NORTHRIDGE, California — The sky is impossibly blue and the
scenery picturesque on this Los Angeles hilltop. And though
there’s a chilling breeze in the air, the Hassidic beekeeper is
undeterred.  Humming, Uri Laio kneels down to add some dry
leaves to a tin can, which will soon burn into the smoke used to
tame his buzzing friends. Moments later, he gracefully slips
into a white beekeeping suit, where his bushy beard and kind
eyes are barely visible behind the protective veil.   For the
past two years Laio has been tending six hives in the outskirts
of Los Angeles to make the purest honey possible for Rosh
Hashanah. His hives are gated inside the backyard of the
Highland Hall Waldorf School in Northridge, where his bees
pollinate the fruits and vegetables growing on the school’s
biodynamic farm.  The 29-year-old California native uses the
reinvigorated ancient practices of “backwards beekeeping,” a
treatment-free method relying on observations rather than
pesticides or chemicals. Whereas most commercial beeke