Congrats to Chicago O’Hare International Airport and Sweet Beginnings for winning an Illinois State Fair Blue Ribbon “First Premium” award for the honeycomb produced at the airport.
For the past four years, Sweet Beginnings has maintained beehives on O’Hare property and, with two million resident bees, the apiary is one of the largest at any airport in the world.
The airport’s 75 beehives produce over 2,500 pounds of honey per year and the project creates 30-40 jobs for men and women who need work experience or who have been formerly incarcerated.
In a great field-to-airport program, O’Hare’s honey is used in Sweet Beginnings’ Beelove honey and honey-based skin care products, which include moisturizers, exfoliators, shower gels, soaps, and lip balm that for sale at O’Hare and Midway Airports in the Hudson News stores and at the O’Hare Farmer’s Market kiosk.
Beelove honey is also a featured ingredient at celebrity chef Rick Bayless’s Tortas Frontera restaurants in O’Hare.