Visit The Morton Arboretum on Saturday, August 29, and Sunday, August 30, for Honeybee Weekend, a celebration of honeybees, beneficial insects, and the vital roles that pollinators play in our environment and food systems.
Explore the fascinating world of honeybees, beekeeping, and mead making while browsing locally made honey, beeswax products, pollinator-friendly plants, artisanal goods, and other bee-inspired items.
Through hands-on activities and educational exhibits, learn about native bees and insect pollinators that support healthy landscapes, and the honeybees and beekeepers that support our food systems. Also, discover ways to help them thrive in your own community.
Honeybee Weekend is included with Arboretum general admission.
Mead Tasting
Purchase tickets to sample locally crafted meads in the Arboretum’s Gerard T. Donnelly Grand Garden.
Mead-Making Workshop
Register for an introductory Mead-Making Workshop and learn the fundamentals of mead fermentation, ingredient selection, and flavor development.
Your purchases help support the Arboretum’s vision of a greener, healthier, more beautiful world where people and trees thrive together.
Vendors
Purchase honey and beeswax products from local artisan vendors.
A list of participating vendors will be available closer to the event date.
Mead Tasting
Purchase Mead Tasting tickets to sample locally crafted meads from across the Midwest, hosted from noon to 3:00 p.m. in the Arboretum’s Gerard T. Donnelly Grand Garden on Sunday, August 30.
Meet regional mead makers and learn how honey is turned into mead, while tasting craft varieties with distinctive floral and fruit-forward flavors.
Tickets
Mead Tasting tickets must be purchased online and in advance. Tickets will be available soon.
Mead-Making Workshop
Discover the art and science of making mead in this introductory workshop. Mead—often called honey wine—is one of the oldest fermented beverages in the world, made simply from honey, water, and yeast, yet capable of incredible variety and depth of flavor.
In this workshop, you’ll learn the fundamentals of mead fermentation, ingredient selection, and flavor development.
Registration
Online advance registration is required.
Cost: $165 (includes a mead-making kit)
Member cost: $150 (includes a mead-making kit)
Workshop cost includes a one-gallon mead-making kit and ingredients to customize your mead.
Participants must bring four to five pounds of honey to the first meeting, or purchase honey during workshop registration for an additional cost of $50.
Food and Drinks
Sample honey produced by Chicago-area hives and purchase refreshments from vendors during the event.
Ginkgo Restaurant and Café
Food and beverages are available at the Ginkgo Restaurant and the Ginkgo Café, both located in the Visitor Center.
The Ginkgo Restaurant is a sit-down restaurant that offers a full lunch and beverage menu, including freshly made sandwiches, salads, burgers, and assorted alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages. The restaurant is open from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., Wednesday through Friday, and from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. on weekends.
Freshly made packaged salads and sandwiches, bakery items, espresso beverages, hot tea, and drip coffee are available at the Ginkgo Café, open daily from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 pm.
