Konrad Bouffard initially began beekeeping because he wanted to grow and source his own food to cook with authentic ingredients. In 2003, Bouffard built his first house on a quarter acre of land in Round Rock. During the build, he dedicated a third of the land to an expansive garden and four bee hives.
In order to supplement his income as a school teacher, Bouffard and his wife Elizabeth started selling produce and honey from the garden at a farmer’s market in downtown Austin.
“The vegetables didn’t sell well, but the honey just went like gangbusters,” Bouffard said.
The background
The couple grew the business slowly and organically over the last 23 years, Bouffard explained, from bottling honey in their kitchen to selling products in H-E-B grocery stores.
What made customers excited about the product, Bouffard said, was Round Rock Honey’s authenticity, transparency and identity as a local, family-run business.
“I started taking the honey to the different H-E-Bs, delivering [it] by hand,” Bouffard said. “Talking to the store managers, they said, ‘The customers are going crazy. They’re writing us letters about this honey. That doesn’t happen with other products.’”
Respecting the craft
Round Rock Honey sells a variety of locally-sourced honey, including orange cinnamon honey and reserve bourbon honey. The business’s storefront also sells skin care products, soap and beekeeping supplies.
At the honey house, Bouffard offers tours for locals to learn about the bee lifecycle and taste honey. The business also teaches 6-8 beekeeping classes per year, where instructors personalize the curriculum to suit the students’ requests.
“Every single lot of them is sold out within minutes,” Bouffard said. “Our beekeeping school has a reputation now for really being the best beekeeping school in Texas.”
What’s special about it?
Round Rock Honey has hives all across the city, Bouffard said. The hives produce wildflower honey with the marker of success being quality of service, honey and customer experience, according to its website.
While living in Indiana for graduate school, Bouffard worked full time, went to culinary school and worked at a restaurant in the evenings. He later used his culinary training to inform the honey production process.
“I realized that I had an opportunity to blend the honey that [was] different [from] anything in the marketplace at that particular time,” Bouffard said. “And that’s what the customers responded to. ”
What’s next
Round Rock Honey is a Good Food Awards finalist for its vanilla bean honey and miel picante honey. The awards include a blind tasting and judging process, which Bouffard used to participate in for the distilled spirits category. He also encouraged the organization to start a honey category. Round Rock Honey introduced two prior winners of the honey category to beekeeping.
One more thing
Patrons can find Round Rock Honey at H-E-B, Trader Joe’s and Wal-Mart grocery stores, as well as at the Texas Farmers Markets, Waco Downtown Farmers Market and Wolf Ranch Farmers Market.
Customers can also visit the store in person, which Elizabeth Bouffard runs, or order products online.