Beekeeping helped Linden Army vet recover from PTSD. Now his honey is in stores nationwide

Just north of Fayetteville in the town of Linden lies Secret Garden Bees, a veteran-owned farm that produces thousands of pounds of raw honey each year.

The one-man force behind the operation is Jim Hartman, 48, a former Army explosives disposal officer whose 10 years of service included two tours in Iraq.

On a recent Thursday morning on the farm, the April sun was hot and the bees were agitated, but Hartman was cool and collected. With his golden retriever, Maverick, beside him and a cup of coffee sweetened with honey in hand, he made his morning rounds on the 23-acre property he and his wife bought in 2014.

Hartman tends to 30 hives housing about 600,000 bees, whose buzzing can be heard over a chorus of birds chirping.

Army veteran began beekeeping to improve his mood, decrease anxiety

He said he started beekeeping about four years ago to manage his post-traumatic stress disorder. At the time, he was a manager at defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton. It was a high-stress job that required frequent travel — a combination that worsened his disorder.

“I was doing just fine until I wasn’t,” he said. “It became a real challenge.”

Hartman said he struggled with anxiety and anger, which exacerbated memory problems caused by a brain injury he suffered when he was hit by a piece of shrapnel. But his beekeeping hobby helped, so he stuck with it.

“Something about the buzzing is calming,” Hartman said. “And you have to be attentive and calm because the bees can sense stress and are reactive to that.”

Since discovering the peace that comes with beekeeping, his PTSD has continued to improve.

“My wife will tell ya, I’ve become a far, far, better husband and father,” Hartman said, gesturing toward the gesturing toward the 174-year-old house that he shares with his wife, Christi Lowe, their 16-year-old daughter and 18-year-old son.

Studies have shown that beekeeping can improve mood and decrease stress in veterans, and several nonprofit and Veterans Affairs programs offer beekeeping classes for former servicemembers.

As PTSD symptoms improved, his beekeeping business grew

As Hartman’s mental health became better, his business blossomed. About two years after purchasing his first two hives, he quit his job to become a full-time beekeeper and began selling his honey in a few The Fresh Market grocery stores. Starting next month, his honey will be sold in all 130 The Fresh Market locations nationwide, he said.

This year, his wife joined him full-time in the business, and he brought on an apprentice, who is also a veteran. Earlier this month, the North Carolina Cooperative Extension named him a Small Farmer of the Year.

Last year, he opened a tiny store, no bigger than a walk-in closet, that overlooks his beehives and wildflower field. The store operates on the honor system — customers can leave cash in a box or scan a QR code to pay for raw honey, jam or eggs.

There are bottles of light and mild clover honey harvested in the spring, and darker, more robust wildflower honey harvested in the fall. Hartman also sells orange blossom honey from a farm in Florida. It’s $10 for an 8-ounce bottle or $20 for a 16-ounce bottle.

He said that one of his favorite ways to enjoy the fruits of his labor is to warm the honey on a sunny windowsill, then pour a tablespoon into bourbon, making his own version of an old fashioned.

Veteran business owner puts military surplus equipment to work

Hartman's honey shares space on the shelves with his scratch-made pear, muscadine, jalapeno-pear and jalapeno-muscadine jams, which have earned first-place ribbons at the Cumberland County fair. The jams are made in a small kitchen on the property, which Hartman said used to be a Navy shower trailer.

His farm is full of military surplus equipment that he’s repurposed for use on the farm. Down the gravel road from the jam kitchen is another trailer that he turned into refrigerated honeycomb storage.

Even his forklift, which was in use last week, moving pallets of Portuguese cork used to seal his glass honey bottles, was purchased from military surplus for next to nothing, he said. Veteran business owners can purchase military surplus through a little-known federal program passed in 2019, the Veterans Small Business Enhancement Act, he said.

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Hartman said he teaches as many other veterans as he can about such business practices and about beekeeping. On Thursday, three veterans were working in the hives and learning the ropes from Hartman.

Beekeeper plans to slow down after reaching next milestones

Beekeeping is hard work — he jokes that his morning workouts at CrossFit Intrinsic are a warmup for hauling 60-pound pails of honey around the farm. Once he’s able to build a bigger and more efficient bottling facility without any debt and get his products into a few Harris Teeter stores, he’ll likely slow down production and work less, he said.

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He said if with his bees, he can continue to support his family and help others, he’s happy.

“What an incredible blessing,” he said. “To be able to help people learn and pass it on is so incredibly satisfying.”

The details

Address: The self-service store is always open at 6930 Moray St. in Linden and Hartman sells honey at large area festivals like the Dogwood Festival in Fayetteville.

Contact: 931-216-8156

On the web: secretgardenbees.com and facebook.com/secretgardenbees

This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Veteran eases PTSD by beekeeping at Secret Garden Bees in Linden, NC