Prairie Bee Meadery rolling along with changing times

New storefront in Grant Hall just one interesting aspect as local business aims to take advantage of post-pandemic era

In been a time of change for Prairie Bee Meadery due to the ongoing pandemic and a positive eye focused on the future; the local mead and honey-wine producer continues to create new and exciting offerings for their loyal customer base.

Previously situated at 23 Main Street North, Prairie Bee recently completed a move down the street into the Grant Hall Hotel at 401 Main St. N. In a smaller space that works really well, optimism is sparking at the new partnership working with the Grant Hall. Back to business as usual for Prairie Bee Meadery includes selling their delicious selection of meads and honey wines. The old favourites like Traditional Bee, Melon Mist and Strawberry Splash are still there and popular as ever, with some new future favourites coming down the line in the coming weeks. That includes their new limitedrun saskatoon and haskamp berry mead as well as a special bochet — mead made with caramelized honey — that has an extra interesting connection. It’s a dark wine with really rich, caramelly flavours, then aged in bourbon barrels so it has some nice, rich bourbon notes in it as well, Milburn said in describing the unique offering, which will carry the name Bourbon Bochet. The libation was developed this past summer as part of the CityTV television show Flat Out Food, which featured host Jenn Sharp going through the process of creating mead with Prairie Bee, including the creation of Bourbon Bochet. That whole experience was featured in a MooseJawToday.com article, which you can read at https://tinyurl.com/ydndmfur. Owner Crystal Milburn says she loves the idea of eating what is grown right here and certainly when we’re talking about honey, Saskatchewan has some of the best honey in the world and we have a lot of it, so there’s no reason that it shouldn’t be featured. As delicious as the new stuff will be, Prairie Bee has no plans to stop offering the amazing creations that help build them into what they are today.

There are also the old favourites, like blueberry (Blueberry Bliss), haskap (Haskap Haven) and with the growth of sour cherries there will always be there (Cherry Charm), although she admits that it is fun to play around with flavours and see what might come out of it. Prairie Bee sources their fruit as locally as possible: either growing it themselves, finding a local vendor they can buy from or going through a Canadian fruit broker if all else fails. And speaking of their locally grown fruit, Prairie Bee plans to once again start offering tours of their Grandpa’s Garden farm and winery on May 1, offering a complete look at the entire process that creates their delicious goods. A lot of people don’t know what mead is and don’t know what to expect, so a lot of what the meadery does is educational. “People can come out and we’ll talk about bees and what they do to make honey and the importance of caring for the bee population; we’ll talk a bit about the history of mead and how long people have been drinking it and then about the operation itself and how we turn honey into something notso-sweet but lovely and drinkable,” said Milburn. Those looking to purchase Praire Bee’s offerings can do so at one of the 80 Saskatchewan stores offering their libations or do so through their website at prairiebeemeadery.ca. There, you’ll also find plenty of information on their products as well as lots of answers to any questions you may have. As for the further future for Prairie Bee Meadery, it’s all a matter of keeping-on, keeping-on and looking forward to what happens once the pandemic has waned. The hopes are for tourism to pick up with the opportunity to meet face-to-face and taste the product sometime in the future, but please drop by the store located at the Grant Hall hotel, 401 Main St. N or by calling 306.692.6323 for current information.

Crystal Milburn with some of Prairie Bee Meadery’s award-winning product in their new Grant Hall location.

Honey bees are where Prairie Bee Meadery’s product all starts. Getty Images Some of the many meads and honey wines for sale at Prairie Bee Meadery.

PRAIRIE BEE MEADERY

MOOSE JAW, SASKATCHEWAN

Prairie Bee is Saskatchewan’s rst craft meadery. We hand-craft our meads in small batches which means that every bottle has our personal touch – and seal of approval. The fruits that are incorporated into our wines are all-Canadian, and many of them are estate-grown on our Saskatchewan farm! We have products with nishes that range from sweet to dry. Truly a treasure for every palate.