|
|
During a recent visit to my daughter in Hoboken, NJ, who is in her last year at the Fashion Institute of Technology, I found myself with some free time. My wife and daughter were planning a shopping day… could I find something to do? Hmmmm…. I had been wondering; where would one go to find honey in Manhattan?
I had heard of beekeeping in Manhattan by a group of intrepid beekeepers who kept their hives on roof tops. Apparently there are sufficient plants and blossoms in the city to keep the bees busy. Until recently, beekeeping in New York City was an illegal, underground activity. The Health Code, section 161.01 banned keeping animals that are, ”wild, ferocious, fierce, dangerous or naturally inclined to do harm.” A beekeeper could be fined up to $2,000 under the same laws that prevent people from keeping cobras and snapping turtles. Fortunately, as of Feb., 2010, beekeeping was permitted as long as the owners registered and maintained their hives in a responsible manner. For those interested, the New York City Beekeeping Association encourages beekeeping and offers support for new and experienced beekeepers in “Gotham” city.
Where could I possibly get some of this urban honey? I wondered as I walked down Broadway, waving goodbye to my lovely wife and daughter as they departed for their shopping adventure and I began mine.
 Union Square Market - NY After a quick visit to a handy Internet ice cream parlor, I had two leads; one was advisory; visit a market, sometimes urban honey is sold in markets in NY, and the other quite specific; a store named Fairway apparently sold honey from New York’s urban beekeepers. After a quick call to my daughter, I learned that while Friday was not a good day for markets, the Union Square market was open! I hopped on a subway and was there in a few minutes.
Union Square Market
The market was well attended and I took my time looking at the art, vegetables and fruit, juices, meats and just plain people watching. Whether I found honey or not, I was going to enjoy myself.
 Bees On Grapes While admiring a basket of grapes, I noticed there were a lot of honey bees buzzing around the fruit! Surely a good omen! They must be from a hive perched on a roof nearby! Bees travel up to three miles foraging for nectar, but with the Hudson one side and the East River on the other, the hive would likely be in Manhattan. Somehow I wasn’t surprised when I took a few more steps and saw a booth selling honey.
 Booth Selling Honey in Union Square I stood and watched for a while, savoring the moment. This was a lot easier than I’d thought it would be! The booth was very busy. There was a steady stream of buyers. I was heartened by the apparent popularity of honey here in the Big Apple. As I approached the booth I was amazed by the number of bees buzzing around the honey display. And I was even more surprised by the lack of concern by every single buyer. I guess the typical New Yorker attitude extends even to bees. “You don’t bother me, I won’t bother you!” In most other parts of the country, at the first sign of a bee, people start jumping up, fanning the air around them frantically, yelling, “Its a Bee, Its a Bee!’
 Tremblay Apiaries I waited for a quiet moment and wandered closer and introduced myself. It turns out they were from western NY near the Finger Lakes region and they regularly attended this market. Their company was Tremblay Apiaries. Most of the honey was multifloral. I asked what type of flowers and he answered confidently, describing about half a dozen types. While I love all honey, I am particularly interested in monofloral, so I asked if they might have something unusual.
“I’m hoping for bamboo (Japanese Knotweed), we may have some now, but I’m not sure. When we do, we’ll post in on our website.”, he said. I promised to look. I’ve never tried Japanese Knotweed. I thanked him and continued around the market but found no other honey vendors.
Fairway Market
Time to try Fairway Market. I double checked the address, 133rd St and 12th Ave. By my reckoning that was pretty much at the top of Manhattan! I hopped on the subway from the station at the SW corner of the square (#4 Lexington) and traveled to the far north stop; Lexington and 125th just before the Bronx. I got off and walked up to 133rd and started walking west, straight though Harlem. I double checked with my daughter via cell. Is Harlem safe to walk through? Better safe than sorry I thought. “Yep, it should be fine during the day,” she advised and she was right. I had a very pleasant walk through the projects. They were clean and well maintained, not like the picture I had in my mind from 30 years before. I can’t say what they were like at night but the day time walk was fine. Nevertheless, I was flying by the seat of my pants. I didn’t actually have a map since the grid system of Manhattan normally makes it pretty easy to navigate. But after what seemed like a couple dozen blocks, and a detour around St. Nicholas Park, I began to wonder if I had made a mistake, I was almost clear through to the Hudson River and no 12th Ave and no Fairway Market.
I was looking for a small hole-in-the-wall deli or neighborhood shop so when I finally hit 12th Ave, and found Fairway, I was surprised at the size of it, and the fact that it’s located underneath the Henry Hudson Parkway!
 Fairway Market Under The Parkway It took me a while to simply find the entrance on the west side, I noticed several aisles were actually outside, covered by the parkway. With parking and warehousing, the store took up over two blocks. Inside was a maze of aisles, I asked for directions and found the mother load… the largest variety of honey I’ve seen for sale in one place in the USA!
