Gallery: Honey Festival offers wide selection despite poor harvest
Seventeen honey festivals have been held in Karksi-Nuia, where despite a poor harvest caused by a cool, rainy summer, the event still offered plenty of honey at steady prices.
Toomas Vene from Karksi-Nuia and Linda Kambla from Pärnu both consider themselves big fans of honey. And at the honey festival, they said, it's possible to get something sweet at a good price.
"I think I go through two to three kilos a year. I like the most basic kind of honey. And I try to make sure it's not from right by a busy road but from somewhere cleaner," said Vene.
Beekeepers say this year's honey harvest is below average.
"There's not much honey. It was very rainy and bees need more sunshine. Prices haven't reflected that yet, but it's likely they'll start to rise," said professional beekeeper Mart Õun from Mulgi Municipality.
The stand run by the Olustvere Service and Rural Economy School's training apiary even saw lines at times, offering freshly extracted honey, creamed honey and honey blends.
"It looks like honey blends are selling best right now. And honeycomb honey has also been popular," said the school's lead beekeeping instructor, Valmar Lutsar.
While the honey year turned out poor, beekeepers noted a silver lining — it's a good chance to finally sell off honey left over from previous years.
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Editor: Marcus Turovski, Marko Tooming
