New York City is Sweet with Rooftop Honey


You may think of New York City as a concrete jungle with not much to offer in the way of nature. If you think like this, you are wrong. There are many rooftop gardens and even beekeepers in this city in addition to parks and other green spaces. Some people use their gardens as escapes and other decide to make further use of them by keeping bees.

Naomi Sarna

Naomi Sarna, a gem carver, loves to enjoy her garden she has on her rooftop. She is in heaven amongst her vegetables, fruits, plants and bees. Heaven on earth is how she described it as she was interviewed by CBN News. Naomi is not alone in her love of beekeeping as many hundreds of New Yorkers enjoy this activity.

Andrew Cote

"A lot of people get into beekeeping because they just want a little ocean of calm," stated Andrew Cote. He founded the New York City Beekeepers Association. One place that Cote has his hives is atop the Bridge Cafe. In addition, he has other hives on top of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel along with other balconies and rooftops throughout New York City.

According to Cote, most people think of a beekeeper as some retired man or old man that keeps beehives in his yard. However, also as per him, there are a variety of people in New York City, who keep bees, including an attorney, a professor and a psychiatrist among others.

Local Honey and Restaurants

The flavor of the local honey can attract customers for the Bridge Cafe and other restaurants. "We put things on the menu where we say 'rooftop honey' and people say, 'Oh, which rooftop?' And from there we tell them it's ours," says Adam Weprin, the Bridge Cafe owner.

He also went on to explain that the honey can vary in flavor depending on where it comes from in New York City. If it comes from around the cafe, it has a bit of mint, citrus and orange in its flavor, because of the linden trees.

Beekeepers Don't Always Get Stung

Most beekeepers would agree that there is only minimum maintenance requires with keeping bees. Several hours on a weekly basis during the early fall, spring and summer is all it takes. This is a big plus for busy New Yorkers. There is only one negative and that is that beekeepers could be stung. However, any of the beekeepers, who spoke to CBN news, said the stings are a rare occurrence. The bees are more interested in nectar and pollen than in humans.