"I found you!"

The statement was one of celebration as Flossie Njama walked through the doors of Hilty's Bee Yards and Discount Groceries. Njama is an author and RN and on this day, her visit to rural Middletown is spurred by her quest for honey. Honey - more specifically Hilty's honey - is one of the key ingredients in Flossie's Turmeric Tea, a health drink of her own formulation that is finding demand in health-conscious communities. The St. Louis resident was a customer at Hilty's former location in rural Bowling Green and when Hilty's moved to its new Montgomery County location, customers like her followed.

Honey is what put Albert Hilty and family on the map in rural Bowling Green and its been a driving force ever since.

"I was born and raised on the place (in Pike County)," said Albert Hilty, co-owner of Hilty's Bee Yards, when reflecting on the business's origins.

Hilty's grandfather bought the original homestead.

"I grew up milking cows and feeding hogs," he said. "We worked on the farm."

When his siblings grew old enough to drive horse-powered teams in the fields, Albert got a job at a local pallet shop.

"I got experience there that helped me in the unplanned things that came later," he says.

One of those unplanned things was the opening of a butcher shop with his brother in autumn of 1989. A local resident had been providing the service for neighbors and he would approach the Hiltys.

"He came to me and said, 'I think this would be a good business for somebody to get into'," Albert recalls.

Business was good and it steadily grew.

"We kept building on a wing here; a wing there," he said.

As the footprint expanded, so did the product that put Hilty’s on the map: Honey.

Albert started his first hive in 1984 and in the early '90s and with that, honey was growing wings. Growth posed a small challenge, he recalls.

"We needed a label to put on our jars," he said.

Facing that reality, and out of sheer necessity, a name was born.

Hilty's Bee Yards.

"I never thought it would grow."

But it did, in square footage - growing from 4,200 square feet in Bowling Green to over 13,000 in the new rural Middletown locale.

Along the way, products were added.

"We started making some homemade jams and jellies to sell with the honey," he said.

Likewise for pickled foods. And the business earned a reputation, locally and regionally.

Today, Hilty's has a roster of wholesale customers for their impressive roster of products: Nearly 60 kinds of jams and jellies (plus private label varieties), 15 different pickled foods, pie fillings, apple sauce, barbecue sauce, locally raised pork and beef, cheeses and bulk baking supplies. A line of cheeses. Baking supplies. Add to that the products that started it all: honey and bee supplies, which even includes package bees.

Beyond that, Hilty’s acquired Pennsylvania-based Old Hickory Flavoring and its vanilla extract line earlier this year. It was a product that Albert knew well and saw as a good fit.

“We had been selling their products,” he said. “We had a good demand for it.”

The vanilla can be purchased at the store, and Hilty’s is continuing partnerships with Old Hickory’s existing clients.

And included in the roster are some hard-to-find offerings, like einkorn flour, spelt, gluten-free flours. Add to that an ever-changing lineup of discount groceries, and Hilty’s is a must-stop.

As for Flossie, Albert is glad he has customers like her.

“She and her friends have been coming up to our place for years,” he said. “They have all followed us (to Middletown).”

It’s been a positive move for the Hilty family, including Albert, wife Margaret and their 10 children.

“We’ve added a lot of new customers,” he said. “We’ve been blessed. We couldn’t have made things work out like we did on our own.”

Want to shop? Stop by Hilty’s Bee Yards. It’s located at 608 State Hwy. A, Middletown. Hours are Monday through Friday, 8 a.m.-6 p.m.; Saturday, 8 a.m.-3 p.m. They are closed Sunday.