2 Wild Souls: Torrington couple Pierre and Glenice Armand diverse with honey mead

While not quite literally, the pair realised they needed to reinvent themselves and began to learn the art of brewing on their now reduced 283 hectare property, Fairview.

Heavy timbered country with yellow box, stringy bark and gums may not be productive for livestock but it is vital food for bees.

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"The bee farmers like the country here because of the timber so for the access to the sites they used to give us a five gallon tin of honey per year," Mr Armand said.

Such a quantity was too much to eat so Mr Armand used his French heritage and followed in his grandfather's footsteps making his own liquor with the produce around him.

After up to a decade of experimenting, Mr Armand refined his recipe for a successful sparkling mead, an alcoholic beverage created by fermenting the honey with local spring water.

Their first commercial batch was dated in 2015 and in the last 15 to 16 months the pair have taken their 2 Wild Souls products to the open market.

Now sourcing 44 gallon drums of honey at a time, it creates about 900 litres of mead or 1200 bottles.

"We were going to do it in the late 90s and then the drought hit and then we were going to do it in the early 2000s and then another drought followed and we couldn't," Ms Armand said.

"I knew nothing of mead, I didn't know it existed but Pierre started to investigate.

"We didn't expect it to go off as fast as it did because it's so different.

"What we are finding is a large percentage of people when you ask them would you like a taste? They say no thank you, I can't stand the stuff because they've had the flat cherry tacky mead.

"But because Pierre's is sparkling and refreshing you drink it like you do your bubbles, your cider, your beer. You chill it and you enjoy it with a bbq."

It takes up to two years for a brew to mature, but just like champagne, it improves over time. It is a natural carbonation and a natural flavour.

As a result of the brewing technique to retain as much natural flavour, their mead does have some silt, which is able to be retained and used for cooking.

Not only did they have to encourage consumers to taste their product, they also educated them.

"We are finding now since we have put it to the public and going to the food and wine festivals and markets that some of the women I would think would like that crystal clear look are appreciating it's non-preservative it hasn't been tampered with and they are not really caring about the sediment," Ms Armand said.

"A good drink to me is one you are going to have with your food and it cleans your mouth," Mr Armand added.

"It allows you to pick up another flavour in what you are going to eat. It's a matching of flavours and cancelling out one with another one and starting with another one.

"People appreciate the natural side of it. Honey is not pasteurised, it's not filtered, as I get it from the bee farmer I make it."

Not only do they attend markets but their product is available in boutique bottle shops including in Tenterfield, Inverell, Sydney and Lismore.

They also educated themselves during a food pairing at the Railway Tavern in Glen Innes and found which flavours best suited certain meal types.

"By the time that mead has been in its bottle maturing, it's really a surprise because some of the honey has got non-fermented sugars so it'll be lower sparkle and sweeter finish," Mr Armand said.

"The stringy bark was almost flat, it just had a tiny tickle, and now it's no where near as sweet as it used to be."

"Going back six months ago or even eight months ago there was only very few people that actually liked the stringy bark and now we are finding there is a lot more sales on the white stringy because they are enjoying it more," Ms Armand said.

Relying on a product from a slow growing tree and also requiring extended periods to mature their mead means the Armand's forecast their production years in advance.

Recent fires around the Torrington area, some just metres from their brewing shed, has resulted in many of the trees needed for their honey production to be damaged.

Add to that without boundary fences in some of their paddocks, their remaining small cattle herd have been forced around their house and are now using water from the same spring water supplies needed for the mead.

"I think the blossom is going to be buggered for two or three years at least because the fire has gone right up through the tree tops," Mr Armand said.

"The bee farmers are going to have a terrible time. I think the yellow box being more isolated and not having that bark to take the fire up to the top I think will recover quicker but anything that is in forest environment is going to be cancelled out until full recovery I reckon in a few years."

Sourcing honey from alternative locations could completely alter their product.

"We want to stick with the honey from the timber because it's farm chemical free," he said.

"Already with the drought the bee farmers had to take their bees down south.

"You don't know what it is going to taste like so you would have to start with an experimental batch."

He said recent bushfires were regrettably an opportunity if the landholder was given back the right to manage the fuel on their property.

"If we could do what we used to do here which is burn off late winter early spring and get a steady fire running underneath, it would be fine," he said.