About Us
Our Company
Grandview Farm is owned and operated by Oakes and Kellie Routt along with our three young sons, Archer, Aiden, and Anson. Our farms are located near Hodgenville, Kentucky, the birthplace of Abraham Lincoln. We find joy in keeping our operations and product creation as simple as possible to promote a pure, natural product that people can trust. We sell direct to consumers as well as wholesale.
Our Story
Our Start in Honey
Whether we are working in the fields with a dependence on what it will provide, or recreating in nature with an appreciation for the complex system surrounding us, those times are when we feel we are closest to living as God intended. We have always enjoyed producing our own food. Oakes has been a longtime hunter and fisherman, and as a family we have been growing and preserving our own fruits and vegetables for years. Several years ago, we also started buying honey to reduce our sugar intake and take advantage of the health benefits. It is all part of our efforts to be both sustainable and more health-conscious.
Oakes’ career in ecosystem restoration fostered a greater understanding of pollinator importance and an awareness of pollinator decline. When we built our new home, our desire to support native pollinators led to us installing all native plants in our home landscaping and enrolling in a federal program to install a 3-acre native pollinator plot. A year later, we chose to answer our lifelong curiosity about honey bees by purchasing our first two colonies. We immediately developed a passion for working with the honey bees and are in continuous amazement of these creatures.
Upon the first taste of our own raw, unfiltered honey, we couldn’t believe what we had been missing. It was such a more complex and satisfying flavor than what we had always consumed as “honey”. Like growing up with margarine, then tasting real butter, and finding out what you had been consuming could be called salted plastic, we were a bit upset with what we had always been sold. Curious, we began to research the differences in honey most commonly found on grocery store shelves and raw, unfiltered honey. We shared our honey and the information we had learned with some friends and family. That turned into a demand for honey produced from our hives that we couldn’t supply. The demand and an overwhelming positive feedback fed an existing desire to grow our apiary.
Understanding Honey
Through this experience, we became aware that most people are like us – they haven’t really experienced the incredible flavor of authentic raw, unfiltered honey and don’t really understand why it is claimed to be better. We hear about the health benefits of honey, particularly local, but it is difficult to understand the differences between local and most honey sold on store shelves. Even honey sold in smaller stores appearing to be local may be nothing more than a local honey packager that purchases barrels of honey from out of state or maybe even out of the country. After all, it only has to be packaged in Kentucky to earn the “Kentucky Proud” label. This can be very frustrating to us consumers who want the real deal! With this in mind, we set out to provide real, authentic honey that, short of pulling the comb from the hive yourself, is as close to nature as it comes. We never heat our honey above 110 degrees (that is approximately hot it can get in the hive). We only coarsely strain our honey so that pollen is maintained- that’s the good stuff! And we hold the highest quality standards during harvest so that you get the most natural, purest product that we can provide. We believe that by sharing dependable information with you that the value of local raw honey can be better understood. Check out our resources page for more information on the effects that processing has on raw honey!
Growing Grandview Farm
We saw a need to provide health conscious, eco-friendly families like ours with a healthier, less processed alternative – a source for local, raw, unfiltered, Certified Kentucky Honey. We dreamed of building a business that we can teach our sons the value of hard work and a dependence on God and His resources. Pondering over how to meet these needs, we decided to run with the honey business. This has allowed us to not only cover our cost of producing our own honey, but also install additional pollinator plots to support our honey bees and other native pollinators. As the demand for our honey continues to rise, we knew we needed a way for our bees to make more honey. If you want more honey, you have to have more flowers! So, we went back to where this all started and began planting more native and naturalized flowers. Along with that, we planted American elderberries which is a native fruit we had been combining with our honey for the health benefits it provides for our family. We hope this business will bless others by providing quality products and information, while bringing glory to God through being good stewards of His land and resources.
Our Vision
We aim to build a family business that instills the values of hard work and reliance on God in our sons, blessing others through quality products and responsible stewardship of God’s land.
Our Mission
Our mission is to connect communities with locally sourced products, promoting human health and a deeper appreciation for God’s creations. Bringing joy through high quality natural goods, we strive to make a positive impact on our customers and the world around us.