Meet Our Team

Originally from Southern Oregon, Zach moved up to Olympia and began keeping honeybees in 2004. A couple years later, he began working for Mike Juhl “the Bee Man” and took over the business in 2017 when Mike decided to retire. Zach's passions are beekeeping, horticulture, salmon fishing, birding, hiking, carpentry and homesteading.

Steph was born and raised in
the suburbs of Detroit. She wandered out west in 2003 and began studying forest
ecology and ecological agriculture at The Evergreen State College.  She orchestrate's bee routes all summer, does native plant habitat restoration work in the fall and winter, and has a practice doing natural hoof care for horses year round. Steph loves growing food, doing fiber arts and collage, playing music, and sending snail mail.

Rebecca was born and raised in the Colorado foothills, transplanted to the PNW in 1999 and hasn't looked back. She is a mom to two unique and curious teenage boyz who teach her more every year than she does them. Rebecca has been digging in the dirt professionally for over 25 years and is glad for a chance to move into a less physically demanding job at CVC, while still farming part time. When not working you can find her adventuring with her kids, dancing, wandering the forest, silversmithing and concocting herbal remedies. She is grateful for this human experience and all the lessons along the way, even the tough ones.

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Raskal is a soil health analyst, mushroom cultivation consultant, and seasonal yellowjacket collector based in Rochester. He focuses on helping farmers and growers integrate fungi into their systems to achieve enhanced resilience and overall health. His seasonal yellowjacket work allows him to share the wonders of the more unappreciated organisms in ecosystems with communities in SW Washington. Raskal also homesteads with his wife and two daughters holistically raising cows, sheep, and pigs on pasture.

Kellie is a lifelong Olympia resident. She fell in love with bees in 2009 when she built her first top bar beehive. She planned to keep two or three hives, but late that summer one of her colonies swarmed. Zach showed up to get Kellie's swarm out of the neighbor's tree, and she's been hooked ever since. She now keeps as many colonies as she can capture.

Mat grew up in rural Eastern Washington near the Grand Coulee dam.  He got an Industrial Design degree from University of Washington in the 90’s and worked in the Seattle area for 18 years designing and building furniture.  He got out of the city and moved to Lewis county in 2010.  When he’s not catching bugs he likes to collect old records, make Jewelry, and go hounding for rocks and minerals.

Stella is the youngest member of our crew, and definitely the most enthusiastic. She loves going on swarm calls, holding drones and educating folks on how they don't have stingers, being in charge of the smoker, extracting honey, and tasting all the different flavors of honey throughout the season.

Hi! I’m Steven. I grew up in Lincoln Nebraska, and have been living in Olympia since 2016. I love to make all kinds of things, especially music & art. I feel passionately about the planet, art, mutual aid, harm reduction, plants, food, water, and living!