East Kent Ploughing Match 2019

Posted on by August 15, 2019

The East Kent Ploughing Match will be held on 25th September at West Court Farm, Shepherdswell, CT15 5PZ.
Website: https://www.ekpma.co.uk/event

Established for over 70 years in East Kent this popular annual event attracts between 3,000 and 4,500 people each year from the agricultural community as well as all walks of life. The event not only draws tough competition between modern, old and horse drawn ploughs, but is a fantastic outing and educational opportunity.

Canterbury Beekeepers partners with other local associations to run a beekeeping stall, where we sell honey and talk about bees.  The enthusiast can enter honey (set or runny) into the Women’s section show.  Note that the closing date for entries is 23rd August. For more details, please see the schedule:

EKPMA-2019-scheduleDownload

This year EKPMA has organised the following:
Ladies Section * Horse Plough Classes * Classes for Ploughs * Vintage Tractors and Ploughs * Grain * Vegetables * Poultry and Eggs Class * Preserves, Cakes and Handicrafts * Tossing the Sheaf * Display of Vintage Tractors and Engines * Craft Tent * The Hawking Centre: Birds of Prey flying display * Have a Go Archery * Terrier Racing * Tickham Hunt and Blean Beagles

Getting Ready for Honey Shows

Posted on by July 28, 2019

At our apiary meeting this weekend, we extracted honey from supers collected from our Palmsted Wood bees. We also talked about the bottling process, and how you can use the commonsense that should be applied to preparing a foodstuff, to getting a few bottles of honey ready for honey shows.

The following links provide some introductory and detailed instructions on how to get honey ready for shows. It may seem intimidating, but remember that the local honey shows value participation, as much as perfection, so why not give your honey a chance, by entering a local show? Some examples are given below.

Preparing for a show

Introductory notes: https://www.bedsbka.org.uk/honey-show/preparing-for-the-honey-show/ . Notes for competitive beekeepers: http://www.petersfieldbeekeepers.org.uk/honey-show/preparing-for-a-honey-show/

Thanet Honey Show

Part of Acol Horticultural Show (Saturday 21st September) . Typical schedule: http://canterburybeekeepers.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Honey-Show-schedule-TBKA-2014.pdf 

2019 East Kent Ploughing Match 

SEPTEMBER 25, 2019, WEST COURT FARM, SHEPHERDSWELL, CT15 5PZ  https://www.ekpma.co.uk/event Look in the Womens’ Section for foodstuff classes

Apple Festival at Brogdale 

19-20 October, https://www.brogdalecollections.org/festivals-events/  . Not a honey show, but you can sell your honey at the Canterbury Beekeepers stall.

DDBKA Honey Show 

Saturday October 19th , Shepherdswell Village Hall. Here is the schedule from last year’s show – they don’t change much from year to year: https://canterburybeekeepers.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Dover-Honey-Show-Schedule-2018-corrected-version.pdf . And here is a report on a recent show: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwQjvw_j15lgazdGM2ZJSjM4WjA/view 

National Honey Show 

24-26 October 2019, Sandown Park, Esher. Last year’s schedule for illustrative purposes:  http://www.honeyshow.co.uk/files/2018/2018-Schedule-Full.pdf . Kent Classes, National classes