Kentucky Crafted: The Market will have Jun Bug probiotic honey soda

Kentucky Crafted: The Market returns to the Lexington Convention Center, 430 West Vine Street, on Saturday and Sunday. In addition to all the great art, there will be specialty food products from Kentucky Proud members. One of the hottest products around will be there: Jun Bug, a probiotic honey soda. Related to kombucha, jun is made by fermenting honey and tea. Jun (pronounced June) Bug is made with local raw honey, white tea and Kentucky spring water, according to Jun Bug’s Marcus Wilkerson. It’s also available at Good Foods Co-op.

The Kentucky Proud vendors, including Boone Creek Creamery, Cappy’s Caramel Corn, Crank & Boom, Elmwood Inn teas, Gents beverages, River Rat Beer Cheese and many more will be in the north end of the convention center exhibit hall, and many will offer free samples. The craft market is 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are available at the door for $10 for one day, $15 for both. Children 15 and younger are admitted free.

▪  The Bluegrass Trust Antiques and Garden Show is Friday and Saturday at the Kentucky Horse Park’s Alltech Arena. In addition to featuring antiques, furnishings and beautiful flowers, the keynote speaker at noon Friday will be writer Julia Reed, author of But Mama Always Put Vodka in Her Sangria (a favorite of mine) and Ham Biscuits, Hostess Gowns and Other Southern Specialties. Her next book, Julia Reed’s South: Spirited Entertaining and High Style Fun All Year Long, comes out in May. Tickets for the garden show, which opens at 10 a.m., are available online for $20 a day or $35 for the run of the show. The lunch and lecture with Reed is $65 and includes a daily show ticket.

▪  I’ll be on Food, News and Chews Radio, with Twitch, Sylvia Lovely and chef Jeremy Ashby, talking about the local food and restaurant scene at 1 p.m. Saturday on WVLK-590 AM.

▪  St. John & Myers, which sells antique and period jewelry at 400 Old Vine Street, will host a Downton Abbey Tea from 2 to 4 p.m. March 12. Enjoy a free traditional English tea service, commiserate about the end of the series and shop for jewelry for the Fabby Abbey Ball next month at Spindletop Hall.

▪  Azur, 3070 Lakecrest Circle, will host a Cookies and Cocktails dinner at 7 p.m. March 22. The event will pay tribute to Girl Scout cookies by pairing them with signature cocktails. The goat cheese, chive and lemon souffle is paired with a basil bourbon sour and Lemonades cookies; salmon is paired with cranberry shrub cocktail and Cranberry Citrus Crisps cookies; Caribbean caramel and macadamia nut-encrusted pork tenderloin is paired with a Caramel deLites Manhattan and Caramel deLites cookie. It’s $65 plus tax and tip. Call 859-296-1007 for reservations.

▪  Falls City Beer, established in Louisville in 1905 and revived in 2010, is extending its lineup from two bottled varieties to seven — adding a new year-round offering tied to Louisville’s pre-Prohibition bourbon industry, plus a family of seasonal releases. The first two of the new bottled varieties, Kentucky Common and Easy Goer Session IPA will join Falls City’s existing offerings, Falls City Pale Ale and Hipster Repellant IPA, on store shelves beginning this week.

▪  Louisville-based Copper & Kings American Brandy Co. is launching the CR&FTWERK series: small batch, American brandy aged for 12 months in oak barrels previously used to age eclectic American craft beers from 3 Floyds, Sierra Nevada, Oskar Blues and Against the Grain breweries. The allocated release will be available in select liquor stores and bars in Copper & Kings’ current 22-market footprint. Each new brandy expression is 55.5% ABV and 111 proof with a suggested retail price of $50 for a 750 ml. bottle.

This story was originally published March 3, 2016 at 11:51 AM with the headline "Kentucky Crafted: The Market will have Jun Bug probiotic honey soda."