Foligno, Where Honey Warms Up November

Fernando Checchini, Umbrian Regional Assessor of “Agricultural Politics” (literal translation), put it this way: “Bees and honey are important for the well-being of all. Bees offer a very high quality product and are important indicators of the level of biodiversity in our territories. Without their impollination, this biodiversity would be severely undermined.” At Foligno’s autumn festival, Autunno in Piazza, the sixth Forum of Mediterranean Bee-Raising, was a key part of the section of the festival devoted to honey, Mielinumbria.

Foligno’s main square backdrops the Mielinumbria food fair

Mielinumbria attracts honey fans from all over

Autunno in piazza

For this three-pronged early November festival celebrating Umbrian autumn goodness, stands dedicated to wild mushrooms and olive oils, too, line Foligno alleyways and palazzo courtyards, but the honey mostra-mercato (literally, “show-and-sell” fair) tent attracted the most visitors. At the first stand in the food tent, Little Elena, licking honey off a plastic spoon, was the perfect draw to her mother’s stand of honey varieties. Chestnut, eucalyptus, linden, lemon blossom, orange flower, acacia and millefiori (literally, “thousands of flowers’) are just the headliners.

Mushrooms are on show, too, at this autumn festival in Foligno

Wild mushrooms on display

The mushroom display in a vaulted palazzo courtyard

Elena licking honey at her mother’s stand

At the next stand, we tasted pecorino (sheep’s milk cheese) dipped in acacia honey and then on to hazelnuts and walnuts preserved in honey. Other stands offered honey-filled dark chocolates, honeys with fruit juices, tasty fruit sauces for cheeses and meats highlighted with honeys, honey grappa, honey liqueurs, honey/hazelnut spreads, beeswax candles and even face creams and hand creams made with honey.

Pecorino and acacia honey: a tasty duo

Trying a hand cream with honey

Homemade hand soaps and body creams with honey

Offering tastes of grappa with honey

Honeys with fruits, too: peach, green apple, lemon, blueberry, strawberry and raspberry

Enticing sauces for meats and cheeses, all made with honey and fruit varieties

You’ll enjoy our honey liqueur

Honey tastings as you go from stand-to-stand

At the back of the tent, honey sommeliers from Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Malta, Palestine, Syria and Albania sat on wooden benches around plank tables, inhaling honey smells, licking honey off tiny spoons (slice of apples between honey tastes) as experts guided them (in Italian and Arabic) in honey-tastings. “This one offers hints of thyme..can you pick up the oregano in this one? Rosemary hints in this other one..” Who ever knew honey could be so alluring?