Borough Market will be inspiring visitors to support urban honey bees with a hive to honey showcase on 25th May, as part of the Chelsea Fringe.
The Market Hall will be humming with bee experts who’ll provide an abundance of planting ideas for urban spaces, as well as sharing their expertise about hives and urban bee keeping. Author of ‘Planting for Honey Bees: the growers guide to creating a buzz’, Sarah Wyndham-Lewis will be taking part in a live chat at the market to discuss the best ways of attracting bees to our gardens, there will be a planting installation to showcase bee-friendly blooms and free seeds to plant at home.
Borough Market’s demo kitchen will host chef Angela Clutton and Borough Market honey trader, From Field and Flower, for a honey cookery demonstration from 1 – 2.30pm. Dishes will include: sardines with honeyed fennel, capers and mint; honey-poached peaches with goat’s cheese and thyme; honey roasted wet garlic sauce and lavender honey madeleines with a quick raspberry compote. Recipes will be available for people to take away to try at home, along with tasters to inspire customers to include honey in their cooking.
Visitors can learn how to help our urban dwelling bees and meet urban beekeeper, Dale Gibson of Bermondsey Street Bees, while getting a close up look at his bees in their glass hive.
The Bee Friendly Trust will also be on hand with its Beemobile, offering a range of activities aimed at building understanding about honey bees, including the chance for visitors to make their own seed bomb. The trust’s dance troupe will be demonstrating the ‘waggle dance’; mimicking the figure of eight movement that the honey bee performs to share information about flower location.
Ann Ball, trustee of Borough Market said: “We want to inspire our visitors to establish and sustain bee-friendly gardens across London and beyond - creating urban pollinator corridors where honeybees and other pollinators have the habitats they need in order to thrive. Honey bees are so important to the whole lifecycle of the plants and fresh produce that we offer at Borough Market; we want to help reverse the decline and grow the population - as well as providing a fantastic, sustainable ingredient to use in our recipes.”
The Chelsea Fringe runs from 19th – 27th May and aims to spread excitement around gardens and gardening through a series of diverse events across London and the rest of the UK. Borough Market’s event will take place from 10am – 4 pm in the Market Hall on 25th May, admission free.
