HAMAKUA, Hawai'i — While Mary Poppins used a spoonful of sugar, Richard Spiegel prefers a dollop of honey when dispensing his philosophy.

The self-proclaimed retired hippie, who sports a full gray beard, has been producing organic kiawe honey for more than 25 years. The 65-year-old can't keep up with the demand, but he doesn't consider that success.

Instead, he wants to inspire other farmers to look for creative, eco-friendly and sustainable methods to produce good food.

"I've been trying to change the world since forever. I started as a lawyer, but that wasn't doing it," he said.

The New Jersey native finally found the answer when he combined his passion with lessons from his great-grandfather.

"I remember him saying the best thing a farmer can put in the Earth is his hands," he said. "And I realize change starts within the individual, not entire groups. So I started this as an experiment, just to see if I could."

The result is Volcano Island Honey Co., its award-winning Rare Hawaiian Organic White Honey, and an opportunity for Spiegel to spread his philosophies about ecology, sustainable farming and integrated food production.

The company, with its headquarters on a converted hog farm, offers tours to students, visitors, neighbors and fellow farmers.

Along with myriad facts about bees — the queens live about three years, while the average worker-bee life span is just three to six weeks — Spiegel serves up tastes of his silky smooth and succulently sweet product.

Spiegel said he relies on calculated timing and harvesting methods to get the honey straight from the bees. The honey is organic, unheated and untreated. It contains no chemicals or additives.

National Geographic Traveler magazine called it "some of the best honey in the entire world." The company received a 2007 Silver Sofi for outstanding new product from the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade.

Spiegel tends 150 to 175 hives, or colonies, each with up to 50,000 bees year round. He only harvests the bees' surplus honey, allowing the insects to feast on their own pure confection. Other commercial beekeepers often gather all the honey the bees produce, leaving the insects to eat a fortified sugar formula instead of their own honey.

At times, Spiegel houses the hives some 2,200-feet above sea level on the Hamakua Coast on the north end of the Big Island, or in citrus orchards further to the east in Laupahoehoe.

But for much of the year, the hives are dotted throughout an ancient kiawe forest adjacent to the oceanside village of Puako on the Kohala Coast.

Kiawe trees, a Hawai'i relative of mesquite, are desert trees and typically flower between May and October.

"The honey that comes out of there is totally unique. A forest like that does not exist any other place on this Earth," he said. "It's a classic oasis. It's the entire basis of this company."

The pristine Puako forest, fed by an underground aquifer, was partially consumed by a brushfire in late October, although Spiegel's hives were saved.

Authorities suspect arson but no arrests have been made. Spiegel doesn't hold a grudge, despite having to downsize his staff because the bees aren't able to produce as much honey with fewer flowers in the forest.

He's optimistic the forest will regenerate within five years and in the meantime will focus on spreading his ideas.

"I still want to educate people and I want to use a real-world example. We're attempting to live this high level of integrity," he said. "We have to think about what we're doing on this planet and try to raise consciousness to a higher level."

And Spiegel is happy to do that one student and one farmer at a time.

"You know the saying, 'You are what you eat?' It's right there in nature. I'm trying to get people to think about that," he said. "You can give them the seed and it will be up to them to nurture it. That may be the best thing we can do."

Make a difference. Donate to The Advertiser Christmas Fund.