Gary and Tami Wylie founded Cherry City Honey nine years ago completely by accident. (Photo by Sheri Trusty)

BY SHERI TRUSTY

BELLEVUE – Cherry City Honey is a busy-as-a-bee business that offers locally produced honey; an extensive gift shop; group tours, presentations and workshops; beekeeping equipment and education; and national shipping. Yet, it started all by accident.

Gary and Tami Wylie founded Cherry City Honey nine years ago after Tami stumbled into a honey bee class at Clyde Public Library.

“I happened to be at the Clyde Library one day, and the lady at the desk said there was a honey bee class downstairs,” Tami said.

She was fascinated enough that she decided to attend a beekeeping class.

Event and Marketing Coordinator Jaime Garza, left, and Cherry City Honey co-owner, Tami Wylie, often don bee costumes for children’s educational classes. (Photo by Sheri Trusty)

“She was hooked from the beginning,” Gary said.

It didn’t take long for Gary to catch the bee bug, too.

“We went from five hives to 60 hives the year he retired,” Tami said.

Cherry City Honey was founded nine years ago, and in May, the Wylies celebrated the storefront’s 4th anniversary. They recently remodeled a portion of the shop and transformed it into an education center where they offer presentations and workshops. The classes are available for private groups, and the shop also offers public workshops. Over 300 people attended the recent Sourdough Bread Baking workshop.

Upcoming workshops include Homemade Butter on July 5 and Aug. 9; Sourdough Noodles on Sept. 27 and Oct. 11; and Christmas Gift Making on Nov. 8 and Dec. 13.

While it is fun to make your own gifts, the Cherry City Honey Gift Shop offers a variety of gifts for home and body. The shop offers everything from infused honey and honey soda (pop) to coffee mugs and candles. One of the shop’s biggest sellers is elderberry syrup kits.

Many bee-related items can be found in the Cherry City Honey Gift Shop. (Photo by Sheri Trusty)

“We try to buy everything local, but if that’s not available, we look for small businesses,” said Event and Marketing Coordinator Jaime Garza. “We pride ourselves on clean, natural ingredients.”

The shop avoids foods with artificial colors, so their popular flavored honey sticks look as they should – like golden-colored honey – but have natural flavoring inside. The shop sells two and three-ingredient chocolates from Honey Acres, a Wisconsin company that has been in business since 1852.

“They have two ingredients – honey and chocolate, or three ingredients – honey, chocolate and flavoring,” Garza said.

Producing honey is a natural decision for a business dedicated to natural ingredients because not all honey is the same. Garza said about 70% of honey is imported.

“If you buy honey at a grocery store, you don’t know what you’re getting,” Gary said.

A National Institute of Health study – entitled “Honey and Health: A Review of Recent Clinical Research” and found at https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5424551/ – highlighted the health benefits of honey. The study determined that there is much evidence to suggest the usage of honey in the management of disease. The study provides an overview of honey’s benefits for everything from wound healing to cancer.

The Cherry City Honey Gift Shop offers a wide variety of items for home and body. (Photo by Sheri Trusty)

“Sufficient evidence exists recommending the use of honey in the management of disease conditions,” the study stated.

The Wylies not only produce honey, they also teach others how to become beekeepers.

“We’re beekeepers. We train beekeepers in the five-county area,” Gary said. “We offer beekeeping workshops and sell the equipment.”

Protecting bees is vital because, Gary said, about 30 to 50% of everything Americans eat has gone through some kind of pollination.

“If these little creatures didn’t do all the heavy lifting, we’d be in trouble,” he said.

Cherry City Honey is located at 1000 CR 312 in Bellevue. For more information, call 419-271-2720 or visit www.cherrycityhoney.com.