Oprah Winfrey has a connection to an Ontario apiary where bees have been farmed for over 50 years. I realize this may be a bit of a stretch, but while Oprah made her ground-breaking Toronto tour stop, I hosted an Oprah “tweet up” for Oprah super fans. There I met...
I first learned of this Beamsville, Niagara apiary through Chef David Garcelon. Chef had been investigating mead and he learned of a winery in Niagara that seemed to have the best product on the market. Chef wanted to make mead too, but chose to leave it to the...
I first met beekeeper Wilfried Van Haeren in my office at the Fairmont Royal York. He was staying at the hotel during an IT convention and, after learning of the project via the news, he “googled” me to visit the hotel’s rooftop hives. After several attempts we...
To date, the Fairmont Royal York holds the undisputed claim for being the first hotel rooftop apiary in the world. The apiary opened in June 0f 2008 with 3 hives and in the summer of 2009 honey production was increased with the addition of 3 more hives to bring the...
The bees making the honey at the Downsview, Toronto location could almost be called rock n’ roll bees, given their close proximity to the band shell that was established in 2003 to welcome the Rolling Stones in 2003. Since then, Downsview has become the prime site...
