King B

Pickles • Preserves • Mixers • Honey

King Bee KC, Kansas City, Kansas

Small-batch jams and pickles, farm to market.

Find a jar at Gilbert Whitney & Co., open daily

Low-sugar jams, dill and bread and butter pickles, relishes and drink mixers, canned in small batches from produce picked on farms and orchards around Kansas City.

Directions go to Gilbert Whitney & Co., 104 N Liberty St, Independence, which stocks King Bee. There's no storefront: the rest of the time, King Bee is at markets and events around Kansas City.

What's in the jars

About 16 kinds of pickles and around 50 low-sugar jams through the year, depending on what the farms bring in. These are the regulars.

Pickles

$10 to $12

16 oz jars

Dill
Kosher Dill
Spicy Dill
Grandma's Bread and Butter
Kickin' Bread and Butter
Red Hot Cinnamon Pickles
Bangin' Beets
Kosher Veggie Medley
Spicy Veggie Medley
Pickled okra
Pickled green beans
Pickled asparagus

Low-sugar jams

$9 to $10

8 oz jars

Many are made with herbs and spices, so they work as a glaze or a marinade as well as on toast, over cream cheese or on a baked brie.

Peach Ginger
Raspberry Jalapeño
Blueberry Lime
Strawberry Rhubarb
Blackberry
Apple Butter
Winter Jam

Mixers

Rowdy Red red beer mix 16 oz, $11. Created for Boulevard Brewing Co.
Back Home Bloody Mary Mix 32 oz, $20 to $22
Fiery Back Home Bloody Mary Mix 32 oz, $20 to $22

Relish and honey

Southern Peach Tarragon Relish 16 oz
Afterburn Dilly Relish 12 oz
Honey 16 oz, $14

Prices are King Bee's own 2026 prices at markets and events. Shops set their own prices. Flavors change with the season, so call to ask what's on the table this week.

Where to find a jar

On the shelf in Independence

Gilbert Whitney & Co. carries King Bee pickles, jams, relishes and mixers. 104 N Liberty St, Independence, MO 64050.

Open every day. Hours below.

Gilbert Whitney & Co. hours (the shop's, not King Bee's)
Monday	10 am to 6 pm
Tuesday	10 am to 6 pm
Wednesday	10 am to 6 pm
Thursday	10 am to 6 pm
Friday	10 am to 6 pm
Saturday	10 am to 6 pm
Sunday	Noon to 6 pm

Directions to the shop

At markets and events

King Bee sets up at markets, festivals and pop-ups around Kansas City, and cans in its own food trailer kitchen. The week's spot goes up on social media first.

Orders, wholesale and events

Stocking a shop, planning a Bloody Mary bar, or after a case of pickles? Call (816) 457-2655 or email kingbeekc@gmail.com.

Picked close, canned fast

The produce comes from farms and orchards around Kansas City and is processed soon after it's picked, for a freshness a big-box jar can't match. A few of the growers:

Malone Farms
Ann and Mac Farms
Peters Orchard

Every January, Todd spends his time on the phone with those farms, working out how much each one expects to grow, so the year's canning can be planned around it.

Low sugar is the point: jams made to taste of the fruit, with herbs and spice to take them past breakfast.

Canning runs in the family

King Bee is Todd Burd, who grew up on a farm in Norton, in rural western Kansas.

Canning came down from his German grandmother and his mother, who put up the crops out of necessity.

When COVID began, Todd and his mother were back in the kitchen making jams, pickles and canned vegetables together. People kept asking for jars, so they started selling them, and that was the start of King Bee.

Getting pickles onto store shelves means lab testing and registration, and Kansas Food Labs and From the Land of Kansas helped King Bee through it. The canning happens in a food trailer that doubles as a commercial kitchen.

A From the Land of Kansas member
Made in Kansas City, Kansas

Photo to come: the jars

Photo to come: the market table

Photo to come: fruit from the farms

Photo to come: Todd at the trailer

Get in touch

Questions about a flavor, an order or an event. Call or email and Todd will get back to you.

Call (816) 457-2655