Satiate the travel bug with a trip to Salem sweet spot Flying Bee Ranch

SALEM, Ore. (KPTV) – FOX 12′s Stephanie Kralevich meets up with Karah Kuh of Travel Salem for a tour of Flying Bee Ranch. Part honey tasting room, part Oregon grown giftshop, part bee-keeping educator/outfitter; the family owned and operated purveyor of all-things-bee-products is a fun and family-friendly destination for anyone visiting from out of town, or Oregon locals simply looking for a new buzzworthy attraction close to home.

“Have the travel bug, but don’t want to drive very far?” starts Stephanie, “We found a very sweet spot in Salem. I am with Kara Kuh from Travel Salem. Kara, tell me about Flying Bee Ranch. This place is great!”

“You can come, you can learn the art of beekeeping, and how to do your own bees. You’re also going to taste amazing honey varieties when you come, and just learn all about beekeeping, and again, that sustainability that’s so important to all of us these days in our environment”, replies Kara.

“Tell me how Flying Bee Ranch got started.” Stephanie asks.

“Our farm was started in the late 90s by my great aunt and uncle as a small hobby farm, which quickly grew to a commercial beekeeping operation where my wife, Desi and I, took over in 2017,” responds Flying Bee’s owner Jeremy Mitchell.

“And you two have turned this place into a little tourist destination right in Salem?” Stephanie continues.

“Yeah. We really enjoy having tourists come through. We’ve had tourists from all around the world, and we also love to support our local Salem-ites producing local honey here in the Willamette Valley,” replies Mitchell.

“What else can people experience here at Flying Bee Ranch?” asks Stephanie.

“At our farm, we offer honey tastings, which are always free. We also offer a variety of other hive products, including propolis, beeswax, honeycomb, and bee pollen. We offer in hive beekeeping experiences in the summertime and beekeeping classes in the spring.” Jeremy responds.

“I was so impressed when I walked in here by just how many flavors or varieties of honey you carry. What all can people sample when they’re here?” Stephanie asks.

“There are a ton of you really unique honey varieties to try,” responds Mitchell. “We produce more than 20 unique varieties. at our farm here, the flavor of the honey comes from the nectar of the flower. It is really difficult to tell where the flowers nectar might taste like. So, once the bees have collected it and turned it into honey, we’re able to offer those tastings here.”

“As an Oregon girl, my favorite, honey, has always been meadow foam. I can’t wait to try your version.” Stephanie interjects.

“Our Oregon Meadow foam is one of our most popular honeys in our tasting room,” says Jeremy.

“Best honey I’ve ever had. And I’ve had a lot of meadow foam!” Stephanie assures excitedly, “I’m really intrigued by the pumpkin. We got to try this for the pumpkin spice people out there.”

“One of my favorite honeys. I love pumpkin pies, pumpkin spice lattes, and I love pumpkin honey”, replies Jeremy. “You don’t need to live in a rural area to be a beekeeper. Backyard beekeeping is allowed in almost every municipality in Oregon, and it doesn’t require very much space. You can have bees in your backyard and bees produce on average maybe five gallons or 60 pounds of honey, from an urban setting.”

“And you carry all of the supplies you need here”, continues Stephanie. “But what I really love is this is a gift shop. This is a great place to find something very Oregon.”

Jeremy confirms, “We love to consider ourselves a unique tourist destination. The honey tastings are something very unique, and we have, a lot to offer for, folks visiting our farm here.”

“Get the buzz on Flying Bee Ranch at flyingbeeranch.com and explore even more of what Salem has to offer at travelsalem.com” says Stephanie.

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