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Beeton Honey & Garden Festival fills downtown core

May 31, 2017   ·   0 Comments

By Wendy Gabrek
The 2017 Beeton Honey & Garden Festival took place on Saturday, May 27, along Main Street.
Over 190 vendors, offering unique merchandise for the home, garden and table took part in this incredible event – that packed the historic centre of town from the 10th Sideroad to Tecumseth Street.
Everything you can think of – from perennials to pastries, fashion to farm produce, golf balls to garden tools was available.
Back this year was the ‘Antique Alley’, featuring vintage finds and restored wonders.
The ‘International Marketplace’ offered clothing, textiles, crafts and more from exotic locales around the world.
Car enthusiasts were also thrilled to see the return of the ‘Classic Car and Truck Show,’ next to the old Times building.
Live entertainment could be heard throughout the day from the Muddy Water Bandshell stage, and Tottenham Bluegrass musicians played by the Free Family Fun Zone – where a variety of activities went on throughout the day for all ages to enjoy.
If you were hungry Saturday, you were in luck. Every food you could think of – from BBQ, Caribbean jerk, sushi, pizza, souvlaki, sweet potato fries, deep fried pickles, funnel cakes, gelato, fresh fudge, kettlecorn, donuts, chunky fries, hot dogs and hamburgers and fresh squeezed organic lemonade, could be found. And the smells filled the air for miles.
But it wouldn’t be a Honey Festival without the honey! Honey producers were on hand sampling and selling delicious local honey – and even showing off their bees!
Fire fighters from Station 2Beeton offered a ‘Firemen’s Pancake Breakfast’ again this year, made from scratch from fresh ingredients donated by local merchants K2 Milling, Sheldon Creek Dairy, Beeton Foodland, Breedon’s Maple Syrup, and Alliston Creamery.
Live entertainment at Kids Corner included stunt ventriloquist, puppeteer and entertainer; and The Ben Show, comedic entertainer.
Live at the Car Show was: Sean Bourke new  Local favourite Sean Bourke, and live at the Four Corners was Beeton Creek Rising. On the Main Stage: Feelin’ Good featuring Michelle Guy; Madison Galloway; The Neena Children’s Choir (from Uganda); and Tim Ronan & Chris Taggart.
“The Beeton Honey & Garden Festival was started by David Allanson Jones, a storekeeper and postmaster who settled in the small West Gwillimbury community of Clarksville during the 1860s. By 1870 he owned 50 acres of farmland and two swarms of bees. From these simple beginnings, Jones became the first commercial beekeeper in Canada. Across Europe and North America, David A. Jones was known as the Bee King of the 19th Century. In 1875, Clarksville was renamed Bee Town in his honour. Eventually the spelling was changed to the short British form, Beeton.
Jones was the first to import bees into Ontario. Breeding stock came from Cyprus, Palestine, the Holy Land and Borneo. The imported bees had to be isolated for a period of time. Islands in Georgian Bay off Parry Sound were the location of choice.
(This information was sampled from article by Pat Mestern)

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