Sweet Bee’s Honey Festival & Artisan Market to come to Museum Village on June 10

MONROE — Sweet Bee’s Honey Festival & Artisan Market will make its debut at Museum Village in Monroe on Sunday, June 10, from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m.
Attendees will learn about the honey bee’s life and work with tastings and sales of a variety of local, regional and international honeys, organizers said, as part of creating an old-time, family fair-like day.
Approximately one-third of all food Americans eat is directly or indirectly derived from honey bee pollination, according to the American Beekeeping Federation. Crops pollinated by honey bees include cucumbers, almonds, melons, apricots, cherries, pears, apples, prunes, plums, onions, avocados, blueberries and cranberries.
Honey is the only food product produced by an insect which humans consume.
More than 50 vendorsThe festival will feature more than 50 food and beverage vendors offering baked goods, specialty foods, chocolates, ready-to-eat foods, teas and local wines, meads, spirits and ciders made with honey.
Current Orange County food and beverage vendors include:
• 576 Jerk of Monroe, maker of authentic Jamaican cuisine, will offer honey jerk chicken and other products.
• An Artistic Taste/Grace's Oven, a Monroe caterer who will soon open a Monroe restaurant, will offer honey blueberry Brussels sprouts, honey lavender lemonade and other products.
• Warwick Valley Winery/Black Dirt Distillery of Warwick will offer products that pair well with honey artisan foods. Its orchards heavily rely on pollination by local honey bees.
• Magnolia House Honey and Apiary of Warwick will offer local, domestic and international honeys, creamed honey, Manuka honey, royal jelly, bee pollen, honey dust and honey straws.
• Phelps Woodside Farm of Walden, a non-certified organic farm and apiary, will offer local honey, vegetables and other products.
• Pretzel Princess of Port Jervis will offer honey mustard with raspberry sauce, honey pineapple pepper habanero, hot pepper honey cream and other products.
• Honeybrook Farms and Apiary of Pine Bush will offer local honey, bee pollen, bees wax, bees wax balms, honey straws and other products.
• Pazdar Winery of Scotchtown will offer hand-crafted wines, including two made with honey.
Activities Other current activities include:
• Rides on an authentic horse-drawn Conestoga wagon from Dun Dreamin’ Farms in Campbell Hall.
• Performances by the Bandit Boys Country Western band.
• Face painting, potato sack races, bean bag tosses, scavenger hunts and other “old time” games throughout the day.
• Appearances by Civil War reenactors, including “President Abraham Lincoln.”
• Square dancing demonstrations throughout the day by the Rockland Rocky Tops.
• Orange County 4-H offer children the chance to plant and take home “bee-friendly seeds” in pots made from recycled newspapers.
• Meeting and feeding Museum Village’s numerous farm animals and visiting its onsite bee hive.
• TevaLand Farm Animal Rescue of Hillburn in Rockland County will bring rescue animals information about the group’s work.
• The Hudson Highland Museum of Cornwall will offer activities.
• Artists from the Wallkill River School will be offering plein-air painting demonstrations at different locations on the museum’s grounds.
• The festival will also feature vendors offering handmade crafts, jewelry and art.
Admission includes access to all Museum Village exhibits, including its one-room school house, log cabin, blacksmith shop, print shop, broom shop, candle shop and complete mastodon skeleton.
EssentialsTickets can be purchased online for $15 for adults and $10 for children aged 4 to 12. At the door, tickets are $20 for adults and $15 for children.
A special “late day” admission ticket is available online for $10 per person for ages 4 and up after 3 p.m.
At the door, the price is $15.
Besides raising money to support Museum Village’s preservation and educational missions, the festival has partnered with Open Arms, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to combating addiction in Orange and Rockland counties through local programs and recovery centers.
The festival is produced by Baum Image Group, which produced last fall’s Chocolate Expo at Museum Village, attended by over 4,500 people.
For more information and to purchase tickets online, visit: www.SweetBeesHoneyFest.com.