Archive: this is an account of a past visit. Figures, product availability and future plans describe the time of the original interview.
I meet amazing people on my travels around the world and they all have a story to tell. From time to time you meet someone so extraordinary they make a real impact. Gabrielle Morley is one of those people. I visited her property in New South Wales, Australia with the team from Gather By (to taste Australian Medicinal Honey).
After a career in cotton farming, Gabrielle settled in New South Wales and grew Phoenix palms for landscaping. Her interest in pollen led her to work with bees. She invested time in planting and building up her apiary before producing honey, creating a varied environment for her colonies.
- Diversity of herbs planted by Gabrielle
- Shady palms
A paradise for bees
The garden includes Mexican heather, bergamot, rosemary, turmeric, lemon balm, lavender and mustard. Gabrielle plans her planting to provide flowers across the seasons. We enjoyed seeing the different plants that her bees visited.
She explains how important it is for bees to have a balanced diet of lipids, fats and proteins and she watches the bees through the day to see which flowers and plants they go to and at which times for their medicinal needs and for nectar flow. She mainly has indigenous plants and self seeding as much as possible. Gabrielle currently has just 30 hives, but what she does produce is a high value, organic honey due to the diversity of nectar and health of the bees and plants – the antithesis of industrial or bulk honey production.
- Gabrielle Morley’s apiary
- One of Gabrielle Morley’s hives
Beautiful balsam for the bees to forage
Planting for bee health
Gabrielle has invested a lot in her bees and is a fount of knowledge. She did so much research starting out and only the best practice will do for her. After looking all over the world she decided on buying her hives from Turkey which has a strong honey culture. The government there invested in nine universities to do the research into the best hive environment and bee health.
Gabrielle showed us how her hive design makes inspection and cleaning easier. She described pressing honey from the comb by hand. Different extraction methods suit different beekeepers; pressing alone does not establish a medical benefit.
Gabrielle brought out these boxes to show me which get filled with honeycomb. They are in the hive and so the honeycomb never gets touched by human hands before the consumer uses it. I love this and in fact I have just started stocking some very similar at Balqees.
- Some of Gabriel Morley’s beautiful honeycomb
- The boxes at Gabrielle Morley’s apiary which get filled with honeycomb
A varied garden
The planting provides forage for the bees. Traditional uses of individual plants should not be taken as proof that the honey treats illness or that a particular planting prevents hive disease.
- Phoenix Life Force honey and honeycomb
- Gabrielle Morley, Matt Blomfield from Gather By, and Riath Hamed of Balqees
Pollinator havens
At the time of our visit, Gabrielle was expanding her planting with Gatherby and adding Leptospermum. Her attention to the garden and its bees gave us plenty to learn from.
