Saturday I volunteered for a shift representing the Sonoma Beekeepers Association at the Harvest Fair.
And I had a bee-helper, which I found amusing. See her? There on the pen cap? There were a couple of demonstration hives there so that people could see them up close. They were all set up so that the bees were contained: One was in a screen-tent, and the other was a specially built demo-hive. A lady came up to me and said: “Excuse, me, three of the bees got out.” I told her that they were probably actually not escapees, but other bees just drawn to the area, especially since we were outdoors and in the garden-demo area with all kinds of flowers in addition to the piles of honey and other bee stuff for sale. She was still convinced that these three random bees must have escaped from the hive, because where else could they possibly have come from?
Hmm.
I got there a little bit early so that I could walk around and see the sights. Including the llama obstacle course.
And I don’t know what kind of exhibit this was, but there were chickens, bunnies, and a duck all hanging out in the same pen:
Most importantly, I learned that you can enter stuff from your backyard in the fair, and I am TOTALLY going to do that next year. Later, I went online and looked at some of the categories. One is “tallest weed.” NOT KIDDING.
Anywho, here are some highlights:
Herbs and dried things. I grew some fancy-basil this year, and also some fancy grains, so I think I could get some points for that. And, dude, people don’t even put their stuff in nice canning jars: just old peanut butter jars and whatnot!
Here are the tallest sunflowers and weeds display area:
And this:
Um, no offense to Mr. Bruce, there, but MY “Indian Corn” is WAY, WAY prettier than that crap, and DUDE, look at the ribbon he got!
I am all in next year. ALL IN.