 FairWay Honey Shelf #1 There were honeys from around the world, from Argentina, Africa, Italy, France, Spain (and that was just on the top shelf), Australia, Germany, and Greece, and a nice selection from the United States. These included wildflower honey, flavored honey and monofloral honey. Also, artisanal honey, chunk honey and organic honey. Varietals of honey I saw,
 Fairway Honey Shelf #2
Chestnut
Acacia
Orange Blossom*
Lavender
Linden
Pine
Oak
Clover*
Eucalyptus
Leatherwood
Alfalfa* |
Blueberry*
Buckwheat*
Thyme
Honeydew
Manuka
Nodding Thistle
Kamahi
Black Sage*
Star Thistle
Tupelo*
Wildflower |
| United States Honeys* |
Suffice to say, this was an impressive collection of honey. I bought some Wild Black Sage honey and a bottle of the Fair Trade African blossom honey.
The store was very busy, I loved that place. It was a warren of aisles with everything packed in tightly. The Friday afternoon I was there was moderately busy but check out was quick and the cashier was a typical New Yorker, friendly, in-your-face, and straightforward. Her parting quip, “Thanks honey, come back soon!”
As I happily rode back on the subway, I pondered the sweet irony of my adventure. I had found honey from all over the world and from many states, but nothing from the elusive beekeepers of Manhattan!
 African Blossom Honey |
 Wild Black Sage Honey |
 The Best Honey I've Ever Tasted |
Location of the Fairway Market:
Harlem
2328 12th Ave. N.Y., N.Y. 10027
Take the #1 Broadway 7th Ave Local Subway north and get off at 125th. A short walk west to 12th Ave. and one block north.
|
 Broadway and 125th |
Location of Union Sq. Market
In the Union Square (14th Street/Broadway)
|
 Union Square |
The results are in from the national competition, “Roberto Franci” (English Translation) promoted by the 34th “Honey Week” festival in Montalcino, Italy, that ran from September 10 to 12, 2010.  34th Week of Honey Montalcino Honey from Italy and (for the first time) other countries in the Mediterranean, are judged by a panel of professional tasters, including experts form Spain, Portugal, Greece and Malta, expert in the sensory analysis of honey. Judging is based upon hygiene, cleanliness, color, aroma and taste. To qualify, honeys are also subject to a preliminary chemical analysis.
Results:
- 1st place: ” Corbezzolo – Strawberry Tree Honey ” ( Score: 96.6 out of 100 )
Ancient Beekeeping Gallurese of Dr Porcu Peter Paul & C s.n.c. — Provence of Gallura, Sardinia, Italy (English Translation)
- 2nd place: ” Millefiori – Wildflower Honey ” ( Score: 95.1 )
Florapi of William Giuliano — Maranola, province of Latina, Lazio region, Italy (English Translation)
- 3rd place: ” Chestnut – Chestnut Honey “( Score: 93.9)
Azienda Agricola Andrea D’ Orlando — Provence of Udine, Friuli Venzia Giulia region, Italy)
- Best Foreign Honey:
” Carrubo – Carob Honey ” ( Score: 87.0 )
Charles Camilleri — Mgarr, Malta
More on the winners;
Gold: The prized Strawberry Tree honey from Sardina with its unmistakable amber-toned gray-green color, pungent odor and very bitter characteristic taste: a product reserved for honey connoisseurs and gourmets.
Silver: Wildflower (Millefiori), from the sweet and fragrant wildflowers of the Natural Park of Aurunci Lazio
Bronze: Chestnut honey, representative of the best Bel Paese honeys, collected in the Friuli Venezia Giulia.
Best non-Italian honey: Carob honey from a plant that grows naturally in the Mediterranean basin – from the island country of Malta, and may reach up to 500 years old.
Siena Grosseto Arezzo Beekeepers Association – Organizers of Honey Week and the ‘Roberto Franci” National Competition (English Translation)
Italy is one of the great honey countries of the world! Written Roman references to bee keeping and honey go back thousands of years. It is a tradition that continues today. What is surprising is that Italians, as a whole, are not prodigious eaters of honey. Other countries such as Germany consume two to three times as much honey per person, per year. Yet, it’s not that Italy isn’t still a major source of honey. It is home to over fifty varietals of honey, with some of them certified PDO.
Was it an example of familiarity breeding contempt? I doubted it… wine is a common enough drink in Italy and it is one of the oldest and largest wine producing regions in the world. With some of the great single flower honeys in the world, why wouldn’t it be up there with Germany in consumption?
