Wow, we say this every year but 2018 has certainly been a year that has flown by. Since December of 2017, Chad has worked every day (literally) toward growing Next to Nature Farm and we've learned to accept the highs and lows of owning a small business. To those of you who own businesses or work for a small business, you know you have to love what you do to own a small business.  It takes guts (and a whole lot of faith) to step out of your comfort zone and become the owner/manager/retail associate/laborer/marketer/jack-of-all-trades of your own business. It's been hard but there are many rewards that we can point to that say we're moving in the right direction.  In 2018, we opened our first retail location at the Lenexa Public Market. The Market has allowed us to have a presence in northeast Kansas and we've met so many repeat customers who tell us things like "Your honey is the best," "I love your healing salves," and "Wow, you make that by hand?!"

Today is Small Business Saturday in America. It's the day after Black Friday and we're officially in the holiday season. As small business owners, we appreciate our customers and the fact they want to put something handmade, homemade, and all-natural in their loved ones' holiday gifts. We take great pride in making sure our products are made with ingredients you can pronounce with all-natural ingredients. We think it is the passion and purpose that small businesses owners have that make it even more important to "shop small" this holiday season. Small businesses and retailers are the life-blood of communities - they support the local community and schools, they provide jobs to your friends and neighbors, and they support a community's tax base. Don't get us wrong, we shop at large retailers, too. In a world of two-day delivery, sometimes it is nice to take a walk in your downtown and look to see what is for sale in your community. It's nice to interact with an expert who can tell you exactly how to use a product or repair something when it breaks.  

So, here's to Shop Small Saturday and the start of the holiday season. We're blessed here at Next to Nature Farm and we're looking forward to celebrating those blessings with friends and family during this holiday season. We thank God each day for our health, children, friends, and the many blessings we enjoy.  

Below, we posted a recipe for Spicy Party Nuts. We'd recommend using our jalapeno or habanero infused honey for an extra spicy kick to the nuts (or just use the infused honey and leave out the dry spices). Take this recipe to a holiday pot-luck, bag some up for teacher gifts, or just enjoy a handful while you're wrapping gifts! 

-Chad & Megan 

Welcome to our new website! This past year of our lives has been filled with excitement, stress and, a little bit of fun. One of our goals for the business was to re-launch our website with e-commerce capabilities so that our wonderful customers could purchase products online. We've grown our product line immensely in the past year. There's new products, like the incredible creamed honey, to try. And, of course, our favorite products {healing salve, lotion bars}. 

We hope you enjoy the new site. We appreciate feedback, comments and suggestions.  In the coming months, you'll see new features included in this blog. We're looking forward to sharing recipes and tips for using honey in everyday life. We love bees. We love what we do. Thank you for being a part of it. 

We thought everyone might need a healthy snack idea to get through the holiday season. Try the recipe for energy bites below when you really want that cookie but don't want to get on the treadmill for an extra hour in the evening. 

​-Chad & Megan