Downtown Woodland hummed with activity — and bees — last Saturday during the first California Honey Festival since 2019. Vendors selling honey, beeswax candles, bee-shaped trinkets and other apian goods lined Main Street and its offshoots, while neighborhood restaurants joined in with sweet specials. Experts from the UC Davis Arboretum, the Honey and Pollination Center and the California Master Beekeeper Program hosted talks and demonstrations on apiculture and pollination science.
Launched in 2017, the California Honey Festival is a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting the business of bees, both for honey production and for their indispensable role as lead pollinators in the Central Valley’s agricultural fields. Each year, about 30 billion bees are shipped from hives around the country to the Central Valley, where they pollinate almonds, citrus, strawberries, squash and countless other crops. With issues like colony collapse, parasites and global warming continuing to threaten the visiting bees’ survival — and therefore the global food supply — it’s more important than ever to celebrate their importance to the Capital Region’s economy and the world.
The California Honey Festival’s mission is to promote honey and
educate people about bees. In 2022, the California Honey Festival
celebrated its fourth event, the first since before the pandemic.
Prominent Woodland resident Al Eby founded the festival in 2017.
(Photos and captions by Charles Vincent McDonald)
Los Angeles-based musical group Future Pop performed on the main
stage during Woodland’s First Friday Art Walk as the opening act
before Saturday’s California Honey Festival. From left to right:
Tanner Zahn, Sienna Melgoza, Maceo Matrix, and Sierrah Hudson.
Myriah Monet & The Little Fridays played a musical mix of
country, rock and blues on the California Honey Festival on
Woodland’s downtown main stage. Band members: Myriah Monet (lead
vocal), Tim McGrew, Vanus Bigelow, Jeff Matthews, Phil Giebel and
Brandon Riggenti.
With an estimated day’s attendance of more than 45,000, the
California Honey Festival presented multiple educational sessions
as well as food and beverage vendors along Woodland’s Main
Street.
Bryan A. Riley cooks barbecue beef and chicken during the
California Honey Festival. He and his wife Rosalina M. Riley
started their barbecue business, Riley’s Q, in Zamora two years
ago.
Jasmin Murrieta (left), Taylor Kinser (middle) and Corina Reyes
(right) take time for a group selfie during Saturday’s California
Honey Festival.
Representing the Woodland Fire Department are Battalion Chief
Erik Komula (left), Fire Marshall Emily Walling (right) and Mason
Walling (middle).
The California Honey Festival included multiple vendors along
Main Street where attendees could sample honey from California
honey and out of state. The HIVE in Woodland/Z Specialty Food is
the family business of Josh Zeldner, known as the “Nectar
Director” (right center).
The California Master Beekeeper Program “Save the Bees” uses
science-based information to educate stewards and ambassadors for
honeybees and beekeeping. Lucadello Michelle is a lab assistant
for Program Director Elina L. Nino.
Lana Druchik of the California Master Beekeeper Program is
teaching children to make bees using school supplies.
Joe Willard of UC Davis Stores is ready to answer any questions
on the three varieties of pure natural honey available for
purchase from the UC Davis Honey and Pollination Center:
coriander, blossom and wildflower.
“Fresh Popped – Sweet & Salty” is all the advertising this vendor
needs to attract customers at the California Honey Festival.
UC Davis students representing the Habitat Horticulture and the
Arboretum Ambassador Apprentice Program at the UC Davis Arboretum
and Public Gardens pause for a large team photograph at the
California Honey Festival.
John Johnson of the California Master Beekeeper Program describes
the unique features of the beehive he is holding. John encourages
viewers to try to locate the only queen bee (the one with the
yellow dot) among all the worker bees.
Entertaining the crowds at the California Honey Festival were the
roaming circus and performing artists known as SacCirque.
Barbara Schumacher of the Sacramento Area Beekeepers Association
promotes interest in and awareness of the vital importance of the
honeybee and beekeeping to agriculture, commerce and the public
at large.
“Bumble Bee Squad,” reads the t-shirt worn by Hansine Sterken of
Hawaiian Honey AT&S.
Matthew Taylor’s Home at 510 Main Street in Woodland is one of
several brick-and-mortar shops that actively participated in
creating a shoppable honey and pollination experience for
California Honey Festival attendees.
During the California Honey Festival, Woodland’s Heritage Square
was transformed into a food truck food court. In addition to the
food court, several downtown restaurants were open in addition to
food specific festival vendors along Main Street.
At the California Honey Festival main stage, Mike Taylor from
Nugget Markets presents information on cooking and drinking with
traditional nectar mead and pomegranate mead. Mead is an
alcoholic beverage made by fermenting honey and mixing with water
and added ingredients like fruits and spices.
Haley and Josh Ferraro explain the different drink sizes to a
customer at The Lemonade Yard.
At Julie’s Roasted Corn & Potatoes vendor booth, Humberto Lizaola
shucks fresh farm corn directly off the cooker.
The UC Davis Honey Wheel offered attendees at the California
Honey Festival a wide variety of honey to taste and sample. Amina
Harris, director of the Honey and Pollination Center at the
Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science, holds a jar
of cultivated buckwheat honey.
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