A couple of years back, this 5pm Dining blog scribbler was mooching around Berlin for the weekend when we stumbled across a fantastic farmers’ market.
Amidst all the superb sausages, cheese and fungi were lots of jars of honey from rooftop hives in Berlin city centre.
Buzzing neighbourhood
If memory serves, the hives were in the Neukolln district which was the up and coming ultra-hip neighbourhood at the time.
Forget breakfast cereal restaurants, kimchi croissants or kombucha smoothies. If you wanted to be in with the Neukolln in-crowd then you had to have a bee hive on your roof.
Having celebrated its 100th birthday in 2002, Edinburgh’s opulent Balmoral Hotel would seem to have little in common with the edgy, youthful and slightly grimy Neukolln.
Except for bee hives.
The luxury hotel recently unveiled 50,000 permanent bee guests which have been living on the roof of the city centre hotel.
Apparently, they checked in this spring and have already produced some 20 kg of honey which will be served in the hotel’s restaurants and bars.
According to bee keeper Brian Pool, ‘The bees are enjoying their new home high above the Edinburgh skyline. The conditions are excellent and they’ve been travelling to Calton Hill, the Botanic Gardens and Arthur’s Seat to collect nectar and pollen. So far the bees have produced 20kg of honey and look set to continue working hard through the summer months.’
Hive to a la carte
Brian has been training the team at the hotel’s Michelin-starred restaurant, Number One, to ensure that there’s always someone on-site to look after the hive. The Number One team will work with Brian to oversee the production and ensure that each of the hotel’s restaurants and bars receive their fair share of honey.
Number One Head Chef, Brian Grigor, said:
‘We’re thrilled to be working with Scottish Honey on this collaboration and help support this environmentally friendly practice. Brian Pool is a third-generation professional beekeeper with over 40 years of experience, there is no better person placed to look after our five-star bees. It has been fascinating to learn about the honey production process and our team look forward to serving it to our guests this summer.’
