We were amazed quite how busy it was at the Isle of Wight Honey Show at Arreton Community Centre on Saturday. As it turned out, so were the organisers, the Isle of Wight Bee Keepers Association, commenting that they might well have to consider a bigger venue next year.
It was great to see the growing popularity of bee-keeping on the Island. Only a few years ago, membership numbers were down to around fifty, with those involved seriously considering if they might have to think about closing it down.
Membership rocketing
Happily, the number of members has ballooned to 150 now, including young families and their children, the future seems significantly more secure.
The number of different products that come from bee-keeping, and therefore competition categories in the show were huge. Honey – obviously – but seven different types (photo), bee’s wax candles, polishing wax, Mead, the list went on.
One of the other members, Mary Case, had even produced a bee hive in a glass lead-battery container, transferring the bees out to leave the honeycomb complete, for visitors to be stunned by.
Dave Cassell: Best in show winner
There were loads of prizes given out, and this year Dave Cassell did particularly well, gathering an arm-full of awards including the top one – Best of Show – which he got for his entry for Twelve identical jars of honey, that require strong consistency.
We had a quick chat with Dave (podcast below), who told us that the association had “never had such a packed show in all of the time I’ve been a member,” adding, “We’ve been really overwhelmed with the number of people. We’re very pleased and surprised as well.”
Have a listen …
[audio:http://otw-audio.s3.amazonaws.com/dave-cassell-interview-honey-show-2011.mp3]
Disclosure for those who are interested: Dave very kindly gave us a jar of his award winning honey :)
