An East Durham vegan farm is creating a buzz with its honey made without using bees.

Jenny Connor in the orchard at Dalton Moor Farm | Sunderland Echo

placeholder image — Jenny Connor in the orchard at Dalton Moor Farm | Sunderland Echo

Just minutes from the A19 and Dalton Park, Dalton Moor Farm is a working vegan farm that also houses its own School of Sustainable Living & Wellbeing and tipi off-grid retreats.

As well as passing on skills, such as how to make your own natural beauty and cleaning products, farm owners Jenny Connor and Tom Mackenzie sells Dalton Moor Farm produce made on its 24 acres.

They’ve scoured the farm’s orchards, fruit trees and hedgerows to develop Hunny, a honey substitute made from the syrup of rowan berries and flowers.

The farm produces its own ‘honey’ without using bees | Sunderland Echo

Not only does the Bee Free Vegan HUNNY™ come in a variety of flavours, depending on which additional flowers and herbs have been harvested, it also mimics many of the health benefits of manuka honey.

“Like manuka, rowan berries are naturally anti-oxidant, antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory,” said Dr Jenny Connor, who has spent more than a decade growing crops, rewilding and regenerating the land at her farm after retiring as a radiologist of 40 years, 27 of those spent at Sunderland Royal Hospital.

She added: “The syrup has a delightfully complex flavour that does a little dance in your mouth - first fruity, then sweet, sharp, sour, bitter and finally tasting just like honey at the back of your palate.

“And, most importantly for those looking for a vegan honey substitute, it’s ‘Made By Me, Not By Bee’™.”

Made with base ingredients of Rowan berries, it can be used in exactly the same way as honey; on porridge, drizzled over vegetables then roasted, in drinks, in cakes, over ice cream or on toast.

The farm also has its own off-grid tipis | Sunderland Echo

Along with the Original Rowan HUNNY, there’s a range of additional flavours, foraged from the farm’s meadows and woodland, all priced £6 for a 190ml jar.

These include Elderflower, Rose, Heather, Clover, Summer Meadow Flowers, Gorse, Lilac, Meadowsweet amd Evening Primrose, along with a mixed berry version.

The farm also makes a number of other products, including its own juices and preserves.

For more information or to purchase online visit www.daltonmoorfarm.co.uk

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