Bees to Blooms: Honey Farm Tour and Botanic Gardens Lunch

Bees to Blooms brings together two uniquely Southern Highlands experiences for a relaxed day exploring the connection between bees, flowers, food and the landscape around us. Beginning at Bowral Honey Farm and continuing at the Southern Highlands Botanic Gardens, the experience follows the story of pollination from the hive to the garden and ultimately to our tables. Along the way, there is plenty to taste, see and discover, with passionate local guides sharing their knowledge in two beautiful Bowral settings.Your experience begins at 11 am at Bowral Honey Farm, a working apiary located within the historic grounds of Retford Park. Wearing a beekeeper’s veil, you’ll head alongside the hives with your guide to observe the bees at work and learn about the remarkable life of a honey bee colony, from the queen and workers to honey production, seasonal changes and the vital role bees play as pollinators. Back at the teaching area, you’ll see how a modern hive works before settling onto the terrace overlooking the lake for a guided tasting of six seasonal honeys. Just as wine reflects different grapes and regions, each honey tells the story of the flowers and landscape the bees have visited, with differences in colour, aroma, texture and flavour. The tasting is accompanied by a relaxed morning tea of freshly baked sourdough, tea and coffee. Bowral Honey Farm grew from small-scale beekeeping and backyard experiences into a dedicated agritourism business, and today welcomes visitors to its apiary at Retford Park—a historic Southern Highlands property with a European history dating back to land grants in 1821 and later closely associated with philanthropist and arts patron James Fairfax.At approximately 12:30 pm, you’ll make the short journey (in your own car) to the Southern Highlands Botanic Gardens, where a catered lunch box will be waiting for you. Find your own favourite picnic spot amongst the lawns and gardens before joining one of the Gardens’ enthusiastic team for a guided garden walk and pollinator talk. You’ll explore how flowering plants and pollinators depend on one another, discover plants particularly valuable to bees and other insects, and look more closely at the extraordinary diversity of a cool-climate garden through the seasons. The Southern Highlands Botanic Gardens grew from a community vision first formed by a group of local enthusiasts in 1998. The present site was selected in 2009 and the project officially launched in 2010, with the Gardens developing as a community-funded 15-hectare botanic garden showcasing both native and exotic cool-climate plants, including nationally registered plant collections.Please note:

• Lunch consists of a catered individual box with sandwiches, a piece of fruit and a sweet. You can let us know of any restrictions once booked.
• We need a minimum of 10x guests to proceed with this experience. We'll be in touch a few days before the event if we haven't hit the minimum number.

Honey farm tour, morning tea, lunch and pollinator talk at Botanic Gardens. Read more details