August 29, 2022
The Fairest of the Fair in Sevier County, TN?
If you enjoy county fairs, the Sevier County Fair will be one of your most favorite! In 2022 the Fair will run from August 30 through September 5. The fairgrounds are located at 754 Old Knoxville Highway in Sevierville. Admission is $6 and children younger than 10 are admitted free.
Attendees can watch the cattle, goat, and sheep shows or wander the exhibit hall. Folks from our community are submitting photography, floral arrangements, vegetables and fruits, and arts and crafts for judging. In the exhibit hall you will find a booth with Master Gardeners just waiting to answer your most pressing garden questions.
A popular exhibit from 2021 is back this year—the Butterfly Haven. This live butterfly habitat offers you the opportunity to walk through and see amazing butterflies and plants. Volunteers will be on hand to provide information on the importance of these pollinators. They will offer tips on how to attract butterflies to your own yard.
Fair Has Something for Everyone
Entertainment options include laser tag, a bird show, a bulls and broncs rodeo, and a variety show.
Competitive eaters can participate in eating contests of sausage, donuts, corn dogs, ice cream, watermelon, pizza, French fries, pickles, pies, funnel cakes, spaghetti, barbecue, hot dogs, and corn on the cob. Whew! Or, you could just sample all the delicious food available and decide who your pick would be for the best of the fair food competition.
Corn dogs, funnel cakes, sno-cones…yum!
Children will enjoy this year’s Farm Fest. Activities include sheep shearing, coopering, wool spinning, veggie tasting, digging potatoes, knife forging, apple pressing and corn shuck dolls. Kids who complete the activities will get free ice cream!
We are a competitive bunch here in Sevier County. Competitions this year include a dog fashion show, a lawn mower derby, a mullet contest, a look-alike lip synch contest, and a skillet toss. A crowd favorite is sure to be the Sevier County Fair’s Got Talent talent show!
A wide variety of live music will be available. Performances range from Rock ‘n Roll hits from the 50’s and 60’s, country, classic rock, gospel, and Motown hits.
We hope to see you there! For more information, please visit http://Www.seviercountyfair.org
August 15, 2022
Tudor Mountain Honey Harvest Under Way
This weekend we harvested honey from one of our hives. Several guests have asked us about the process. Earlier in the summer, we placed a “super” on top of our hive. The super is a small box. It sits on top of a “queen excluder” so that no eggs will be laid in the super. When all the frames are covered with honey comb capped in white wax, it is time to harvest.
We don our protective gear and give the bees some gentle puffs from our smoker. The smoke keeps them calm by interfering with their sense of smell. They can’t detect the alarm pheromones being released and thus will not aggressively defend their hive against us. We take out each honey-laden frame, gently brush off the bees, and place it in a covered box. Once we have collected all the frames, it is time for extraction.
Honey Extraction
The scratcher is used to remove the white wax cap from the honeycomb.
We extract the honey on our screened porch so that we keep the stickiness confined to one area, and so that the bees cannot reach us! The first stop is to use a scratcher to remove the wax capping from the cells. We then scrape the honey and wax into a fine-mesh sieve atop a collection bucket. Once the honey has been filtered once, we do a second filtration through cheese cloth and then it is on to bottling!
This year’s honey is a beautiful gold amber color and we can’t wait to see how the Buckhorn Inn chefs use it! We will clean the beeswax and then use it to make candles. More on that process later.
We are careful to only take the extra honey. Our bees need adequate stores to get them through the winter.
In celebration of our harvest, we are offering this simple summer cocktail recipe. Cheers!
The Bee’s Knees
2 ounces gin
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
Combine the ingredients in a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake until chilled. Strain into a glass. Makes one cocktail.
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