Honey Festival · Aug 9–11, 2028 · Northfield, Minnesota
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Dates: Wednesday, August 9, 2028 to Friday, August 11, 2028 (3 days)
Venue: Rice County Fairgrounds, 1814 Division Street South, Northfield, Minnesota
Type: Honey Festival
Northfield — the Rice County seat and home to both Carleton College and St. Olaf College — sits on the Cannon River in the rolling glacial moraine landscape of southern Minnesota where the tallgrass prairie transition meets the Big Woods hardwood forest, creating a honey-producing landscape of unusual diversity where prairie basswood, sweet clover, goldenrod, and aster flows combine with the agricultural landscapes of Rice, Goodhue, and Dakota counties to produce some of the region's most distinctive varietal honeys. Rice County's honey landscape is shaped by the Cannon River Valley's rich agricultural bottomland; the remnant Big Woods basswood groves that give Minnesota one of its signature honey varietals; the vast sweet clover and alfalfa fields of the surrounding farm country; and the restored tallgrass prairie plantings of the Carleton College arboretum and the Cannon Valley Trail corridor that provide late-season goldenrod and aster flows. The Rice County Fairgrounds host this August festival celebrating Northfield's Norwegian and Scandinavian agricultural heritage alongside the county's strong beekeeping tradition, drawing producers from Rice, Goodhue, Steele, and Waseca counties who maintain the southern Minnesota tradition of small-scale artisan honey production in a landscape shaped by Scandinavian Lutheran farming communities. The festival features a Minnesota Varietal Honey Competition with special categories for basswood and sweet clover; Nordic heritage culinary pairings connecting Minnesota honey with lefse, rømmegrøt, and the Scandinavian baking traditions of the St. Olaf and Carleton communities; Minnesota Hobby Beekeepers Association educational programming; and heritage exhibits celebrating the Jesse James Raid of 1876 and the Norwegian immigrant farming legacy that shaped Rice County.
This listing does not state a price. Check mnbeekeepers.com for tickets, registration and times.
Official page: mnbeekeepers.com
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Honey festivals usually have tastings, vendor booths, talks and family activities.
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