Honey company with a deaf workforce creates a buzz in Point Breeze

This article is published in Post-Gazette on December 27, 2022. Written by Gretchen McKay

Jon Mosholder didn’t set out to be a honey farmer. That was his mom’s dream, when she left her job as a health care consultant to start Bumbleberry Farms 11 years ago.

Though Karen Mosholder had just a couple of hives in her Somerset backyard, she had a knack for concocting artisan honey cream spreads. 

Her son pitched in here and there, packing orders when he was on break from Rochester Institute of Technology, where he studied business administration and also, later, while working in finance for various companies in Pittsburgh. 

But he couldn’t imagine making a career from honeybees and the thick, golden honey liquid they make from nectar. Sweet, but no thanks, he said.

In 2021, Jon was working as a financial analyst for the nonprofit Communications Services for the Deaf in Columbus, Ohio, serving a community that includes him, his twin sister, Caitlin, and his wife, Kristi.

Then his mother announced she was looking for a buyer so she might finally retire. His entrepreneurial spirit suddenly kicked in and he asked, “‘Would you consider me?’”

“My dad had a family business with his two brothers,” he explained in sign language through his mother, “and I always wanted to work for myself.”

He’s also passionate about helping others with profound hearing loss to find jobs. So passionate, in fact, that when he took over the company from his mother this summer, he hired four deaf workers to help as he relocated Bumbleberry Farms’ packing and shipping operation from Somerset County to Pittsburgh’s Point Breeze neighborhood.

While the bulk of the honey is sourced from the same beekeepers the family has worked with for years, demand had vastly outgrown what the Mosholders’ 20 hives could produce. It’s now bottled and packed in a 3,600-square-foot space at XFactory, a coworking/maker space for small entrepreneurs in North Point Breeze.

Each of its five flavors — determined by the bees’ nectar sources — comes from a different producer to keep them pure. The raw honey arrives in 5-gallon buckets, is transferred to four 25-gallon tanks and gently heated to 120 degrees to liquify it for bottling, 16 golden ounces at a time.

The bottles are then corked, sealed with food-grade wax, labeled and packed into boxes for sale at HomeGoods and T.J. Maxx, Whole Foods and other retailers across the country. Bumbleberry Farms also sells its products, including its signature spreads, online at bumbleberryfarms.com.

Many of the 60 or so tenants of the 250,000-square-foot former industrial building lean toward tech and science or light industrial manufacturing. Still, the honey company has a few food-related neighbors at XFactory. Nancy Tabbara of Tabbara Artisan Chocolate has made her handcrafted bonbons and chocolate squares on the second floor since 2018. It’s also where Kate Romane prepares veggie-forward meals for her catering company, Black Radish Kitchen.

Wild Purveyors, a wholesaler that specializes in local pastured meats, artisan cheeses and seasonal foraged foods such as wild mushrooms and ramps, is another longtime resident. Nearby is Pittsburgh food photographer Adam Milliron’s studio.

“They’ve been great,” Mosholder said of his new neighbors during a tour of the space.

WELLY Bottle, located on the same floor, welcomed Bumbleberry with a custom water bottle, and another tenant designed the happy little bee on the company’s label.

The small staff at Bumbleberry appreciates the support, and their boss. All of the part-time employees have ties to Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf, where Mosholder’s wife works as a high school English teacher.

Communication barriers and sometimes outright discrimination can make it difficult for hearing-impaired people to find jobs, he said. Data from The National Deaf Center bears that out, showing just 53.3% of deaf-disabled people employed in 2017 compared to 75.8% of hearing people. That makes employee Lori Cain of Monroeville bristle with frustration.

“The Deaf can do everything but hear,” the 54-year-old signed with passion in Bumbleberry’s sunlit production room, with Mosholder nodding his head in agreement.

She and co-worker Kelly Nolla had just spent several hours corking and dipping bottles of honey into pots of hot wax to seal them. It was happy work, with the women’s fingers flying in animated conversation as 21-year-old Chad D’Amore of Cranberry packed the bottles into boxes. 

“I love this job because it’s a positive experience,” Nolla, 52, of Pleasant Hills, signed as Mosholder translated. “It feels like a family. It’s the most amazing place I have ever worked.”

“There’s a lot of laughing,” agreed Cain. “And I get to work with my best friend!”

Now that she’s a grandmother, Cain also appreciates the flexible hours. One of Karen Mosholder’s original goals when she started Bumbleberry more than a decade ago was to make it easier for women with children to work.  

“My motto in life has always been be kind and generous and curious and do good where you stand,” she said. 

She sees that same sense of duty and vision in her son, which makes his succession one of her greatest joys.

“It’s so rewarding,” she said. “There’s nothing better than being able to share the joy of your life with the people you love.”

In addition to growing the business and making Bumbleberry Farms a household hame, Jon Mosholder hopes to eventually start an apiary on the roof of the XFactory to make super-local honey. He also hopes to start making their signature spreads on site — perhaps down the hall — instead of in Somerset, and spreading the sweetness through pop-ups and farmers markets. 

“He’s an innovator,” his mother said with a proud smile.  “Always interested in different things.” 

“I can’t replace my mother, but I’ll try my best to make her proud,” he said.

Gretchen McKay: gmckay@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1419 or on Twitter @gtmckay or IG @pittsburghpgfood.

First Published December 27, 2022, 6:00am