Our process

At New Day Meadery, each limited edition mead is handcrafted in small-batches to ensure the delicate flavors and aromas of fresh fruit and honey shine through for your drinking pleasure. We work closely with small, family-owned Indiana farms to ensure that only the very best ingredients are used to craft our fine honey wines.

Meet Our Growers | Working in the Field | Inside the Meadery

We are happy to take you along with us through orchard, apiary and Meadery to see our process and to meet the dedicated professionals that strive to provide you with excellent tasting mead. Please follow the links below for a further look into what goes into creating New Day Meadery's fine honey wines!

Meet Our Growers

Wildflower Ridge Honey
David Barrickman –
Master Beekeeper
Anderson, IN
765-623-4633
pbarrickman@comcast.net

David Barrickman, Owner of Wildflower Ridge Honey, is much more than our honey provider. David has nurtured our interest in bee keeping and encouraged us in our dreams to start our own Meadery for the many years we have been fortunate enough to know him. A Master Beekeeper, he is both passionate about the trade and dedicated to helping all those who desire to learn about it. Young and old, hobbyist and professional, David treats everyone with the same dedication, warmth and sly sense of humor that makes you know you’re in the presence of a real gem. You don’t run into people like David very often in life, and we count ourselves infinitely better for knowing him.

Did we mention his honey? This stuff is liquid gold, which is why we use his honey to make all our Mead. As we grow larger, we know that we will exceed his supply. David is already working to identify those who we can add to our coveted family of growers. Again, his generous nature and genuine desire to promote great beekeeping continues.

We highly encourage you to get a hold of some of his honey – we promise to leave enough to share. You can find David’s Wildflower Ridge Honey at several farmer markets and from David, himself. Give him a call and he will be happy to help you.

Ingredient	Year
Honey	2005, 2006, 2007, 2008

The Prelock Family –
Blueberry Growers
Lafayette, IN
www.prelockblueberryfarm.com

It is people like the Prelocks that makes being in the meadmaking business such a joy. Not only are they a terrific family, they also gently coax their blueberry orchard into producing the most beautiful, succulent berries that we have ever tasted. The Prelocks are in their 11th year of operation (entirely you-pick) and have 8 acres of blueberries at different levels of production.

The Prelocks are known far and wide for their amazingly tasty blueberries. They are also known for the fact they do not use insecticides. Working hard together to maintain a healthy orchard, they are able to produce top-notch berries without the worry that such chemicals bring. With so many children out in the orchard with their families, it makes us all the more happy about the Prelocks’ choice.

Their insecticide-free approach means a shorter season than some other orchards, but they will tell you that the sacrifice is well worth it for such terrific berries. If you would like to enjoy the fruits of their labor and pick your own tasty berries next June, please go to their website: www.prelockblueberryfarm.com. I’m sure they would be happy to see you!

Ingredient	Year
Blueberry	2005, 2006, 2007

Katie and David
Guenthenspberger –
Raspberry and Peach Growers
Daleville, IN
765-378-1064

Katie and David Guenthenspberger are small farmers in Daleville, IN that have decided to diversify their family business by growing fresh fruit for folks like you and I to thoroughly enjoy - and boy do we! The red raspberries they provide us with are simply some of the tastiest we’ve ever had.

The Guenthenspbergers are just the kind of people we like to work with; local folks who work hard to make their dream of maintaining a small family farm come true by growing fresh fruit and selling it to the public. We are so happy that we found them and are thrilled to be in be a larger-quantity customer that they can count on, year after year.

Part of New Day Meadery’s mission is to support local, small family farms that want to provide the public with fresh fruit and/or honey. Being a small grower in the fruit business can be tough. Having a reliable customer that you know needs a larger quantity each year helps with the ups and downs of such a business.

If you like fresh raspberries (and they have black, red and golden for your tasting pleasure), give them a call at 765-378-1064 or visit them on the web at www.dkgimplement.com. The summer raspberry season starts in late June and starts up again in mid-August, so plan ahead. That way you can enjoy some fresh raspberries with your Dry Red Raspberry Mead! Many thanks to Katie and David!!!

