Taste the sweetness of Oregon Honey and Mead!  Festival guests should prepare to be delighted by the beauty of one of Southern Oregon's oldest and most historic wineries.  Located in the rolling hills of Medford, near Phoenix, Oregon and minutes from highway 99 and Rogue Valley International Airport (MFR), Edenvale is family friendly with plenty of space to walk the grounds around the mansion, enjoy music and sample honey while 21+ may sample mead (click HERE for map and directions). Guests will park and enter at Edenvale's south entrance.   Food will be available for purchase.
     Attendees will learn about pollinators, botanical aspects of honey production, native plants, native bees, honey bee health, soil, seed, healthy flower forage and other components of habitat health.
     Early birds will enjoy a honey tasting demo with Flying Bee Ranch's Delsey Maus and Sharon Schmidt, President of Cascade Girl.  Sgt. Paul Davitt (r) will provide an update on the veteran program, Bee Heroes America.   Xerces Society Ambassador and Master Melittologist, Dave Kollen will talk about "Creatures of the Night" focusing on nighttime pollinators!
       There will be music by the Danielle Kelly Quartet, Mountaintop Sound and  Shybo and The Twisted Vines , a mead garden with three of the best Oregon Mead producers, Oran Mór Artisan Mead, Lazy Z Ranch and Siskiyou Meadery, artists, native plant education, talks, honey sampling, honey for purchase, kids' activities and more.  Edenvale chefs will prepare foods for purchase and the Edenvale Tasting Room will be open.
     The Cascade Girl Organization is a 501(c)3 nonprofit the mission of which is to educate people about food system pollinators of the Cascade region and their impact on planetary survival via science, culture and the arts.  The Festival is a fundraiser for the Cascade Girl Organization's programs for kids and for veterans.
     At it's heart, the Oregon Honey & Mead Festival is a celebration of apiculture and agriculture, toasting the work of all farmers and agricultural pollinators. Both native and managed bees require pollen and nectar to reproduce and to provide valuable pollination which makes food for people and animals.  To make delicious honey, honey bees rely upon being able to find food in the form of nectar from flowers and forbs.  They require pollen for reproduction and energy - and all pollinators need water unspoiled by toxins and chemicals.    
     There is no better place for such a celebration than Jackson County, Oregon which became GMO free in 2014.   Mead, the drink of the ancient Vikings is the product of fermented honey.  The invited mead and honey producers bring their talents to the table along with principles of earth science, biology, botany, food science and history.  Kids 12 and undeer enter free with parent.  Veterans enter at no cost with proof of service.  Indigenous people invited free of charge with tribal ID.
Planning Committee: Dewey Caron, Ph.D., entomologist, author, educator and Professor emeritus at University of Delaware and Professor at Oregon State University.  Rebecca Fain, immediate past Treasurer OSBA.  Beekeeper and Honey Judge and Expert, Marjorie Ehry, Honey Judge and Expert, Bonnie King, Beekeeping Educator, Leslie Lundgren, Cascade Girl Treasurer and Immediate Past President Klamath Basin Beekeepers Association, Sgt. Paul Davitt (ret) Beekeeper, John Herman Meadmaker and Beekeeper, John Paul Schmidt, Volunteer, Tom Cinquini, President Oregon State Beekeepers Association (consulting member) and Sharon Schmidt, President, Cascade Girl and University of Montana certified Master Beekeeper.