So you may or may not be a Mediaeval Viking, but that should not stop you from enjoying your own homemade mead, one of the world’s oldest alcoholic beverages. Mead is made from a simple blend of honey and water, then fermented with yeast. Join urban beekeeper Fran Freeman as she leads a group through the making of a delicately-flavoured ginger mead with lemon zest from all-natural wildflower honey.

Fran will cover the terminology and history of mead, issues of safety and sanitation, and talk about hive products in the context of food security and declining pollinator health. Participants will learn about warming techniques, cooling, straining and pouring growlers, and using fermentation locks. Everyone leaves with 2-litres of mead-in-the-making to continue the fermentation process at home, simple instructions, and recipe variations for future mead-making adventures. Each participant will be provided with a reusable glass growler, fermentation lock and bung.

$65 +HST
($50 + $15 for materials)

—–
Fran Freeman has been managing honey bees in both urban and rural settings for over a decade. Using sustainable, organic practices, she cares for honey bees at several apiaries in west-end Toronto. As hive consciousness she runs workshops on bees and sustainable beekeeping, with a particular emphasis on keeping bees in the city, while marketing sustainable hive products as Sticky Bees Urban Honey. This fall watch for a Certificate programme in Sustainable Urban Beekeeping at Humber Arboretum’s Centre for Urban Ecology in conjunction with Humber College.

—–
Every Monday, The Depanneur invites TO’s best culinary talents to lead fun, hands-on workshops.