Giving Back By Barbara Palmer
Take Away
Do Bee Do Bee Do Why are so many hotels breaking out in hives?
When a friend suggested to Executive Chef Myk Banas that he install beehives on one of the rooftops at theChicagoMarriottDowntown,a46- story, 1,200-room property swarming with guests, where Banas directs food-and-beverage operations, the idea seemed a little, well, dangerous. ButBanas—whois socommittedto usinglocal-
ly grown and raised ingredients that the hotel restaurant cures itsownbacon—wasalso intrigued. “You can’t get much more local than up on your own roof,” he said. And, as Banas discovered, whenproperlymanaged,urbanbeekeeping is so safe that Chicago Mayor Richard Daley had an apiary installed on top of City Hall.
ofhoneyfromsixhives last year,anduses the sweet, sticky stuff in numerous dishes, including salad dressings, soups, meat, poultry glazes, pastries, breads, and desserts. At the Chicago Marriott, Banas serves honey at the breakfast buffet, anduses it tomakeRooftopHoneyWheatbeer, which ison tap at the hotel’s bar. In addition to expanding the hotels’ use of
homegrownfoods, the hives provide habitat for bees, the number of which have declined precipitously aroundtheworld in recent years,duetowhatscien- tists term“colonycollapse disorder.”Theexactcaus- es remain unknown, but the phenomenon has been linked to weather and pesticides,amongoth-
The rooftop hives provide habitat for bees, the number of which have declined precipitously around the world in recent years.
Solast year, the hotel added 200,000 Italian hon-
eybees to a ninth-story rooftop, joining a growing number of beekeeping properties in themeetings and hospitality industry. (And since then, Banas notes, there hasn’t been a single bee-vs.-guest inci- dent.)Manyof those apiaries coexist with rooftop gardens—as at the Chicago Marriott,where the bees pollinate the herbs and vegetables grown by hotel kitchen staff. Similarly, the Fairmont RoyalYork inToronto
addedbeehives toalong-establishedrooftopgarden in 2008, Executive Chef David Garcelon said, after staffmembers were struckbythenumber of insects that found
theirwaythere.Thegarden “is 14stories abovedowntown,surroundedbysteelandglassand concrete,”Garcelonsaid. Itwasamazing“to see all the insects that find that little patch of greenupthere —ladybugs and butterflies and honeybees.…We thought:‘We could have ourownbees.’” TheFairmont harvestedmore than400pounds
er things. “It’snosecret that bees have had a rough go of things,” Banas
said.Manypeople, he added, don’tknowthat in the United States, bees pollinate most of the plant food we eat. In a small way, the urban hives are helpingto maintainthe bee popula- tion, Banas said, as well as to pollinate trees and flowers indowntownChicago, because bees forage in an average three-mile radius around their hives. At the Fairmont Royal York, the bees have
becomepart ofagardentourforguests, saidMelanie Coates,aToronto-based regional director of public relations forFairmontHotels&Resorts,whofound the bee project—andthebees—so fascinating that she became a licensed beekeeper. Coates lends her expertise not just toFairmontRoyalYork staff,but also to anyone with an interest in beekeeping. The best thingaboutenvironmentalinitiatives like the bee- hives is that “it is notatrade secret,” Coates said. “It is something youwant to share with others—and hope that people will catch the spirit.”
ON_THE_WEB: Listen to a podcast about the Fairmont Royal York’s honey harvest — featuring beekeeper Melanie Coates and Executive Chef David Garcelon — at
http://tiny.cc/6rMPO. Watch a beekeeper-narrated video about beehives on the six-acre roof of the Vancouver Convention Centre at
http://tiny.cc/vJT1L.
22 pcma convene March 2010 ILLUSTRATION BY ROBERT HANSON
Hive Society “I’man officeworker, not a farmer,” said Melanie Coates, bee- keeper and Toronto- based regional public- relations director for Fairmont Hotels & Resorts. But Coates’ workwith the hives at the Fairmont Royal York gives her a “very fulfilling connection with nature.”Bee soci- ety also offers some- thing of amirror. “I’m standing there looking at the beehives, and looking at the sky- scrapers [filled with people]… and it’s the same thing,”Coates said. “There arework- er bees and drones, and the queen, the guiding strength of the hive. It’s similar to a corporation; there are a lot of parallels.”
Barbara Palmer is a senior editor of Convene.
Giving Back is a new department sponsored by Fairmont Hotels & Resorts,
www.fairmont.com.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108