Discover the buzz at California Honey Festival

Hard-working bees and their honey are celebrated Saturday at the California Honey Festival, Woodland. 

(Photo: Kathy Morrison

Bee-happy free event fills downtown Woodland on Saturday


Love honey? Interested in helping bees? Want more fruit and vegetables in your own garden?

Catch the buzz at the third annual California Honey Festival, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, May 4, in downtown Woodland.

In partnership with the Honey and Pollination Center and the Robert Mondavi Institute of Food & Wine at UC Davis, this free festival is dedicated to all things honey and bee-related. It has quickly grown into one of the largest events of its kind.

Honeybees continue to be in peril. This family-friendly fest combines education about how to help bees and the issues these important pollinators face with the delicious product of their work – honey. Downtown Woodland has embraced the Honey Fest’s message with restaurants offering honey-filled menus and bars serving honey-laced drinks.

At Saturday’s festival, scores of vendors will offer honey-related products in booths along Main Street between First and Third streets. Taste dozens of different honeys and discover their wide range of flavors. (Not all honeys are sweet!)

Learn how to help bees by creating pollinator-friendly gardens filled with flowers that bees love (and need). Ever thought about beekeeping? This place will get you inspired and supply you with the basics.

A bee flits among Betty Boop roses. Learn how to help bees during the

California Honey Festival on Saturday. (Photo: Debbie Arrington)

Sample honey-based mead as well as beer and wine in the bee-happy festival garden. Plus there will be plenty of tasty honey-enhanced things to eat.

A cooking stage will offer demonstrations all day on using honey as a sugar substitute as well as making the most of this special ingredient. The UC Davis educational stage features eight workshops, ranging from beginning beekeeping and how to make mead to attracting more bees to the urban landscape. There’s also lots of family entertainment, including Uncle Jer’s Traveling Bee Show (3 p.m.). Find the full schedule here: https://californiahoneyfestival.com/schedule/

In addition, celebrity landscape expert Ahmad Hassan of “Yard Crashers” will host the festival’s Pollinator Garden, offering his expertise on how to plant your own bee-friendly habitat.

Proceeds from the festival support several bee- and pollinator-related non-profit programs and projects aimed at supporting bee health worldwide.

Details: www.californiahoneyfestival.com.

-- Debbie Arrington