You often hear the phrase “People come into your life for a reason”. We can attest to the veracity of that statement. Years ago, our good friends that hail from Asheville, North Carolina had been inviting us to visit for some time, so we finally got on a short flight for a long weekend vacation. We fell in love with Asheville for many of the same reasons everyone else does, and we continued to visit as often as we could. Each time we left Asheville, North Carolina and returned home, the pace and size of the big city seemed more and more overwhelming. We began to long for something a bit slower, smaller, and more focused on community. We realized that we could actually make it happen if we really wanted to. Finally, we came to believe we could set down roots and grow into Asheville, North Carolina.
The path to opening a honey store evolved over the years prior to our move to Asheville, North Carolina. Jillian loves to cook and began changing the family’s diet some years ago, choosing farmers markets and organic food over more traditional venues. Wanting to replace white refined sugar with something healthier, she found honey to be the natural choice. Over time, with lots of experimenting, some failures but more successes, honey became a clear choice in the kitchen. That’s how and when the interest in bees came about. Jillian took a beginner bee keeping course at the Garfield Conservatory in Chicago. Learning about different types of honey became a passion for both Kim and Jillian. We found it funny that once we took an interest in honey and bees, and kept learning about all of the natural benefits these little wonders of nature were capable of, the more our fascination with bees grew. We discovered that once people knew of our interest in bees and honey, they began to bring us honey from their travels as well as fun little gifts they picked up along the way, saying “I thought of you when I saw this”.
Every year, as the dream of moving to Asheville, North Carolina became more of a reality, we worked on creating a vision that would allow us to become part of a community. Once the final decision was made to settle in Asheville, we began to develop a tangible plan born out of a passion for honey, a curiosity for bees, a love of cooking, and a yearning for connection to community. Asheville would become our new hive and we would be the busy worker bees! While our research and knowledge gave us the impetus for finding the best honey available, Kim’s love for fashion was a perfect fit for finding associated items for the store . Her creative ideas have led the way in making our store an interesting and fun bee-themed space with a wide variety of products to ensure that there is “something for everyone” !
Kim and Jillian are excited about opening this business and continuing to connect to local beekeepers, artists and creative people in general who are drawn to the dream of a “colony”. Early on when we reached out to people from the local bee community organizations to ask questions and make connections, we wound up meeting some of the kindest and most helpful folks we could imagine. We were invited to join activities including the Black Jar Honey contest as well as pollinator events for Bee City USA.
We hope to create the perfect balance between providing excellent products and services to our customers and contributing to the bee community organizations in every way possible.
We’ll see you in the store and in the community!
Kim & Jillian
Asheville Bee Charmer
38 Battery Park
Asheville, North Carolina, 28801
