Local Honey Johnshaven

Heather, oilseed rape and multifloral honey from Brawliemuir Farm, a family smallholding at Johnshaven on the Aberdeenshire coast, run by Matteo Nencini, who moved from Italy to Scotland with his family in 2018.

The family took on the farm in 2020 and Matteo started beekeeping in 2021. The honey is extracted with a manual press and then coarsely filtered, which gives a rougher, more natural honey than the usual spun and fine-filtered jar. The heather honey comes from hives placed in Glen Esk, near the Glen Esk Folk Museum, and a limited heather honey is also sold in small jars made of beeswax. Matteo plants annual flowers on the farm each summer for the bees and other pollinators.

The farm also keeps hens, Hebridean and Valais Blacknose sheep and Cashmere goats, and makes naturally dyed beeswax candles in unusual shapes – knitwear, sheep, pine cones and hearts – as well as fleece rugs.

Honey and candles can be ordered online or by phone, email or social media for Royal Mail delivery, and the farm can be visited at weekends by appointment.