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| Bees fly to the hive on the hotel rooftop. Photo: The Fairmont Washington, D.C. |
As "chief beekeepers," executive sous chef Ian Bens and executive pastry chef Aron Weber share the responsibilities of maintaining the three colonies -- Casa Bianca, Casa Bella and Casa Blanca.
So why bees? Weber tells Slashfood he got the idea when he visited the Fairmont Royal York in Toronto and saw their rooftop hives flourishing in an urban setting. The D.C. Fairmont already had an interior courtyard garden that produced fresh herbs and edible flowers like lavender, peppermint and rosemary, so the bees seemed like a logical step to further extend the chefs' ideology in keeping products as fresh and local as possible.
"I think it's just another idea of doing something really good for the environment, something beyond the herb garden," Weber says.
The first inhabitants of the Fairmont's bee colony came from Larry and David Reece of Germantown, Md., and were brought to the rooftop via the hotel's service elevator. Since then, Weber admits that the beekeeping has been a lot easier than he thought.
"The hardest thing is constantly researching and getting a feel for the bees," Weber says. "It's been really fascinating because it's just been a lot of observation."
So are beehives the newest trend in the locavore movement? Perhaps. Even the White House is getting in on the action, as they brought a beehive to the South Lawn earlier this year.
Bens and Weber hope to begin using the honey in their dishes this fall. Right now, their focus is to keep the colonies healthy so that they will be able to showcase their artisanal product at its full potential without rushing the process.
Once the honey does make its long-awaited debut at Juniper, don't expect to find it hidden in a dish somewhere.
"We really want a unique product -- keep it on its own," Weber says. "Let the real flavor shine through so you can taste what a local product tastes like."
Weber plans to serve the honey drizzled over the restaurant's cheese course and lemon sorbets. The hotel's lobby lounge also plans to feature the honey in a "beetini" cocktail.
Sarah LeTrent is an intern at AOL Food.
6-20-2009 @9:27AM Ted said... The keeping of bees in NYC is commendable, but may not be practical in the long run. Depending on the distance to the nectar and pollen sources, honey production my be limited.
For bees stationed there, there will probably be only one harvest of honey per year (in the fall after the food sources have dwindled.
If, after debut of the new offerings, the new treats catch on, I doubt that the three colonies will be able to produce enough honey to supply the restaurant year-round.
The chefs may begin to purchse honey from outside vendors, but continue to advertise advertise it as their own roof-top product. That would be bad and deceitful.
It would be better for them to truthfully expand and promote consumption of specialized honeys that are primaily made from buckwheat, goldenrod, melons, pumpkins, apples, pears, etc. Each has a distinctive color and flavor and could be served with specialized food dishes to team up selective flavors.
Although I no longer keep bee colonies, I used to.
They are a truly fun and rewarding experience.
If the chefs want to "go over the top" with promotions, they should acquire several colonies of native-American bees in addition to the imported European bees they now have.
On a recent trip to NW Pennsylvania, I encountered a wild colony of native bees that were heavily working wild blackberry blooms. What a treat the harvest of honey from that hive would be this Fall!
Unfortunately, harvesting from a hollow tree trunk is an arduous and destructive task. Transferring that bee colony to a segmented, man-made hive would facilitate the harvest, and actually be beneficial to the colony.
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6-20-2009 @10:01AM susana said... Dont be surprised if the bees sting someone and they die and you get sued by the family!
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6-20-2009 @11:12AM shan68ok said... To the first commenter, Washington DC, not NYC. Lots of parks and the rooftop garden at the very same hotel. If the bees don't find enough nectar for their needs they will swarm and find a place on their own.
To the second poster, keeping bees is not any more dangerous to customers than them walking down the street. The bees are kept outside, there would be no way to determine if the bee in question came from the hotel's hives.
For my own comment, the italian bees make excellent honey, but they are mean little buggers. Territorial, like to stay close to the hive if enough nectar is available, but they don't swarm over a victim like the "killer" bees.
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6-20-2009 @12:01PM Amanda said... Cool!
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6-20-2009 @12:51PM ssk said... they said to expect a rise in flu in the fall, this could be breeding of killer african bees which carry the flu virus, little known to many people
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6-20-2009 @1:03PM B-Low said... Oh No, Not the Bees!
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6-20-2009 @1:43PM joel rambaud said... Kind a funny my Family has been raising bees for "centuries as natural sweetner" never heard any bee keeper to make 2 harvest a year . as far as the bee being a nuisance , take a close look at what you eat 80% is made possible by the bee and no one else ......
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6-21-2009 @7:56AM mw said... It may be green, but how much fuel did it take to bring bees in?
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6-21-2009 @8:17AM dave said... If I remember correctly the honey bee was having a hard time here in the U.S. and was even in a decline. Using honey as a sweetner is better than a processed sweetner, so it is a win/win situation in my book. Good job Fairmont! hope it works out as you plan.
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6-21-2009 @9:58AM UberOllie said... Or what? You’ll release the dogs, or the bees, or the dogs with bees in their mouths and when they bark they shoot bees at you? Well, go ahead—do your worst! --- Homer
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6-21-2009 @10:38AM Jill said... If you appreciate Honey Bees like I do and you want another way to share your love of nature here is a cool thing I give. Its called a TickleMe Plant and it is a real plant that you grow that will close its leaves and lower its branches when tickled. My students love it and 99% of the people that I give TickleMe Plants to have never had their own house plant that moves when tickled. You can get a TickleMe Plant Greenhouse to grow your own at http://www.ticklemeplant.com It will provide hours of hands on entertainment.
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6-21-2009 @10:54AM Mozelle said... We need our honey bees. People can help. Grow flowers, plants or herbs in pots. Hang them from your porch or patio in beatufil Macrame Hangers. Every condo or high rise should have flowers growing on balconies. Plants also clean the air. Spider Plants are good for cleaning the air. They suck in Carbon Dioxide and give off clean oxygen. You can buy Hangers and Plants on eBay fairly cheap. We all need to do our part.
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6-21-2009 @3:06PM Kate said... Joel, my brother-in-law harvests twice a year. I imagine it's highly dependent on climate and habitat. The more nectar is available, the more honey the bees will produce, so you can harvest more often without worrying about depleting their supply too much.
mw, i can't speak to how much fuel is used shipping a hive (it varies considerably by weight) but shipping one colony of bees hardly takes any fuel at all because bees are light. The last colony I handled contained 4,000 bees and, to me, it weighed less than a football. So 105,000 bees would be about like shipping 26-27 footballs.
Not a huge fuel expenditure, especially when you consider the amount of carbon that would be going into the air if they sourced their honey from Europe (where most of the world's honey is produced as I recall). Besides, local honey tastes SO much better than that mass-produced, watered down, sometimes with sugar added in clover DRECK that you get at the grocery store. (As long as you don't let your bees near laurel, but at that point you've got way bigger concerns than the taste.)
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6-22-2009 @12:40AM Fil said... I love this idea. Being an urban beekeeper myself, It truly is amazing the diversity of plants the bees will find on their own. They can travel up to 2 miles to find nourishment for the hive.
As for the expense of shipping bees. Most likely they came from a bee supplier in the US who raised them there. A pound of bees contain about 3,500 bees, so guessing by the three hives they have about 10 pounds per hive to start. Not too shabby, but an abundance of honey the first year to take off and use? You can dream.
Lastly, in the Bee Culture Magazine article that featured the White House Hive, it stated that within Washington's city limits, bees can only be kept on Federal Property. Has the Fairmont joined the ranks of guerrilla urban beekeepers?
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