Beekeeping in Brooklyn

Beekeeping in Brooklyn // An Interview with and by Beekeepers Jon Feldman & Brandon Hoy (with a little help from 3rd Ward Founder Jason Goodman)

Photography By Amir Ebrahami

Moments after this interview occurs, Jon Feldman and Brandon Hoy will put on full body beekeeper suits, appearing like a cross between a member of Yanni’s touring band circa 1984 and the extras from the “A Total Eclipse of the Heart” music video.

They don their sting-proof outfits to tend a hive that will soon be home to millions of bees. Jon and Brandon are part of the new Brooklyn renaissance occurring right under our nose. They are restaurateurs, beekeepers, picklers, or anything else that fosters the grassroots culinary explosion happening right now in our County of Kings.

We were lucky enough to convince Jon and Brandon to come to 3rd Ward’s new location at 573 Metropolitan Avenue to interview each other, have a few glasses of whisky, and school us on bees, new urbanism, and why your “last meal” should vary depending on how you die.

JF: My name is Jon Feldman. I am the general manager of Frankies Spuntino in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, and a food enthusiast of all things sustainable.

BH: I’m Brandon Hoy. I am one of the owners of Roberta’s, one of the beekeepers and an enthusiast of many things, mostly Jon Feldman. (laughs)

BH: So, Jon Feldman, how was it growing up a Jew in the South?

JF: That’s a question I get a lot actually. That I’m a Jew and I’m from the South. I think it was great. I definitely felt I was never threatened about the fact that I was Jewish and everyone around me wasn’t. But I definitely felt some negative sides to it, that as a child you’d hear you’re a “Jew” and even though people aren’t being hurtful they would throw it around a lot more. There’s an assumed “you’re not southern” attitude.

BH: How do you think both of those things have affected you? Has being Jewish and being from the South affected you from a culinary standpoint? And also, has it changed how you perceive all these changes in agriculture and sustainable food?

JF: It’s funny. Growing up there was never as much emphasis or buzz about eating fresh or eating local but it’s there and I think that’s really interesting because it’s just been there and it’s immersed in all these different groups and different families and I’ll explain that in a second.

My grandmother, Phyllis Weinstein, who’s a wonderful woman and has done a great deal of work in her lifetime, is a beautiful cook and always has been in my life. It wasn’t till I was older did I realize how lucky I was. She did cook a lot of Jewish food. I’d say most of my heritage comes from Eastern Europe, Russia, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and Germany. And so a lot of that carried over into my grandmother’s cooking, with some southern influence. My grandmother would always have beautiful peaches from Durbin Farms in Coleman, Alabama - which is one of the greatest places in the world to get a peach. She’d always have beautiful cantaloupe and watermelons from local farms. Her cooking was nuanced with these things.

It’s also just kind of a cultural thing and in that era that’s how people shopped. There used to be no other way. Even at our age it was easy to grow up and take that for granted. I only see it now in retrospect.

BH: I grew up in Napa and it’s super easy to eat fresh because everything is right there in abundance. Produce is everywhere and it’s good.

JF: Yeah, it just made sense and it was cheaper.

BH: Actually, I’m meeting this guy after this who has a hydroponics farm in  Bushwick. Realistically, you can farm anywhere. Hydroponics is not the savior of everything, but if you were stuck on the moon…

JF: Brandon, why are you so funny?

BH: Once again, Jon, this is a very complex question. I don’t know if it can be answered in three parts. Man, I think it’s a mechanism to keep myself sane. It’s easier to make something a joke, especially when everything is so fucking serious and calculated and well thought out. So to cope with everyday living, just make everything into a joke.

JF: Brandon, are you a blue ribbon steer or a blue ribbon hog?

BH: I would say I’m a hog. For no specific reason. Besides bacon is fucking awesome.

JF: Not to contrast the Jewish topics at the beginning of this conversation.

JG: Did you ever have someone try to save you when you were a kid?

BH: From being Jewish?

JF: There was stuff like that. There were definitely people. I will never forget this, I was a little bit older. I was hanging in Atlanta. And there was this kid and we ended up hanging out for like a stint, like a month. And there was this car ride we took together to go to a friend’s house and he turned to me and he said, “I really think that Jewish people are amazing.” And I said, “Thank you.”

And he said, and I am not kidding, “When the war of the world happens and all faiths go to their respective place and Christians, you know, will be going to heaven. And it’s really beautiful that Jews will be the ones to stay and defend middle earth when we go up and have this beautiful moment with our Lord. You know, the Jews just aren’t going to be included and it’s really a beautiful thing.” I was kind of like, “Cool man. Drop me off at this pay phone.” (Laughs)

JG: So, Brandon, what is the most rewarding thing about doing these things? What drives you when it comes to all the projects?

BH: Yeah, I feel like everyone out here, Jason [Goodman] and Jeremy [Lovitt, founders of 3rd Ward] as well, there is a lot of motivation to just do stuff. It almost seems to be becoming like the “Brooklyn Way,” like, just fuck it. Let’s do it. Get your hands dirty. Make it happen. There’s something way more satisfying than just, like, having the big bucks dudes. For those dudes, just throwing around money is nothing. When you’re actually out there on the street, putting the work in and making it happen, it’s so rewarding. Because you just look back at it and say, “Fuck man. We made that, brick by brick. Everything we’ve done, none of it’s like cookie cutter throw-ups.” Everything is an art piece at some point. You love it.

