Grand Opening – New Tourism Attractions

Moose Jaw, June 7, 2024 – Prairie Bee Meadery inaugurated their new tourism attractions dedicated to beekeeping and mead production in the presence of guests, employees, partners, and family.  This unique artisan-at-work program offers an opportunity to discover traditional practices that have endured through the ages and allows guests to experience the blend of science and art that creates delicious mead.

Tourist Experience

Prairie Bee Meadery offers two separate tour themes to immerse visitors in the fascinating world of bees and mead production. The family friendly Pollinator Pathway explores the relationship between humanity and its honey-producing partners, while the Honey Wine Highway details the history and process of mead making.

Guests are invited to plan a trip to the farm, 20km west of Moose Jaw, where they can sit, sip and savour food & mead options, enjoy a self-guided or guided tour, display their creative side in the crafting pavilion, or enhance their visit with an app-based audio tour and/or treasure hunt games.

This project has been supported by an $83,800 repayable contribution from PrairiesCan under the Tourism Growth Program. This contribution has allowed Prairie Bee Meadery to create attractions that can both support the tourism visitor experience and provide educational content to local organizations.

“We’re proud to support Canada’s tourism industry in offering fun experiences for visitors from near and far, creating jobs and growing our economy,” said the Honourable Dan Vandal. “Unique attractions like at Prairie Bee Meadery entice tourists to visit our communities and experience Saskatchewan’s warm hospitality.”

From Bee to Bottle

Prairie Bee Meadery creates international award-winning meads handcrafted in small batches using premium Saskatchewan honey, derived from clover, alfalfa, and wildflowers. Real fruit is incorporated into the wines, creating a variety of delectably flavoured meads in a range of finishes to satisfy any palate.

Crystal Milburn, co-owner and mead maker at Prairie Bee Meadery explains “This journey started with our U-pick in the summer of 2012 and has evolved from there.  The bees have supported us in pollinating our crops and creating the honey surplus that made opening a meadery feasible.  In this evolution we have re-seeded 2 acres to native grass and wildflowers for prairie pollinators and we have opened our operation to a wider audience.  We can now welcome schools and other groups in low-cost educational activities, we have a crafting pavilion where we can host other local artisans, we are drawing on technology to deliver on demand audio tours and treasure hunts through the Prairie Bee Meadery app in English (and eventually French) and we will now have food and drink available for purchase onsite.   The guided winery tours and sampling that people have enjoyed for the past several years are still being offered with new enhancements.  It has been a lot of work, and we will continue to evolve, but for now we are celebrating this milestone.  We encourage people to come visit Prairie Bee Meadery and try something different!”

About the Tourism Growth Program

Tourism drives economic development and diversification in many regions and communities across Canada. Delivered by Canada’s regional development agencies, the Tourism Growth Program provides $108 million over 3 years to support Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities, small and medium-sized businesses, and not-for-profit organizations in developing local tourism products and experiences. The program also complements other federal, provincial and territorial supports for the tourism industry.

About Prairie Bee Meadery

Prairie Bee Meadery is Saskatchewan’s premiere meadery.  We are a female-led, rural family-owned business based near Caron, Saskatchewan, 20km west of Moose Jaw.  We are artisans.  We craft local premium honey into international award-winning wines and present world-class tourism encounters in a fun, educational and unexpected way.

Prairie Bee Meadery began as an off-shoot of Grandpas Garden U-pick operation, using surplus honey harvested from the bees pollinating the farm fruit. Opening in 2016, the meadery and its products have been embraced by the Saskatchewan community. Years of drought conditions have resulted in the closure of the U-Pick, but some limited fruit growing continues for mead making.  Prairie Bee products are sold at farmers markets, at 100+ liquor retailers across the province, in multiple provinces and at the Prairie Bee retail store at the Grant Hall Hotel in Moose Jaw.

Sources:

For Prairie Bee Meadery

Crystal & Gerard Millburn, owners

306 313-7817 | inquiries@prairiebeemeadery.ca | prairiebeemeadery.ca

@PrairiesCanEn