With a population of only 600, it’s impressive that the village of Lithopolis, just southeast of Columbus, would be able to pull off a successful honey festival – even with the assistance…
…of thousands of bees.
The village was a bit of a headache driving into, mostly because of road construction and closed roads (even if I did purposefully drive past their designated parking area because I didn’t want to take the shuttle). But after I did find a great parking spot and I walked onto the festival grounds surrounding the Wagnalls Memorial (as in Adam Wagnalls of Funk and Wagnalls), I was simply amazed at the festival’s size!
So excuse this long posting in advance.
The vendor area alone…
…had various sections.
And along with the diverse items sold in these sections…
…including handmade purses and bowls…
…there were many honey-themed items.
But not only that…
…there were all types of honey products…
…sold by many local honey farms.
This seemed wonderful at first, until I started sampling all the honey.
Plastic spoon after plastic spoon at honey farm booths…
…and even popsicle sticks…
…at the Ohio State Beekeeper Association‘s booth…
…which let me try honey from Alabama, Florida, Michigan, Texas and Wisconsin (the Florida orange blossom honey was great!).
Needless to say, I was sugared up, slightly shaking and having a hard time articulating anything to anyone.
But I was in far better shape than those who continued on…
…into the honey wine tasting tent.
And this was before noon.In order to help raise awareness of the honey bee, other organizations set up booths, including …
…the Central Ohio Beekeepers Association…
…the Scioto Valley Beekeepers…
…and the East Central Ohio Beekeepers Association.
Plus, there was the bee beard show…
…which took place on their respective stage.
I was fortunate to catch the 11:30 show with Arnold Crabtree.
Here’s before…
…and here’s after.
Behind the Wagnalls Memorial, there was more festival to be seen…
…with a kids booth for bee-related crafts…
…a stage for entertainment…
…and a food court area, where honey still played a strong role…
…through honey/cinnamon sopapillas and honey buns…
…honey glazed chicken and honey almond salmon burgers…
…honey marshmallow dip for sweet potato fries, honey sweetened tea and these honey cakes.
If you hadn’t yet gone into shock…
…you could have taken advantage of the Honey Cook-Off Sale…
…where you could buy samples of entries for $1…
…like this mouth-watering delight.
Just as long as you didn’t go overboard!
Because after the honey samplings, wine tastings, meals and desserts, it could be easy to lose your sense of reality once all that sugar set in. Your heart could start palpitating and your eyes could start fluttering…
…until you start seeing alterations of things that exist…
…and eventually things that don’t exist at all.