The Kangaroo Island Ligurian Bee Co has taken the big step of making its own honey ice cream and is now an accredited dairy processor with Dairysafe.
Made from The Kangaroo Island Ligurian Bee Co honey and natural South Australian ingredients, including local KI eggs and Fleurieu Milk, the ice cream has already been recognised for its outstanding quality being a finalist in the 2024 Food SA Awards.
“Honey ice cream has been part of the Kangaroo Island honey story for a long time as we had a lady making it for us for many years. She wanted to retire, so we decided to make it ourselves,” said Verity Hayman, co-owner and Managing Director.
“Making it ourselves has enabled us to experiment with the recipe and produce a range of pure honey ice creams that showcase the different varieties of honey we have. These ice creams are delicious and have been very popular since they were introduced nearly 12 months ago.”
Making ice cream was a steep learning curve for Verity. “It was a big step to take. I had no idea how to make ice cream and the first couple of batches were pretty challenging,” she said.
“I had to take a leap of faith and just have a go. We were lucky we found a company in Melbourne that sold the ice cream machine to us and gave us tips and support. I spent a day in Canberra on their recommendation to visit a small company that was making ice cream using the same machine, which was very helpful.
“They also gave me basic ice cream recipes, which we had to adjust as none of them used honey. Because honey replaces some of the sugar but is higher in moisture, I had to read a lot about the effects of different ingredients on ice cream, and then I adjusted the recipe and went for it.”
Verity aimed to make her ice cream using local ingredients and no artificial ingredients. “I didn’t want to use emulsifiers or additives, which is different to the way most places make ice cream. We use eggs from Kangaroo Island, and Fleurieu Milk from mainland SA,” she said.
“Most people don’t use eggs in ice cream anymore because it adds to the food safety risk. That’s why I did the Dairysafe audit – I wanted to make sure I’d reduced the risk as much as possible and it was helpful to have Dairysafe come and check our processes for us.”
The audit went well with the auditor commenting on the extremely high standards and The Kangaroo Island Ligurian Bee Co was approved for six month audits instead of three month audits. As honey is a food product, they already had other food safety audits and quality processes in place.
“When you’re following food safety rules, you have to do a lot of cleaning, and you have to make sure food items are stored at the right temperatures. Honey’s a lot less risky than eggs and milk, but the same principles apply,” Verity said.
“Before we took over The Kangaroo Island Ligurian Bee Co there was a cafe here with a commercial kitchen which we repurposed for ice cream production.”
The honey ice cream is only available on Kangaroo Island, while the company’s full range of honey is available both online and at Island Beehive, their retail outlet on KI, and distribution is in place in Melbourne and Sydney to high-end restaurants.
“We haven’t tried to expand distribution beyond that, partly because we’re still recovering from the bushfires of 2020,” Verity said.
“We produce certified organic honey so we’re dependent on the native flora. During the bushfires, about 70 percent of the native flora on Kangaroo Island was burnt. The vegetation is all regenerating however a lot of the eucalyptus and other trees take seven to 10 years to produce enough nectar for us to get honey again, so it is still some time before we will regain full production.
“I think eventually we’ll look to distribute the ice cream on the mainland. We know the quality is high – we entered the Food SA Awards this year and we were finalists in the New Product category, which was great. We’ll need to look at our packaging if we decide to sell on the mainland.
“At the moment, we’re focused on making a great quality product to sell in the shop, which also means it’s really fresh as we make a new batch every Monday and it’s all sold by the end of the week. The only other place that sells it for us is the SeaLink Terminal, so when people are leaving the island, they can get one final taste.”
Brenton, Verity’s husband, is a third-generation beekeeper, following in the footsteps of his father and grandparents. Their three sons, who are aged between eight and thirteen, are now learning the beekeeping business.
Brenton and Verity also own two other tourism businesses, Little Sahara Adventure Centre and Kangaroo Island Outdoor Action.
“We have really good teams in place in those businesses so most of our focus is on building the honey business, and now the ice cream business,” Verity said.
“Our chief honey packer, Lars, is now making the ice cream for us. He was interested, so he did a Certificate Three in Food Safety, and he’s been participating in all the Dairysafe audits with me. He makes the ice cream every week and he’s great at it.”
To find out more about The Kangaroo Island Ligurian Bee Co, click here.