I hoped to learn more during a recent trip to Italy. My wife and I were were visiting our daughter who had been studying in Milan for the last year and I hoped we would have time to visit the honey shop she’d discovered on the Internet. With honey-addled reasoning I even began thinking this might justify my investment in her far-flung education… Imagine! A whole store dedicated to honey! The only other store totally dedicated to honey I’d visited was at the lively St. Lawrence market in Toronto, Canada, and this was really more of a stall than a store. Nevertheless, it remains one of my great honey tasting experiences of all time! Tasting more than twenty honeys from around the world was amazing… and the sugar buzz wasn’t bad either. What would it be like in Italy I wondered? The ancient home of honey!
 Duomo in Milan Milan is the hip, stylish place you would expect of one of the fashion centers of the world. And there is no better place to experience this than the central area of the city surrounding the impressive Duomo (cathedral). It is filled with people shopping, eating and visiting. It is an experience to simply sit at one of the many street-side cafes, sip a cappuccino, admire the architecture, and watch the throngs of people walk by. Don’t forget to book a seat at La Scala, one of the great opera houses of the world, and join a full house of enthusiasts enjoying the latest production. Tickets are available underground near the Duomo; La Scala is close by.
“Are you ready to visit the honey store?”, my daughter asked while I was visiting her at her apartment.
“Yes! Will we need a cab?”, I asked.
“No, the address is just down the street from here. It should only be a few blocks away.”
The website showed a window full of honey with the name, ‘Honey Store’. It should be easy to find, “Let’s go!”
 Drogheria in Milan We left and hopped on a trolley going in our direction. My daughter carefully watched the addresses go by and suddenly announced we should get off.
“I didn’t see the store but it should be close to here”, she said with a puzzled expression.
We got off at the next stop and walked up and down the street but didn’t see anything the looked remotely like the store we’d seen on the Internet.
“Maybe it went out of business?”, I pondered. “Let’s ask someone in one of these stores if they know about it.”, I suggested.
We looked around and saw a small “Drogheria” (drug store?) and walked in.
 Honey Store with the owner, Simona There was a woman behind the counter talking earnestly to a couple. Behind her and surrounding the small shop were walls lined with old wooden shelves that reached high up to the ceiling. I did a double take as I focused in on the shelves beside me. They were filled with jars of… honey! Realization dawned… we’d found it!
This was confirmed by the proprietor, Simona Dregoni, who spoke excellent English; La Casa del Miele (House of Honey) and the Drogheria were one and the same. “Drogheria” is roughly translated to mean “dry goods store” or “grocery store”. Traditionally selling household goods including non-perishable foods such as spices and oil, they have evolved to become specialty food stores that stand behind their brands and reputation. Simona’s honey and honey products were advertised as ‘certified’. A drogheria has nothing at all to do with a “drugstore!”To make things more confusing Google’s translator program actually often incorrectly translates, Drogheria as “chemist”
With that puzzle explained, my thoughts quickly turned to which honey to try. Yet when I asked Simona for her thoughts on the honey. She began by explaining the health benefits of each honey, pointing to each in turn.
“The Chestnut honey is rich in minerals and good for the circulatory system, fatigue and anemia, the Dandelion honey cleans the liver and keeps it healthy, the Melata (Honeydew) maintains the respiratory system, is good for anemia and a generally good tonic for the elderly, the… “,
“But…” I interrupted, “… which ones do you like best or are rarest?”
While she thought, I contemplated, …maybe not exactly a dry goods store, more like a healthy goods store…?
After a few moments she recommended the Strawberry tree (Corbezzolo) for its rarity and gourmet status, and the Rhododendron (Rododedro), for its sublime flavor. All of the honeys looked thick and rich.
 My Honey Purchases (click for detail)  All but the Corbezzolo were officially labeled (click for detail). I bought these, and after much discussion, Dandelion (Tarassaco), Macugnaga honey and Honey Dew/ Forest Honey (Melata). All apparently, except for the Macugnaga, single flower honeys, certified authentic and some organic. The dandelion is one of my favorites because of its character and challenging flavor, the strawberry tree honey is uniquely delicious, with an mild sweetness and surprising bitter aftertaste.
And what of the puzzling lack of honey consumption? Traditionally Italians used honey as a folk remedy or for making sweets. As a folk remedy, purity and labeling were very important. Italians value honey, but as a remedy first and a food second. This is changing, and local consumption of honey is increasing as well as marketing to take advantage of their expertise in creating and marketing locally grown foods such as cheese and wine. Each of the honeys I bought were unique in flavor and texture. And while they may cure all that ails you, I am still not cured of my sweet addiction.
For a wide varieties of honey and a knowledgeable, friendly hostess, visit Simona at her historic Grocery – House of Honey in Milan (est. 1929):
Address:
Drogheria La casa del miele
Viale Zara, 132 – 20125 Milano (ang. Via Slataper)
Tel./Fax 02 6081477
[email protected] – www.lacasadelmiele.it
English/Spanish spoken.
|
|
Recent Comments