It's Nutty Honey, done the Wright way
Couple crank out 4,800 to 6,000 jars each month
It started with an idle question that blossomed into a thriving business. Darl Wright, who was transporting bees to California to pollinate almond trees, wondered how he could combine almonds and honey.
Beeline Nutty Honey Butter was born.
Wright, who owns the business with his wife, Kim, a nurse, creates a sinfully sweet and creamy spread made from just four ingredients: butter, honey, cinnamon and one of five kinds of nuts.
"I had an idea about honey and almonds, and how to put them together," Darl Wright said. "I was trying to develop something I could give to people as gifts."
The spread has been about eight years in the perfecting. Each batch is timed just so to create the perfect nutty honey butter.
WRIGHT OWNED a cabinetry shop for 10 years, but then sold it to care for his mother, Helen Fielding, while she battled cancer. After a year, he had to return to work.
His father, Arvon Fielding, began hauling bees by semi-truck after he had been given 40 hives.
"Between the two of us the first year we killed all 40 hives," Wright sheepishly admits.
Fixing their mistakes, Wright and Fielding eventually built their hives to 800 at Never Give Up Apiary. Wright worked as a part-time beekeeper for three years, then went full time instead of taking an opportunity to run another cabinetry shop.
"I turned [the cabinetry shop] down because I love working with bees that much," Wright said. "It gets in your blood. Beekeeping is one of those things I woke up in the morning and actually looked forward to going to work."
In 2007 Fielding and Wright lost 650 hives - 70 percent - to Israeli acute paralysis virus while pollinating almonds in California. Since the remaining hives could not support two families, Wright helped his father build the hives back up to 300 and then took a job as shop foreman at Renaissance West.
IN THE MEANTIME, Wright continued to develop his nutty honey butter recipe.
"I failed my first attempt at Nutty Honey Butter," Wright said. "I cooked everything too long and at too high a temperature. It crystallized, like rock candy, and I couldn't even pull the spatula out of the pan."
Wright threw away the pots, pan and utensils, but didn't give up on his recipe, in which he originally only used almonds.
"Our customers have helped mold the business as it is today," Wright said. "Through suggestions from people we decided to do these various kinds of nuts."
Beeline Nutty Honey Butter has expanded to include almond, cashew, walnut, hazelnut and pecan varieties. Each kind also comes in creamy or crunchy and in either eight-ounce or 16-ounce jars.
Consummate recipe in hand, the Wrights decided to apply for a business license, which took eight months to secure. The Wrights sent the product for FDA inspection at the University of Washington, where it was deemed shelf stable.
Then Darl Wright was laid off from Renaissance West in March, two days before the Made in Montana show. He decided to throw himself completely into the production and sale of his creation. At the trade show, Wright sold out of his product and gathered store interest.
"It took off from there," he said.
The product is now in 2 J's Fresh Market in Great Falls, and locally at Super 1, Withey's, Third Street Market, Wheat Montana, Sunlife Health Foods stores in Kalispell and Columbia Falls, Wild Rose and two Coffee Traders locations. Wright is working to secure deals with IGA and other Super 1 stores in the Northwest.
The Wrights can produce 400 to 500 cases of honey butter every month, which equates to 4,800 to 6,000 jars, quite a feat for two people doing everything by hand.
The pair uses dried, unsalted nuts from Costco and from a supplier in Vermont.
They get their honey from three local beekeepers, with the majority coming from Never Give Up.
Wright cooks at the Luizanne's commercial kitchen at the Mountain Mall in Whitefish and carefully siphons the caramel-colored spread - the consistency of molasses - into glass jars.
In another room in the mall, the Wrights label each jar by hand, often while listening to books on tape.
As their business grows, Darl Wright said he often works 10-hour days five days a week. Kim Wright also puts in time on top of her shifts as a nurse at North Valley Hospital.
The two look toward the future with hopes of restrained expansion.
"This is something we intend to do together," Darl Wright said. "But I'm more of a simple person, so is Kim. We're not sure we want to be on top of a big Nutty Butter corporation."
Nearing their maximum production capacity, the Wrights said they will have some big decisions to make in the future, such as whether to open their own kitchen and shop and hire employees.
In the meantime, though, the Wrights enjoy the time the business allows them to spend and dream about together.
"We can have fun with this," Kim said. "This has not been a tedious operation, this has been a fun operation."
Reporter K.J. Hascall may be reached at 758-4439 or by e-mail at kjhascall@dailyinterlake.com