Honey, Honey – 23 August 2021

Honey, Honey – 23 August 2021

Spring is hovering at the edges of our days. A time for planting, a time for growth and a time for spirits to lift in the ever-warming sunshine. If there ever was one, this is probably a good time to tackle the truly tough stuff like a COVID resurgence. The strength of our community is palpable.

Some customers have asked us why we didn’t stay open as a grocery store during this Level 4 Lockdown. After much discussion, we decided that during COVID Level 4, Scarecrow will be closed, as we recognise how virulent this Delta variant of the virus is. Our two stores are centrally located and we felt the risk to our staff and community was high, also we are probably less well prepared than larger operators to manage the situation, and this is what has informed our decision. We anticipate that our stores will reopen as Grocery operations in Level 3 and we will be well prepared.

We so appreciate your messages and support. Please do stay in touch. Think about Scarecrow when you’re planning ahead for kindnesses you can show to loved ones in Level 3 – sending flowers, sending a gift hamper, a delicious gift of wine,  or some of our yummy Scarecrow ready meals. We will be very grateful to have your patronage and support, as will the many small producers we try to support. In this newsletter, we focus on a few of our honey suppliers…. and we suggest you think about how you too can help small NZ artisan producers by purchasing directly from your favourite ones.

We have rescheduled our Earth Harvest Dinner to Saturday 30 October, we hope this date will be possible!

I’ve added a new word to my lexicon, thanks to a recent contact at Scarecrow, who signs her emails “poptimist” – what a wonderful word! I feel it elegantly expresses such positivity and hope for the future. Yes, it’s founded on optimism, but I trip over this word when I read it, it pulls me up, making me more conscious. A quick Google search links this word with the pop music world, but I feel it has much broader potential! Thanks, Diedre from Good Sh*t for this inspiration.

We look forward to seeing you all again very soon. Stay poptimists in the spring light. The bees are taking flight as the air warms and days lengthen, the mānuka and kānuka are beginning to flower in the valley and the season visibly shifts. We hope you enjoy this newsletter, which focuses on some of the sweet things in life!

Keep safe. Kia Kaha,
Alison & the Scarecrow team


Earthbound Honey

Meet Earthbound Honey, one of our very first suppliers of native NZ honey (and weekly stall-neighbours every Saturday morning at the City Centre Market). Terry & Karlene established Earthbound in 2006 at their property in the Bethells Valley northwest of Auckland, and since then have continuously evolved and expanded their product offering to now include a gorgeous range of personal care, beeswax blocks and ‘honey-gars’, alongside their outstanding selection of pure, raw natural honey harvested from native NZ trees. We are passionate about supporting local producers with a vision and encourage you to support these guys too! Please, give them a follow on Instagram, and check out Earthbound’s online store to see their full range of delights, all of which can be shipped directly to your door (contactless of course!).
Earthbound Honey was also recognised alongside Scarecrow as one of the 14 inaugural recipients of the Snail of Approval Award from Slow Food Auckland. 


Mangawhai Honey

Here’s another honey of a honey, from just up the road in marvellous Mangawhai. Louis Smith, founder & chief beekeeper of Mangawhai Honey began harvesting from his family block of land in 2015. He is passionate about the land and the welfare of his bees, maintaining responsible farming practices to ensure the very best quality honey. One of our favourite things about Mangawhai Honey (there are so many!) is the 900g family jar for just $30! It’s incredible value for a top-quality everyday toast topping (or just straight from the spoon). Head over to their Instagram page for some simply stunning photography and check out their website for more on Louis and his heavenly honey. We’re looking forward to reopening at Level 3 so you can purchase this again direct from the shelves in both Scarecrow stores. In the meantime, contact Louis via his website to ask about shipping at Alert Level 4. Go Mangawhai!


Waiheke Honey Co

Now this one is close to our heart, and our land! Founder & beekeeper Richard Evatt (also known as Sticky Ricky) heads up this small family business from his home on Waiheke Island. When we last visited during the school holidays, Richard’s sons were diligently labelling jars of honey to be shipped off across the country and globe. Richard raises new colonies of bees at the back of their home overlooking Palm Beach on Waiheke Island, and his honey-making bees live in various locations across the island. Our favourite part about this operation (aside from the Evatts family’s passion, commitment to sustainability, and superb honey) is the fact that Waiheke Honey immediately neighbours our own native forest regeneration project in the Mawhitipana Valley above Little Palm Beach. Bees filter down through our native trees & bush, busy pollinating, regenerating, doing their thing. Neighbour sustaining neighbour in a roundabout sort of way! (We certainly look forward to harvest!) You’ll find Waiheke Honey Co on our shelves when we open up again at Alert Level 3, but in the meantime, do support this wonderful local business by ordering direct from Richard and his family online. You can ring ahead and take a little tour as well! (Save this for summer perhaps!)


Niue Honey

The Niu-est sweet addition to our grocery shelves, raw certified organic from the tropical forests of Niue! Brought to NZ by one of our favourite exports and recent returnees Peter Gordon, you may have heard about Niue Honey in the news over recent months. Peter has partnered with Niue Honey to help safeguard the special bees of Niue’s Pacific Bee Sanctuary. The website tells the full story of this wonderful project of regeneration, passion and protection. We recommend you pop over to read it. This honey can help save the world’s bees, and that is something we are passionate about too.

So, a little showcase of sweetness for you this week. We’re mad about honey; perhaps you can tell. We’re so lucky to have so much quality available to us at Scarecrow. Asking us to pick a favourite would be like trying to choose a favourite child. They’re all delightful for different reasons; all delicious; all made with passion, care and love; all working with the bigger sustainable picture in mind. We at Scarecrow are huge fans of these businesses with heart.

We can’t wait for you to be able to come in again at Level 3, but until it is safe for that to happen, we strongly encourage you to support these little honeys in your own way, now more than ever!


Kokako Cafe Support Programme

We’re preparing to take part in Kokako’s Cafe Support Programme again this year, launching at the latest this Sunday morning – but hopefully sooner, because every order counts! How does it work? Kokako will ‘Scarecrow brand’ 200g bags of the same blend we serve in the café; a flavour our customers know and love. Keep an eye out, and we’ll let you know when we’re live! A taste of Scarecrow & Kokako from the comfort of home? Yes, please!