Today we’d like to introduce you to Mark Connelly.
Hi Mark, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I grew up as a boy in the foothills of North Carolina. It was around the age of 16 when an old beekeeper gave 4 of his hives to my mother. She had never taken care of honeybees before, so she started to read books and learn as much as she could. The area we lived in was full of nectar for the bees, so we ended up making a lot of honey those first few years. Boxes of honey are quite heavy, so my mother would recruit my younger brother and I to help carry her boxes of honey to the house where we would spin them out and bottle the honey. Soon enough, we were attending the local beekeepers club in our county once a month on Thursday evenings. We were the only young people in the group, so we got lots of help from the old-timers…. and that’s how it started.
As soon as I got my driver’s license, I bought an old truck and began hauling my bees to the apple orchards for pollination, and whenever we had enough extra honey, I would sell it at our local general store.
Eventually, I went off to college at the Citadel in Charleston and from there started down a career path of my own. Even though life was busy, I always kept at least a few hives back home. I ended up settling down in South Carolina and that’s where I met the owner of an organic blueberry farm along the Edisto River in Branchville, SC. That blueberry farm, called Black Pearl Blueberry Farm, is where Edisto Gold Honey was formed in 2019. Today we are a Certified SC brand in over a hundred stores statewide. We sell to customers online throughout the country and have made lots of friends along the way.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The big struggle we had at first was starting out in business a few short months before Covid hit. It was extremely difficult getting into stores when nobody wanted to talk to you in person. The silver lining was that honey is known to boost the immune system, so there were doctors telling patients at that time to eat local honey on a regular basis.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Edisto Honey, LLC?
Edisto Honey is a multi-faceted business. We not only produce and sell honeybee products, but we also provide pollination services, honeybee mentoring, and sometimes bee removal services. We are set apart by our clean, environmentally safe jars, and our flavor-infused honeys are what I am most proud of brand wise. We put a lot of work into getting high quality ingredients and perfecting those flavor profiles that not only taste great, but are actually healthy to eat. We strive to be known for the quality of our products.
Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
Life is full of risks and I’ve been taking those for a long time. Besides getting stung by bees on a regular basis, I also work as a full-time firefighter and run into burning buildings for a living. Starting a small business is full of financial risk as well. To do this, you risk your mental health and the wellbeing of your family while you grow your business. I can’t say I enjoy taking risks, but I know they are a necessary part of success.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.edistogoldhoney.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/edistogoldhoney/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/edistogoldhoney/
