Creston Valley Advance Thursday, September 25, 2014
LOCAL neWs Nora and Doug Crumback are the owners of Swan Valley Honey. Lorne Eckersley
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Swan Valley Honey owners planning to expand BY LORNE ECKESLEY Advance Staff
Early in their life together Doug and Nora Crumback couldn’t have imagined owning a large honey-producing operation. But with two years as owners of Swan Valley Honey under their belts, the parents of seven grown children say they couldn’t be happier. Theirs has been an unlikely journey. Doug, an air traffic controller with the Royal Canadian Air Force and widowed father of four, met Nora, mother of three, at church when he was stationed at Comox. A forced transfer to Cold Lake didn’t hold much appeal for the new couple, though, and soon they were on the move to Summerland, where they bought Doug’s parents’ orchard. After 15 years as orchardists, they sold the property and started looking for a new opportunity. They had some experience with beekeeping. “I contacted Ministry of Agriculture people in Victoria and asked if there were any opportunities for commercial beekeeping in B.C.,” Doug recalled as he sat in the dining room of their Lakeview home. “They referred me to Doug Knight, who they said might be thinking of retiring.” By the time Doug and Nora were ready to start exploring their options, they had a list of other possibilities. They first visited Grand Forks and the next stop was Creston. “We found this property” — a huge shop that is now their honey production and storage facility being a major selling feature — “talked to Doug Knight and realized the Creston Valley is a great spot for bees,” he said. “And we stopped looking.” The Crumbacks worked with Knight for a year to learn the business and now are fully engaged as beekeepers and honey producers. Doug has immersed himself in maintaining 300 hives that are distributed at various locations around the Creston Valley. Nora is the marketer and has become a fixture at the Creston Valley
Farmers’ Market each Saturday. She also travels the Kootenays to add retailers that will carry Swan Valley Honey products. “The honey sells itself,” Nora laughs. “People love the flavour and keep coming back for more.” At the market, her regular customers range from small children who want to sample to teen boys who love the chewy comb honey to foodaware moms who use only natural sweeteners to seniors who are transported to earlier days by the sight of fresh local honey products. “It’s just so rewarding,” she said. “Connecting with people is really what this is all about.” With each hive producing about 125 pounds a year, Nora has a lot of product to move. But about 95 per cent is sold right here in the Kootenays, most of it at the market and from their property. See HONEY, page 5
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