About Me
Hello friends.
My name is Monique and I started Bees & Teas as a way to support my passion for working with plants and being creative. I was born and raised in Petaluma, CA and love being outdoors, in nature, and around plants. I have a B.S. in environmental engineering but since graduating have spent my time in agriculture - growing a diverse mix of flowers, herbs, and vegetables on various farms and saving bees. I have spent the last five years studying herbalism on the side and have decided to follow that path. I currently reside in San Diego, CA with my husband, our dog, two cats, three quail, three rabbits, twenty chickens, hundreds of koi and tilapia, and thousands of bees! I now run Bees & Teas full-time while my husband runs his own business - We Save Bees - rescuing honeybee hives all over southern California.
Bees & Teas Herbal Apothecary
My mom came up with the name Bees & Teas - “bees” representing sustainably grown plants that support pollinators and the environment and “teas” representing the herbal products I would be creating. Who would have predicted that I would actually end up with a partner who saves and rescues bees for a living? Bees & Teas Herbal Apothecary is a line of small-batch, handcrafted herbal products intentionally formulated and created by me. I grow or sustainably forage what herbs I can, and sustainably source the rest.
Living the dream...
Although we’ve built a beautiful urban paradise here in San Diego, we are quickly outgrowing our suburban home. The dream for us is to own some property to expand our farm growing herbs, flowers, and specialty vegetables with the bees, chickens, goats, and a small orchard. I would love to be able to grow or sustainably forage 90% of the herbs I use in my products, but for now (with our limited space) I do what I can. Our goal is to grow both of our businesses (and our savings) over the next few years, so that we can start living the dream. And we’d love to have you all along for the journey!