shine Trading is focused on the best varietals of honey from WARMING TO CHANGE
throughout the country. In 2006, the family created Z Special- Josh returned to California in 2010. The business had man-
ty Food as an umbrella company to oversee their two brands aged to weather the Great Recession of 2008, thanks in
as well as their custom packing business.
part to the family convincing Ishai to hire someone to help
They stressed quality, taking care to heat the large vats of manage the warehouse and production, and the market
honey slowly at lower temperatures to better preserve its nat- had softened as colony collapse and the plight of honey-
ural enzymes, and using a specific filtration size that keeps bees became mainstream news.
dirt out but allows pollen granules through. That sort of at-
Josh started at the bottom, labeling jars, working in the
tention to detail stands out in an industry that ranks third in warehouse, learning about all of the details Ishai had over-
rates of food fraud, after milk and olive oil, according to U.S. seen the last 30 years.
Pharmacopeia’s Food Fraud Database. In 2018, The Economist
“I think the biggest (obstacle to profitability) was just
reported that while honey consumption had doubled since the my dad’s unwillingness to let go,” Josh says. “He really did
1990s, production had dropped 35 percent — enticing corrupt have that sole-proprietor attitude like, ‘Nobody can do it
producers to dilute their product with other sugars like corn like me,’ and that really crippled the business for a long
syrup.
time.”
“The value of getting honey
Josh’s plan for growth was
from them is that it’s a trust-
two-pronged, with the first
ed source,” says Patrick Mul-
pointed inward. The company
vaney, co-owner and head chef
needed more employees, and
of Mulvaney’s B&L in Sacra-
it needed to offer better perks
mento. “You know that they are
to retain them. He worked to
giving you what they said they
get the company’s minimum
are producing.”
wage up to $15 an hour and
By 2009, Ishai and Amina
sought to offer staff not just
were thinking about retire-
a better benefits package, but
ment. With little interest from
also more autonomy.
Patrick Mulvaney, co-owner and head chef,
either of their children in tak-
Josh hired Amanda Pow-
Mulvaney’s B&L
ing over the business, they
ell six years ago. She started
decided to have it evaluated
out labeling jars and learning
in preparation for selling. As is often the tale in these sorts how to process honey. Powell speaks fondly of Ishai’s mi-
of situations, the news they received was heartbreaking: The cromanaging ways, tearing up a bit at the mention of his
company was worth $200,000-$300,000, little more than the name, while acknowledging that Josh is “more mellow.”
inventory in stock and certainly not enough to retire on.
While Z Specialty isn’t her first gig in food manufacturing,
“I was just like, no,” Josh says, who was at the time finish- having worked in coffee and rice warehouses previously,
ing his bachelor’s degree at the University of Colorado Boulder. she came in with no industry knowledge. Now six years in
“Our parents put 30-plus years into this thing, and I saw how and in her late 20s, she is the warehouse’s production man-
much they really poured their lives into it when I was growing ager and is looking forward to taking on staff and a more
up — even before I was growing up. It was that moment when supervisory role as the company grows.
I was like, ‘OK, I’m going to move back to Davis, I’m going to
“A lot of people my age are still bouncing from job to
learn the business and help it grow and see what happens.’”
job, wondering, ‘What am I going to do with my life?’” Pow-
“The value of getting honey from
(Z Specialty Food) is that it’s a
trusted source. You know that they
are giving you what they said they
are producing.”
Amina Harris and Ishai Zeldner launched Moonshine Trading Company in the 1980s. Josh Zeldner learned
the family business from his father, Ishai, who died last year. photos courtesy of the zeldner family
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