Moon Shine Trading Co. is a family-owned varietal honey brand founded in 1979 and based in Woodland, California, operating under the parent company Z Specialty Food. The brand is renowned for its 30+ single-origin varietal honeys — including the award-winning Yellow Star Thistle and Northwestern Meadowfoam — sold raw, minimally processed, and Kosher certified, and has been praised by Food & Wine, Saveur, and Sunset magazines.

The Beekeeper's Story

Moon Shine Trading Company was founded in 1979 by Ishai Zeldner, whose passion for beekeeping was ignited while living on Kibbutz Beit Hashita in Israel in 1976. After returning to the US, he studied bees at UC Davis and launched the company with a first batch of 180 pounds of Yellow Star Thistle Honey bottled in his front yard with the help of friends. His wife Amina joined in 1981 and helped shape the brand's identity and marketing. Over the following decades, the company expanded from a single honey to a collection of 30+ varietal honeys sourced from across the US, as well as honey fruit spreads, nut butters, comb honey, and full beehive products. Ishai passed away in June 2018, and his legacy is carried on by his wife Amina and their children Joshua (Nectar Director) and Shoshana (Director of Brand Strategy). In 2019 the family broke ground on a 2.77-acre property in Woodland, CA, ultimately completing a 20,000 sq ft Zero Net Energy production facility and event space. By 2022, The HIVE Tasting Room & Kitchen — California's largest honey and mead tasting room — became fully operational, featuring a honey tasting bar, mead, farm-to-fork menu, and a 2-acre pollinator habitat.