The first Waterford Honey Show is set to take place during the 2022 Harvest Festival which will be hosted at venues across Waterford City from September 9th to 11th 2022.
The first annual Waterford Honey Show is being hosted by the East Waterford BeeKeepers’ Association.
The event will inform honey producers, beekeepers, retailers and visitors of the show of the high-quality honey products available in the Southeast region.
According to the event organiser Donal Lehane, “Waterford, Tipperary, Kilkenny and Wexford are Ireland’s most important areas for apiculture. Waterford City is the ideal central location for this event to promote pure natural honey and in particular the over 1,000 local beekeepers in the region.
"Honey has been an important food export from southeast Ireland since before the coming of Christ. The Romans and before them the Greeks wrote about the nectar produced from the ‘Sacred Trees’ of Ireland.
"This year it is our ambition to highlight the brilliant honey producers of the region and our future ambition for the Waterford Honey Show is to build a reputation as a best-in-class honey show that attracts entries from abroad and develop it in time into a significant international event with the potential to create destination tourism.”
All local producer-branded jars of honey are eligible to participate in the honey awards. The products will be evaluated by a panel of expert judges for tasting. The “blind” method is used for tasting the products, without packaging and without any type of distinctive feature visible. Each product will be assigned a numerical rating on the evaluation sheet, which represents the general sense of enjoyment as well as other criteria, such as appearance, odour, texture, flavour and viscosity. A perpetual cut glass trophy made in Waterford will be presented to the overall supreme honey producer. The Waterford Honey Award is a reliable sign of superior quality. There will also be a competition to judge bee products including wax and mead.
Visitors to the Waterford Honey Awards will be able to enjoy viewing the action within an enclosed glass observation hive, meet with the region's top honey producers and taste some of the finest kinds of honey. The Waterford Honey Awards will take part during the Harvest Festival, which will take place across Waterford City from September 9th to 11th 2022.
The festival is being supported by Waterford City & County Council and organised by GIY who are bringing sustainability right to the heart of the festivities, showcasing Waterford’s rich food heritage and celebrating the City’s diverse restaurants, eateries and producers. The best of Waterford’s food and drink will be centre stage and there are a series of serious food talks for sides.
Taking place at venues and outdoors across Waterford City from September 9th to 11th 2022 there will be a ‘Food Done Right’ stage where food sustainability talks with some of the country’s most esteemed food writers, chefs, activists, journalists and business people, will be on offer. There will be a giant Harvest Festival Market. On the Taste Waterford kitchen stage sponsored by Waterford's Local Enterprise Office, there will be a host of Waterford’s very own food producers and Chefs who will all be sharing their best recipes and food tips. Visitors will enjoy meeting chefs and food producers from all across Waterford. In the vast Junior GIYer’s area which will take over Broad Street families will enjoy the opportunity to learn how to grow food through the seasons with Muireann Ní Chíobháin co-author of the GIY Know it Allmanac. There will be seed sowing, bug bingo, an art area, and the Nore Valley Mobile Farm will also be in the vicinity.
Special events will also be on offer including a restaurant trail and a live music programme.
See further details and browse the full programme of events here.
