Honey Bee Festival is not just about honey

The third annual Niwot Honey Bee Harvest Festival on Saturday, Sept. 16, has something for everyone. Just a sampling of festival features are listed here....be sure to visit http://www.Niwot.com to view the complete festival schedule.

The festival includes over 50 vendors both downtown on 2nd Avenue and in Cottonwood Square Shopping Center. In addition to honey and apiary products, festival visitors can purchase artisan jewelry, pottery made by a couple from Ukraine, Colorado-made skin care products, hand crafted textile and crochet arts, colorful metal laser-cut pollinator-themed wall art, savory sauces, homemade jams and jellies, maple cotton candy, wood-turned creations, vintage collectibles, CBD products, and sustainable packaging solutions, just to name a few.

Visit the educational vendor booths to learn more about gardening with native plants, bat conservation, regenerative agriculture, butterfly conservation and arboriculture. CSU Extension donated free colorful pollinator posters which will be available at the Grange and other locations downtown. Stop by the booths featuring local service organizations to learn more about all the ways they serve the community and consider becoming a member.

The Niwot Cultural Arts Association is thrilled to host the Open Studios Pollinator Art Show at the Niwot Feed Store Gallery, thanks to the generosity of property owner John Fischer. Thirty artists are participating with fine art, pottery, tote bags, and greeting cards. Be sure to attend the art show's fascinating encaustic (beeswax) art demonstrations at 11 a.m. and again at 2 p.m. on Saturday. Take home a masterpiece and support local artists. The art show will also be open on Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Artist Erna Waterman will conduct a kid's craft session in front of Seven Wealth on 2nd Avenue, featuring a variety of materials for kids to make bee artwork, wooden bees, a bee pencil, zipper pouch, and a flashy key chain. There will be two sessions-from 2 to 3 p.m. and from 3 to 4 p.m. with a limit of 15 kids per session. There is a $10 materials fee.

The Left Hand Grange will again host the Tom Theobald Speaker series with expert speakers offering talks on a variety of topics from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The series ends with an uplifting video about the Marshall Fire Revitalization Project. The speaker roster is posted on the window of the Grange and a large format roster will be posted outside.

The festival offers a great opportunity to sample mead (honey wine) from five Colorado meaderies. Mead is an ancient alcoholic beverage with roots dating to Africa, 20,000 to 40,000 years ago. Early Africans gathered honey for consumption and accidentally discovered fermentation.

The participating tasting locations are: The Wheel House, Little Bird Boutique, Osmosis Art & Architecture, The Niwot Group at Compass, and Fly Away Home in Cottonwood Square. The five meads featured are: Slaymaker Orange Blossom, Redstone Black Raspberry, Miracle Stag Honeymoon, Hunters Moon Dance Cherry, and MeadKrieger Traditional Mead. Mead tasting is from 1 to 4 p.m. and you must be 21 or older to participate. Pick up a mead passport at any of the tasting locations and turn it in to either The Wheel House or Fly Away Home to enter a drawing for a free bottle of mead.

At Niwot Market, Ollin Farms will be in attendance from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. with a variety of local fresh produce for purchase. Savory fresh green chilis will be roasted to perfection at the Market featuring native Colorado Pueblo green chilis, which are of equal quality to the famous Hatch green chilis from New Mexico.

Look for the yellow and black bunting at area businesses which indicates an event activity or a free give-away. Niwot boutiques and stores are stocked with pollinator-themed merchandise, from yard art to jewelry, linens and other buzz-worthy goods.

There is still time to enter your kids in the Spelling Bee at Inkberry books. The Spelling Bee is scheduled for 2 to 3:30 p.m. with three participating age groups. Stop by Inkberry books to register, or call 720-412-1548. You may also contact Gene Hayworth via email at; gene@inkberrybooks.com. Prizes will be awarded.

"Events of this size and complexity would not be possible without an army of volunteers who are donating their time and expertise to help with this event," Victoria Keen, one of the event organizers said. "Niwot is blessed with so many kind and generous citizens. Dawn Server and Deb Fowler (co-event organizers) and I are so grateful. We couldn't do this without them."