing them. I researched more and learnt all about bees. I discovered beekeeping is great for anxiety, something I developed after my father had passed away.

I joined the British Beekeepers Society and took some courses, I loved it. I studied the health benefi ts of beekeeping, using bee products from the hive and also creating a chemicalfree pollen and nectar-rich garden. I learned that cleaning products and scented candles aggravate our health and breathing, so I created some pure beeswax candles to help, and they worked a treat. Now I concentrate on the natural superfood created in the hive to develop wellness products that keep us and the bees super happy and healthy.” www.blossomandnectar.co.uk