Owl Creek Organics

How it began…

In 2011, I was a teacher in Minnesota and signed up for my first honey bee workshop in Hastings, Nebraska to learn about how to keep bees. My interest in bees initially began because of my love for gardening. I had read that bees could increase vegetable production because the bees pollinate the flowers of the vegetable plants. The following summer, I bought several hives and each year after that I increased my numbers. Along with beekeeping, I started a market garden and sold my produce at the farmer’s market in Rapid City, South Dakota.

In 2014, I noticed a plum tree in the corner of my parents alfalfa field. So I harvested the plums and called my grandma to learn how to make jelly from them. She told me how to do it and with some trial and error, I made my first pink jelly made from plums. At that time I was using sugar to sweeten the jams. As time went on, and I produced more honey, I thought why not try sweetening the jams with honey? It’s better for digestion since it’s a natural sweetener that has been predigested by the honey bees for us in the first place. So I tried it and again with some trial and error, I made jams sweetened with honey. Some of my favorites are raspberry jam and grape jelly but the most popular by my customers are by far huckleberry and lingonberry.

In 2018, I started making creamed honeys and added spices like cinnamon or dried wild berries like lingonberries or organic dried fruit like blueberries to flavor them. I’ve come up with more specialty honeys since I first started like German chocolate cake honey and gingerbread honey. A new honey I want to try making in 2024 is lemon poppy seed honey.

Throughout the years, I have sold my product at markets and shows in Rapid City, Spearfish, Belle Fourche, Bismarck, Dickinson, Gillette, Casper, Minneapolis, Saint Paul, Grand Forks, Minot, Pierre and Albuquerque. Today, I only sell at the Town Square Farmer’s Market in Grand Forks and at the Saint Paul European Christmas Market in December. I also do occasional shows throughout the year in different parts of South Dakota and North Dakota as well as in Minnesota.

You can find my products at several different retailers including Bernie’s in Grand Forks, ND, Lueders in Spearfish & Belle Fourche, SD, Lynn’s Dakota Mart in Sturgis, SD and Staple and Spice in Rapid City, SD. My goal is to sell at a grocery store in Saint Paul, MN and in Fargo, ND.

One thing I’ve had to do in the past is send my honey bees to California for pollination so that they make it through the winter in a more mild climate. In 2021, I built an overwintering building in South Dakota to keep my bees so that they don’t have to go clear out to California. This year, 2023 is the first year they will go into the overwintering building. Since it has been such a mild winter, they have not gone in yet. I am planning on putting them in in late December. I am excited to see how they do. They will be brought back out in late March once the harsher temperatures are over.

Today, I continue to learn and grow my business. I listen to my customers and try to make and sell products that they love or request to have made. My focus is on healthy products that make you feel good and give you energy to work. Thanks to my customers, I am able to keep doing what I love. Other than my bees and garden, one of my favorite things is product development. Finding that product that customers and family say, “wow, that’s good” gives me such joy.

Thank you for taking the time to read about how it all began! I hope you enjoy looking at the photo gallery that follows.