“Why not?” Dena and Scott Greenwood asked before purchasing a package of bees.
They knew nothing about bees, so Scott promptly created his own crash course in beekeeping. That was three years ago.
Today, Scott’s bees produce the honey Dena uses in her handcrafted small-batch goods, including candles, soaps, lotions, lip balms, face scrubs, and body creams. The couple’s “Why not?” attitude is, however, the key ingredient to the success of Lambertville-based Eight Hands Farm & Bee Company.
The seed for Eight Hands was planted in 2015 when Scott and Dena’s daughters were babies. Concerned about the black smoke wafting from the candles she burned, Dena wondered aloud why she couldn’t make her own candles. How hard could it be?
Scott agreed, so they made their first candle on the kitchen stove, using beeswax instead of the black smoke-producing paraffin. Dena was hooked. She began gifting candles to friends, eventually selling them at work, and finally on Etsy.
Why stop there? On a road trip, the couple mulled over additional business possibilities. “The only idea of his I tossed out was raising water buffalos for cheese,” Dena laughs, “because it seemed farfetched.” Raising bees, however, seemed reasonable.
At the time, Dena was a hairdresser in a Florida beach town, but that was not a deterrent to pursuing Scott’s childhood dream of owning a farm. Since they could not have the farm they wanted in Florida, Scott, a financial trader, arranged a job transfer to Princeton, and the couple landed on a long-abandoned 10-acre farm outside Lambertville. It was love at first sight.
Today, Scott happily trades his business suit at the end of the day for a beekeeper suit, and tends to the bees, sheep, chickens, and produce. Dena exchanged her hair-cutting scissors for candle- and soap-making tools. She has her hands in everything, from hand pouring wax to designing labels, photographing and packing products, and shipping them out. Dena also mixes her own seasonal and year-round scents, from customer favorite Circa 1789 (the year her farm was founded) to Rosemary Sea Salt, French Linen, and Tobacco Bay Leaf.
“Her candles smell better than any candles I have bought anywhere,” neighbor Shannon Lingerfield effuses. “Dena takes great care to make each product to perfection. Knowing they are not mass-produced in a factory makes me feel great about using them.” She even manages to capture the spirit of where her products were created: an airy barn with exposed wood beams and sunlight pouring in through windows, surrounded by rolling fields, babbling brooks, and laughing children. Her love for interior design is apparent in the way her products naturally elevate and beautify the spaces they occupy.
Although Dena entered a highly saturated market, failure was never a thought. Dena notes, “If one of my ideas doesn’t work, that’s okay. But if it does, sometimes I wind up with a bestseller.”
Last fall Dena transformed her barn studio into a shop. For six weeks, it became a modern-day community gathering place. Dena recalls, “People stood in the store talking to each other. Everybody knew each other. They left happy. And they came back.” When some unforeseeable setbacks arose, Dena closed shop and altered course. She found other ways to serve customers.
Locals can order online for pickup. Dena leaves products in hand-stamped bags at the back door of the farmhouse. Lambertville resident Lisette Ortiz notes, “Picking up your goodies from Dena’s feels like a special mission for the soul. Eight Hands almost single-handedly helped me feel good through the lockdown. It was a simple light in the dark.”
Customers can also buy Dena’s handcrafted products on Saturdays at the Greenwoods’ seasonal farm stand, along with produce, honey, eggs, and flowers. A trip to Eight Hands means a drive through picturesque rural Hunterdon County, ending at Dena’s farm, where visitors are treated to a bucolic view of the barn, hills, and fields. Customers might be lucky enough to catch a glimpse of shepherd Scott tending his livestock, Dena emerging from her barn with hands full of bags, or their girls frolicking about. But even if visitors do not actually see this, it is all packed into the products they bring home.
Beth Zarret shares stories about the people and places in her beloved towns of New Hope and Lambertville. @bethzarret
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