LEWIS COUNTY BEEKEEPERS' ASSOCIATION                                                          

The Official Southwest Washington Fair Honey & Bee Products Contest

LCBA manages the official honey contest for the Southwest Washington Fair. For guidelines on how to submit honey in the official Fair contest, click here; to see the 2016 honey judging score card with criteria for judging, click here. People are welcome to submit wax, cut comb honey, & other bee products, too!

Above, Best in Show honors were shared by Steve Howard and Dan Maughan, each of whom scored 99% of possible points for their amber honey.

Even though 2016, with its stop & start spring, has not been a halcyon honey year, 19 nicely presented jars of honey were entered in the official Fair Honey contest by 11 LCBA members; scroll down to see winners of ribbons. Education Coordinator Peter Glover evaluated honey entries in accordance with the criteria presented at our June monthly meeting (see above). Below, Peter is pictured judging honey, with Secretary Susanne Weil as clerk & Youth Scholars Josiah & Sam looking on:

Below, Peter scrutinizes a honey entry in the polariscope, which was built by Mentorship Coordinator Martin Stenzig & donated to LCBA:

Blue ribbon honors were won by Pamela Daudet (see right column, this page), Steve Howard, and Chris Weedon.

Red ribbons were won by Barb & Kevin Cearley, Kevin Reichert, Lisa Sills, and Phil Wilson.

White ribbons were won by Steve Howard, Harold Mullins, Dan Maughan, and Mary Ellen Wilson. 

For wax products, Dan Maughan and Tim Weible won red ribbons.

For candles in the “other bee products” category, Richelle Jackson won a blue ribbon, and Dan Maughan won a red:

For his chunk honey entry, Gottfried Fritz won a red ribbon:

For the “other” category, Steve Howard won best in class for his hand-tooled cedar hinged top bar hive, pictured below:

There were also blue ribbons for the following education displays:  for Kevin Reichert for the wild hive display:

Blue ribbons went to Tim Weible for his paper wasp display, as well as for his “Home of the 12^th Bee” Seahawks-themed Langstroth hive:

Thanks to all for entering bee products for the public to enjoy viewing! 

 The People's Choice Honey Tasting Contest

LCBA started the People's Choice tasting contest in 2013 so that Fair visitors could experience the wide range of flavors in different local, raw honeys. Visitors taste as many honeys as they like & learn where the honeys came from & what the bees mainly foraged on; those who taste all the options can vote for their favorite. For guidelines on how to submit honey in the People's Choice tasting, click here.

This year, Peter Glover & Susanne Weil's blackberry/wildflower honey from their Onalaska girls took First Prize in the People’s Choice Tasting with 50 votes. No one is more surprised than Susanne, below, who voted for Kevin’s marionberry honey, which won for the past 3 years straight!

Below, Pamela Guzzo Daudet took 2nd place with her dark, spicy honey from her south Olympia farm - it also won a blue ribbon in the official Fair contest:

 Third place went to Cody Warren for his wildflower honey from Rochester with 26 votes (his black locust blossom honey was a big hit, too, with 12).Cody is pictured here at LCBA's Summer Potluck:

Fourth place went to Kevin Reichert for his marionberry honey – once again a big favorite with those who like its almost port-wine-like notes – 18 votes, followed closely by his & Grant Inmon’s Toledo clover honey (16 votes/6th place). Kevin is here pictured with Gottfried Fritz's antique bee sign:

Fifth place went to Dan Maughan for his “Special Blend” of - wait for it - corn syrup! This shows that we still have some public education work to do. Dan donated this thought-provoking educational prank - he & his sons made it from High Fructose Corn Syrup, with 15% water, ½ tsp each of artificial rum & vanilla extracts, 6 drops of yellow #5, 3 drops red #40, & 1 drop green artificial coloring. Discerning visitors pegged it for what it was – others actually liked it because it tasted like caramel! The “Special Blend” gave us a chance to educate the public about adulterated commercial “honey” – thanks, Dan!

 Tied for 6th place – Chris Weedon, pictured below, for his blackberry/wildflower honey from Olympia, & Dan Maughan, for his carrot blossom honey – again a conversation provoker among the more serious honey fans to visit our exhibit:

Below, Gottfried Fritz submitted honey with some cilantro notes for Sunday only – it garnered 13 votes & would likely have placed high had it been available both days!

Below, Gottfried's daughter, son in law, & grandchildren taste the local honeys. All the honeys entered received love from visitors – none went vote-less. Thanks to Harold Mullins, Steve Howard, Lisa Sills, Kevin & Barb Cearley, & Kimo Thielges for donating honey!

And thanks to our volunteers for answering visitors' questions!  Below, LCBA volunteer Tracy Chilelli with visitors at the People's Choice tasting: