We could not have a honey show in 2020, but now we're back!
MSBA offers an official, professionally judged honey show each November along with its Fall General Membership Meeting and Elections. This is possible with the generous support of the Maryland Ag Fair Board, whose grant supports the over $900 in prizes available that day!
This is your chance to learn a lot, stretch your wings, and bring home some cash! Remember, honey shows are an opportunity to both hone your skills in the preparation and presentation of the marvelous products created by the bees, and to engage members of the non-beekeeping public in better understanding the wonder of bees and beekeeping.
Please fill out an entry form, and bring it to the November 13, 2021 meeting at the Maryland Department of Agriculture, 50 Harry S Truman Parkway, Annapolis. Entries will be accepted at the honey show table staffed by volunteers from the Anne Arundel Beekeepers from 8 AM to 9 AM.
You can learn more about the honey show and its rules here, but first, MSBA President Kim Mehalick wants to encourage your participation and offer some tips for success!
TIPS for preparing a Honey Show entry:
- Put your entry through a fine filter to reduce particulate.
- Pour your bottles a week early so the air bubbles can rise.
- Watch those fill lines! That ridge below the screw threads up top is the "Fair Fill Line."
- Bring an extra cap, and replace the one your entry traveled in before handing it over.
- Bring a microfiber cloth along, and carefully wipe away any fingerprints, dust or smears that might have come with travel.
- If your honey has started to crystallize now that the weather is cooling, you have time to gently warm it: consider a register through which your home's heat is rising, or placing your entry in a cardboard box in a low-temp oven (with the heat OFF) for a few hours.
- EAS has a full page of dos and don'ts, as well!