I have this thing about honey shops and guess what, I made a bee-line (excuse the pun) for the Clifford's Honey Farm.
This family run business is right at the end of a fairly rugged rural track which is worth the detour and the rutted dirt that you kick up. I find it really wonderful to see a family business like this, because honey is such a magical treat of nature.
The showroom was empty, but two lovely ladies staffed the shop with smiles and lots of helpful tips. Being that we came in from Western Australia and that we could not take any honey back home with us, for biosecurity and quarantine reasons, we still got into the tastings.
Most of their honey traces its origin back to the "mallee" tree, a species of eucalypts which grows with multiple stems that emanate out from the base of the tree. I tried the Coastal Mallee Honey first which was a light honeycomb flavour and delicious. But the next one I tasted was the Purple-Flowered Mallee. This was my winner. It had a really great toffee-like taste.
The history room downstairs was interesting, but I could not help feeling the whole space looked more like a Year 3 classroom, than a retail shop. It would have made the room infinitely more appealing to have it dressed out professionally. Trust me, I've been to many "honey shops" and you could apply many lessons from them to here.
Nonetheless, I like my time here. It was informative and fun.