Made by Mom Gift Guide: Chapel Hill farm offers up honey, other beehive-based products

For three years, Ingrid Fricks and her husband have been living a dream — tending to the bees, chickens, sheep and mule on their family homestead.

The couple live on a small family-run farm at the edge of Chapel Hill with their teenage daughter. An adult son lives in Charlotte. There, they produce honey, lamb, eggs and a range of beehive-based products, including beeswax candles and all-natural lip balms, You can find them at the year-round Hillsborough Farmers Market at UNC Hospital-Hillsborough on Saturday mornings.

Fricks, who also works from home full-time as a medical writer, and Fricks Farm & Apiaries are featured in Go Ask Mom's annual Made by Mom Gift Guide. Find out more about the business in my Q&A with Fricks below. And stay tuned for more Q&As of the mom-owned businesses featured in the 2019 guide!

Go Ask Mom: Tell us about your farm and apiaries. How did it all get its start? Was farm life part of your original life plan years ago?

Ingrid Fricks: My husband, Guy, began keeping bees 18 years ago in Carrboro and has been selling honey and queen bees for almost as long. We have always had a dream to have a homestead where we could raise our family and grow our own food, and it became a reality in 2016 when we moved to a small farm just west of Chapel Hill.

Soon after we moved to the small farm, I began making candles and experimenting with other beehive-based products. As we have grown our homestead, our farm business has expanded, and we are constantly working on developing new products.

GAM: What all do you have on your homestead? What's a typical day like for you?

IF: We keep bees, chickens, sheep, a mule, and three dogs. Every day we take care of the animals and collect eggs.  Other than the daily chores, a lot of the farm work is seasonal. During the spring time, I stay busy with our new lambs and Guy manages all the beehives.  In July, we extract honey from the hives; it typically takes a whole week.  After extracting honey, we have lots of wax to process.

In addition to managing the marketing, website, and product packaging for the farm business, I am responsible for making all of the hive-based products, so these activities usually happen in the evenings and weekends.

GAM: Tell us about your bee-based products that make for great holiday gifts.

IF: Local, raw honey is our best-selling product. Everyone loves honey, and if you haven’t tasted honey straight from the hive, you’ve missed out on an amazing culinary experience.

Our candles are made from 100% beeswax with cotton wicks and they come in several shapes and sizes, including votives and tapers. Beeswax candles are clean burning, long lasting, and environmentally friendly. All of the candles are hand-poured or hand-dipped and have been tested for the best and longest burning experience. We frequently have new styles of candles available because I enjoy trying new ideas.

We also make all-natural lip balms in a variety of flavors. These lip balms are ultra-moisturizing because they use a beeswax base and other natural ingredients such as almond oil, coconut oil, cocoa butter, and shea butter, and high-quality essential oils from DoTerra.

GAM: On your website, you write about your belief in the importance of not just providing good food, supporting families and being a steward of the environment, but also living simply and spreading kindness. It seems like we need constant reminders about those last two beliefs on a regular basis. Why do you include them in your mission?

IF: It’s easy to get caught up in over scheduling and excessive consumption these days, and unfortunately, it’s also too easy to find examples of divisiveness and conflict in our society. Living simply means that the focus is on relationships and being connected with nature instead of material things, and it often just requires us to slow down and pay attention to those around us.

As a family, we try to prioritize the things in life that are most important to us - our family, our health, and our community. I think it’s important to spread kindness because everyone has different challenges in life and we all need a helping hand or an encouraging word at times. My mother, who was a first-grade teacher, taught me that when people feel loved, understood, and appreciated, they really shine. We need to see more examples of people loving and supporting each other to build strong communities.

GAM: What do you love about what you do?

IF: My favorite part of the farm business is going to the farmers' market and meeting customers. It’s fun to talk with people about our products and get to know the regular customers. I also love that I get to spend a lot of time outside with the animals or gardening each week. And I really enjoy having a creative outlet – I have so many ideas for new beehive-based products and can’t wait to have time to try them out!

Go Ask Mom features local moms every Monday — and even more often in November and December as part of the Made by Mom Gift Guide.