"Come little bee, come, fly out again!"
There is a lot of love in this sentence. Love for the bees that are among the greatest creatures on earth. Love for their unique product - honey. Love of careful work with bees and their honey.
Bee father Josef Schmidt always told him when he saw his bee colonies shortly after the war in the village of Bernau high up in the Black Forest. Since 1948, his wife Walpurga has run the guesthouse "Alte Post" there – her guests were the first customers of Honig Schmidt. We would like to tell you a little something about Josef Schmidt, our company founder, and about us, the Black Forest Honey Manufactory Honig Schmidt.
Josef's vision for Honig Schmidt was as simple as it was ingenious: he wanted to convince as many customers as possible of the advantages of high-quality bee products and supplied many grocery stores throughout the Black Forest. Tourists who were on holiday in the Black Forest bought his natural products and were enthusiastic about the taste and consistency of the honeys. Back home, they simply ordered the honey by post. In addition to the quality of honeys, the reason for the success has always been our service: fast, personal and reliable.
The company grew. Josef's most ardent collaborator was his grandson Martin Schmiedle. Even as a little boy, he helped fill the noble honeys – he still combines the smell of the fine natural product with his grandfather Josef. By hand, the boy filled the honey from the squeegee buckets into the glasses, which grandfather then weighed and closed. Then the grandson was allowed to pack the finished glasses in cardboard boxes.
In 1979 Martin took over the honey bottling plant from his grandpa. Martin expanded the business, looking for new beekeepers all over Europe, and thus added the finest honeys to his range. During the holidays, Martin's nephew Michael Kutter helped his uncle with honey filling, delivery (see picture below from December 1980) and mailing. The old squeegee buckets had long since given way to more modern filling methods – but the fine smell remained and still wafts through our operation today. Martin Schmiedle, our predecessor as Managing Director, is proud to have worked for a lifetime only with natural products in which "no food chemist ever had his paws in it". And we are!
In December 2020, Martin handed over the family business Honig Schmidt to the next generation. Since then, we have been running the company. We are Michael Kutter, Martin's nephew, and Stefan Velte. We ensure that Josef Schmidt's vision continues by convincing our customers of the unique quality of our premium honey products with every delivery. Customers now come not only from Germany, but from Europe and around the world for a long time.
Whenever we see a honeybee, Grandfather Joseph comes to mind. And it is not uncommon for one of us to whisper Josef Schmidt's loving sentence:
"Come Bienle, come, fly out again!".
Michael and Stefan from Honig-Schmidt
