Dishoom Covent Garden, the Bombay-style hub for Indian street food, will be adding the honey to its House Granola. The granola is made using toasted oats, seeds, cashews, almonds, pistachios and cinnamon, served with fresh seasonal fruits, dairy vanilla yoghurt and The Yards honey.
Fair Shot Cafe, a social enterprise cafe which helps young adults with learning disabilities find jobs in hospitality, has created its honeyed almond crunches cake and honey fresh mint tea using the honey.
Dalla Terra, the Italian wine bar and restaurant, is using The Yards honey on its Italian Cheese Board, which consists of a selection of fine Italian Artisan cheese from London’s Borough Market. The board includes Parmigiano Reggiano, Toma, Blue, Truffle cow’s milk, seasonal fruits, crackers and of course the local honey.
We spoke with London World about the beekeeping initiative in a recent interview.
Can you tell us a bit more about the history and motivation behind the rooftop beehives at The Yards?
The Yards has been dedicated to fostering sustainability and community engagement from its inception. Our aim is to create a bustling hub for food, entertainment and culture, but we also want to create a relaxing, peaceful environment in central London. Motivated by a desire to contribute positively to the ecosystem and promote biodiversity in the heart of the city, we introduced rooftop beehives to our urban landscape. The rooftop beehives symbolise The Yard’s dedication to fostering a harmonious relationship between urban living and the natural world.
What specific types of honeybees are being kept on the rooftop, and why were they chosen? Does this also affect the honey’s flavour?
The honey bees, scientifically known as “Apis mellifera,” are western honey bees. The primary determinant of the honey’s flavour is the variety of flowers growing within a specific radius of the honeybee’s hive, from which they gather nectar and pollen. Typically, honeybees will cover a distance of up to two miles in all directions from their hive for foraging, and the types of plants they visit during this process significantly influence the taste, colour, and texture of the resulting honey. This year we have had two colonies of bees on our rooftop with about 240,000 bees.
Are there any further plans for expanding this beekeeping initiative?
We will continue the ongoing care and maintenance of our bee colonies. Each year, we are excited to engage in the process of harvesting our locally sourced Yards honey, a tradition that allows us to appreciate the natural diversity of our surroundings and the unique flavours it imparts to our honey. The best thing to help support our bees is to plant lots of flowers which produce the nectar and pollen they need to eat and survive. Flowering trees, shrubs and individual flowers, don’t just look great, but all help pollinators and there’s loads to choose from. Getting ones that flower at different times of year is good, as there is less forage about in spring and autumn so well thought out planting really helps here. Once pollinated, by the bees, seeds will turn into fruit that other wildlife eat. It’s a win-win for everyone.