OUR STORY
From bloom to bottle, Thistlerock Mead Company’s story begins and continues with a commitment to protect our land for generations.
Co-founders John Kluge and Doug Suchan first teamed up to save the neighboring forest between their family homes from development. Their friendship deepened into a partnership as they discovered a shared passion for honey, home meadmaking, and doing good. After jointly attending an education program at the UC Davis Honey and Pollination Center – and as John’s wife’s flower farm Wayfaring took off – they realized that bringing the social enterprise Thistlerock Mead Company to life in a radically sustainable way would enable them to become even better stewards of the land, all while giving back to their local and global communities.
Through Thistlerock Mead Company, John and Doug invite you to share in the land’s bounty and take part in bringing greater balance to humanity’s relationship with the natural world. We are all a part of it, after all!
Thistlerock Mead Company’s bees are sustained by a totally chemical and tilling-free, regenerative flower farm.
Christine Mahoney’s flower farm co-located with Thistlerock Mead Company, Wayflowering, is composed of over 150 floral and botanical species spanning two acres. Indeed, every magical creation from Thistlerock Mead Company has its genesis in Christine’s regenerative farming practices, mission-driven hiring model – prioritizing displaced people – and innovative, experiential, and participatory distribution practices.
2.5 million honey bees are responsibly cared for by Thistlerock Mead Company. Together with our global network of beekeepers, we collect and source truly special honeys to craft the most magical and delightful meads possible.
Our own hives are expertly tended to by master beekeeper Allison Wickham and nourished by the certified pollinator-friendly farms at Thistlerock and Wayflowering. A single bottle of mead represents a tremendous effort by our worker bees – over 1-2 million individual pollination stops from hundreds of flowers and trees. That’s why Allison cares for our bees just as any farmer would care for their livestock, routinely checking on them to ensure the colonies have a queen bee, abundant workers, space to grow, and enough pollen and honey to thrive.
In addition to the work we do to enrich and sustain the pollinators on our own farm, we work closely with local farms and other partners to improve neighboring pollinator habitats and rewild nearby meadows. And we are proud to showcase the unique characteristics found in monofloral honeys from critical habitats around the world through our craft mead and curated delights at our Tavern & Honey Library. Not only does this give our guests access to some of the world’s rarest honeys, but it enables our business to directly invest in the beekeeping communities and environments most vulnerable to climate change.
Thistlerock Mead Company’s processes, products, and packaging are sustainable – and we will be carbon neutral within our first year of operations.
Rooted in our commitment to the earth, Thistlerock Mead Company aims to be the first truly sustainable, net zero meadery in the United States – and we are well on our way. Our sustainability practices are guided from the ground up by Bevin Etienne, a global leader in the field. Our bottles, labels, and barrels are sourced locally, reused, or recyclable. Even our production building is repurposed from the barn that already stood on our farm. And we are on track to achieve carbon neutrality by the end of 2023.
Thistlerock Mead Company reinvests in a dynamic ecosystem of mission-aligned business and organizations, as well as our planet at large.
As a social enterprise, Thistlerock Mead Company directly reinvests in our planet. Half of all our profits are reinvested to support pollinators, biodiversity and habitat conservation, and nature-based livelihoods. We are equally conscientious about the business partners we engage with or showcase in our Tavern & Honey Library, with an emphasis on supporting women-, veteran-, and BIPOC-owned, as well as refugee-supporting, businesses and organizations. Learn more about our impact here.