Everyone has tasted honey. Sweet, golden, and familiar. But very few have ever had the chance to bite into a honeycomb—the pure, chewy treasure that bees craft from nature’s bounty. Such opportunities are rare today, reserved mostly for children, women, and young people in remote villages. In the past, village bees produced honeycombs in abundance, but now, spotting one on a tree is a rare delight.
In the Kudumiriya area, adjacent to the Sinharaja Forest, we met a man who is changing that—bringing honeycombs back to life and making it accessible to those who rarely get to taste it.
Duminda Kumara, 47, is a professional beekeeper who has turned the forest’s natural abundance into both a livelihood and a labor of love. Kudumiriya, a small village surrounded by lush greenery, sits at the edge of the Sinharaja forest, where flowers bloom year-round. For decades, Duminda has nurtured bees that collect nectar from this extraordinary ecosystem, producing honey known for its medicinal value and rich, unique flavor.
“What I had in mind was simple,” he explains. “I wanted to start a honey business using the forest honey from Sinharaja. I began on a small scale, gradually expanding my hives and creating a small bee community. I’ve been doing this for about 30 years. Because the bees collect nectar from so many different flowers, the honey is highly nutritious and flavourful. Officials have confirmed this.”
For the past decade, Duminda focused on selling honey. But recently, he decided to experiment with honeycombs. Rather than cutting and packing it the conventional way, he lets bees build honeycombs directly inside clean, jam-jar-shaped bottles. The result is a product that is completely natural, ready to eat, and even chewable like gum.
“I started this because children outside the village rarely get to taste honeycomb,” he says. “Some places cut it up and package it, but I prefer to let the bees do it naturally inside the bottles. Then I seal them and send them to market. Tourists can also buy them because the village is near Sinharaja. If there’s a way to sell this product abroad, I can supply it and bring foreign exchange into the country. With proper guidance, I can improve and expand this venture further.”
Duminda’s vision is simple yet ambitious: to give children, urban and rural alike, the rare opportunity to taste pure honeycomb, and to introduce tourists to a product that combines the richness of nature with sustainable village enterprise.
Sinharaja, often called the queen of flowers, provides the nectar that makes this honeycomb truly unique. With his dedication, Duminda Kumara is not only preserving a traditional craft but also creating a product that could delight taste buds far beyond his remote village.
Soon, even city children who have never seen a honeycomb may finally experience its chewy sweetness, directly from the forest to their hands. With support and guidance, there is no doubt that Duminda’s venture could grow into a model for rural innovation, sustainable livelihoods, and natural delicacies from Sri Lanka’s lush heartlands.
Text and Pix by Upendra Priyankara Jathungama ✍️
