Today we’d like to introduce you to Gwendolyn Benthul.
Hi Gwendolyn, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
Kenneth, comes from a long line of bee keepers. As a child he remembers his grandfather keeping bees and having pecan blossom honey regularly. When Kenneth suffered a massive pulmonary embolism in January 2016, he almost died. Afterwards he decided that he could no longer put off his dreams and Honey Apple Farms was established a year later in January 2017.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
We started Honey Apple Farm as a hobby and grew it into a sideliner business. We grew a little every year until it consumed so much time that we needed to work the business full time if we wanted to continue to grow. It was to the point where Kenneth or Gwendolyn would have to stop working outside of the business to continue managing and growing it.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Honey Apple Farm/Everything Honey ?
We’re owners of Honey Apple Farm and our store is named Everything Honey. We are a small, family owned apiary. We raise honey bees and help educate and grow apiaries for new bee keepers. We rent bees for pollination and ag exemption and provide apiary management for other bee keepers. We havest high quality honey from our bees to sell and make many products with honey. We sell and serve mead in our store along with other honey products and bee merchandise. The store is also a tea room as well as a mead bar. We serve afternoon tea, charcuterie and pizza with mead, honey soft drinks and teas. We set up at the Dallas Farmers Market, Saint Michael’s Farmers Market, Mesquite Farmers Market and the Canton Farmers Market. You can find us at the Downtown Forney Market when they’re open and sometimes at the Dallas Arboretum as well as First Monday Trade Days, Trade Center 3 every month.
We’d love to hear about how you think about risk taking?
Kenneth had a near death event in January 2016 and when he survived he started Honey Apple Farm. He had always wanted to be a beekeeper keeping with the generational hobby of beekeeping in his family foing back four generations. In 2018 his wife Gwendolyn quit working outside of the farm to help grow Honey Apple Farm into the business it is today. It was a huge move and outside our comfort zone. It has been a massive learning curve with lots of challenges and stresses. We’ve have a couple of time were we thought we mught have to close because of income issues but managed to ride it out. We finally opened a brick and mortar in March 2025. Our store is named Everything Honey and is in Downtown Canton on the square.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Www.honeyapplefarm.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/honeyapplefarm/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HoneyAppleFarms/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@HoneyAppleFarm
Image Credits
Gwendolyn Benthul
