Local Honey Rossendale

Raw local honey from Ramsbottom Honey, run by beekeeping friends Brendan and Ruth from a rural apiary in Ramsbottom.

Brendan and Ruth have more than 15 years' hands-on experience and keep their bees in a deliberately low-intervention way, putting colony health ahead of yield. The honey comes from their own hives. It is extracted gently without heating, so it keeps its natural pollen and will crystallise over time, and each batch reflects the season it was harvested in.

Alongside honey they make a propolis throat spray with their own raw honey, beeswax skin and lip balms, and a beeswax wood balm and polish. Everything is sold online, and what's available depends on what the hives have produced.

They also teach, with half-day taster sessions and introduction-to-beekeeping courses at the apiary and Bee Discovery sessions for schools and youth groups. Organisations across the North West can book workplace talks and team days, host a hive or sponsor one. Both are members of the British Beekeepers' Association.