Saturday, Sept. 9, 10 a.m.—PROCTORSVILLE—Saturday, Sept. 9 marks the 5th annual Vermont Golden Honey Festival in Proctorsville, and there’s good reason it keeps getting voted one of Vermont’s top ten fall events every year!
Every September, Golden Stage Inn becomes the site for over 25 vendors selling honey, food, arts, crafts, beekeeping products and more. Each vendor is encouraged to have at least one item that showcases the honeybee or its hive byproducts in some way.
Festival co-host Goodman’s American Pie brings their remodeled 1940s tow-truck-converted-to-pizza-truck and sells wood fired honey apple pizza on honey dough (in addition to other pizza toppings, too). Other local vendors will be Little Village Farm offering their honeybee-pollinated fresh produce, Caledonia Spirits selling their honey gin and other spirits, The Book Nook showcasing Vermont authors and beekeeping resource books, and so many more crafters and artists offering syrup, pottery, beeswax candles, and more.
This year, Vermont Beekeepers Association (VBA) will be hosting a booth, ready to answer questions about honeybees and beekeeping. Beekeeping is fast becoming a popular hobby that helps the struggling honeybee and offers sweet rewards to the beekeeper, but there’s a lot to learn, and the VBA is there to help.
Admission is free, and there’s also a free kids’ crafts table, making this a great event for the whole family.
The festival was started five years ago when co-hosts Jess Goodman of Goodman’s American Pie in Ludlow and Julie-Lynn Wood of Golden Stage Inn in Proctorsville attended the Garlic Festival in Bennington. Wood and Goodman are both beekeepers and thought the honeybee (Vermont’s state insect) was worthy of its own festival. As local business owners, they wanted to bring an event to the community that celebrated both the honeybee and the Vermont entrepreneur. And the Vermont Golden Honey Festival does precisely that.
All event proceeds are donated to a non-profit, and this year’s recipient will be Vermont Beekeepers Association.
The festival runs 10 a.m.-4 p.m., rain or shine. Golden Stage Inn is located at 399 Depot St., Proctorsville, just off Route 103. Note: The Depot Street bridge near Route 131 is still closed. Visitors will need to drive via Route 103.
For more information, call 802-226-7744 or visit the festival’s Facebook page, @vtgoldenhoneyfestival.