Ingredient	Year
Red Raspberry	2005, 2006
Peach	2006

Garwood Orchards –
Peach and Plum Growers
LaPorte, IN
1-800-588-0260
www.garwoodorchard.com/

Garwood Orchard is a family owned U-pick orchard and farmer market located in LaPorte, IN. The Garwoods have owned their farm since 1831, and have operated their farmer market since the 1950’s. They grow approximately 200 acres of apples and about 150 acres of peaches, plums, raspberries, pumpkins and various vegetables. We take special interest in their peaches and plums, as they make a great addition to our mead varieties.

The Garwoods are one of our northern-most grower. Stone fruits, such as peaches and plums, are tough and go in our area. In some years, the wildly fluctuating temperatures that occur during our winters are just too much for the tender flower buds to handle. This results in complete crop failure for some years. Therefore, we look to orchards both in the northern and southern regions of Indiana where winter temperatures are more stable to ensure a yearly crop of these yummy fruits. When we do have good stone fruit crops here we will buy fruit from many growers, both locally and from northern and southern Indiana.

I’m sure the Garwoods would love to see you at their orchard, or at any of the off-site farmer markets that they attend. Check out their website or give them a call to discover all of the great things they have to offer – they open in April. Thanks Garwood Family!

Ingredient	Year
Peach	2005, 2007, 2008
Plum	2005, 2007, 2008
Apples	2007

Cedar Creek Produce –
Red and Black Raspberry Growers
Leo, IN
260-627-5239
www.localharvest.org/farms/M16287

Cedar Creek Produce, owned and operated by Amy and Randy Slentz, is a small fruit and vegetable farm emphasizing on quality and freshness. They have strawberry, red raspberry, black raspberry, blueberry, and blackberry u-pick and pre picked available in season. They also grow all the summer vegetables and melons, and are becoming recognized for their delicious sweet corn.

They have brown eggs and honey (from their own bees, made from the nectar of the fruit flowers that we grow). They start with asparagus on April 15th, along with greenhouse tomatoes, red raspberries, and strawberries that are mouth watering. They also sell large potted tomato plants and hanging baskets of tomatoes, flowers, strawberries, and mums. They do an extensive display of pumpkins & fall decorations with every color and size of pumpkin available, wired & watered squash and gourds, straw bales, corn shocks and mums starting Sept. 15th.

We work with the Slentzs to garner their delicious black and red raspberries for two of our most coveted varieties. I’m sure you’ll like to get a hold of these beauties for your own culinary needs, so give them a call (260-627-5239) or visit their website www.localharvest.org/farms/M16287 to get these gems while they have them!

Ingredient	Year
Red Raspberry	2007
Black Raspberry	2007

Blueberry Acres –
Red and Black Raspberry Growers
LaOtto, IN
260-693-2080
www.blueberryacres.net

Jeremy Lutter, owner of Blueberry Acres, has joined our family of growers by providing us with his luscious black and red raspberries! Our customers just can’t get enough of these two mead varieties, so we are very thankful to have Jeremy on our team.

Blueberry Acres, as well as Cedar Creek Produce, represent more of our northern growers. With the wildly fluctuating temperatures in Central Indiana, we have to seek out growers from all over the state for all of our fruits to be certain that we have great fruit to make our handcrafted honey wines. Also, the larger we grow, the more family farms we’ll be partnering with – what a great way to grow!

Blueberry Acres grow, in addition to the raspberries, well, blueberries of course! They have 10 acres of well established blueberry bushes for you to wander through, picking and eating to your heart’s content. I’m sure he can get you some of his raspberries, but you better get there fast before they’re gone!

Give Jeremy a call at 260-693-2080 or visit his website www.blueberryacres.net to sign up for his newsletter so you too can be in the know when those wonderful berries are ready for the picking!