JG: What’s next for you guys?

JF: You know, Brandon and I have talked about so many things and had a few conversations with Eddie [Diaz of Roberta’s Pizza] about doing this honey project and incorporating some sort of garden or green aspect. So what gave me the vision for what we do together now is the idea that we could be the models for what someone else could do. Or something bigger that we could be involved with down the road. Now I have the time and know-how to facilitate growth within the network, that we’ve built a knowledge of how we work in order to do bigger projects. For example, really utilizing group space, as we’ve done at Roberta’s and as we’ve done on this rooftop in Williamsburg, and others we’ve known have done in Greenpoint. And making a bigger garden that we can also live off of. Raise the number of bees we’ve had in New York City and the production of honey, increase awareness and educational potential.

BH: And just constantly moving forward with this sustainable stuff. We’ve been trying to take as much space as people will give us and to encourage starting new gardens. We have a backyard garden on Central Avenue that was donated. I should probably plug Bushwick BK because they donated that to us and made it happen. But the education of it is the important part. We’re not doing this as profiteers; we’re doing it for the people, to promote making things. All the resources are there. We try to do everything lo-fi – on a low budget, reuse, repurpose. For instance, we built the Roberta’s tiki bar in one day for 40 bucks. You know what I’m saying? Projects like that are constantly happening and I don’t really have the big picture yet. Because I’m so involved everyday. I think I need to take a little time to put it in perspective and think about big projects.

JF: I think there’s one more part to that which I’d like to add, which is the bringing together, the synergetic quality, and the togetherness quality. In the beehive, there is a synergetic quality. Especially with some of these other projects that are going on. It’s amazing how it’s brought people together. I think it really is grassroots, no pun. Brandon and I just started bullshitting around about this idea, and then all of a sudden we started getting calls and emails from people wanting to be involved. Saying like, “Hey, we were just laid off,” or, “I have a lot more time now because I have less work because of the economy.”

BH: I love that you touched on this energy and “we are together” thing. I feel such a connection with so many people that I work with. I’m willing to do anything with anyone as long as my moral compass guides me and it’s moving me forward. I like the idea of getting into it, through a project, let’s figure it out. That’s the turn on for me. Just saying, “Yes, of course. Game on.”

JG: Let’s talk a little bit about why bees are special. What’s interesting and important about bees?

JF: Well, what is interesting and important about bees is they’re millions of years old. Genetic DNA structures of bees (and a lot of other insects) are millions of years old. So what’s special is that they’ve served a purpose for that long. Basically, their main purpose is that they’re chief pollinators. They are responsible for pollinating a third of the world’s food source. Which is incredible. There really aren’t that many pollinators. Honeybees make up the majority of that. It’s really important that we maintain a good size population on this earth. The down side is there is a lot of buzz about this Colony Collapse disorder. We’re just really going in the wrong direction with all the chemicals and all the things we’re doing with our land and bees are going away, which is why they’re special right now. And we are trying to raise as many bees as we possibly can, so that we can promote more and teach others how to promote more. There is something very deep about the species. It’s incredible what they do. It’s fascinating. They’ve really changed my outlook of the world, without sounding like a crazy person.

BH: They’re the original yes-men. All they do is work and they work together.

JF: They are super organized. One hive is like a super organism. What is also really fascinating about bees is how old beekeeping is. Plato and Pythagoras have written about beekeeping. We have a mentor in Nyack who has really embraced one of the oldest ways of beekeeping and that was our first exposure to it. They’re called dodecahedron hives. They’re like little Ewok villages, ten-sided shapes. There are all sorts of things that are so interesting to it and that draw people to it.

JG: It’s interesting to see these bees as harbingers of agriculture. Could there really be agriculture without bees?

JF: Yes, there could. But, we don’t have as much control over it. Not in larger settings. For instance, the California almond crop literally cannot survive without an 18-wheeler coming in with billions of bees during its flowering period.

BH: That was one of the problems in America. At one point there just weren’t enough pollinators so they started importing bees but they weren’t necessarily the right kind and it changed the genetics of bees that were already in that area. I think that was early in the Monsanto genetic engineering. Just massive disasters in the 90’s.

BH: Who is Jon Feldman?

JF: That is an interesting question. I will grant you that one Brandon. I’m a high energy, very passionate, slightly neurotic, good person. I care about people and I care about bringing people together. Life is good and that is how I try to live. I try to think smart. My grandfather and my father had two different things to say about who you should be. My dad said, “Pick what you want to do and then surround yourself with the best.” My grandfather said, “Your name is everything.” Who you are to other people counts. And I try to do that in a real way, not as some fictitious individual and try to stay to what’s real.

JG: If you had to have a last meal, what would it be?

BH: I think the way I’m dying would make a difference. You know if I’m suspended over the city, about to receive the lethal injection, it might steer me toward steak. Hanging? Definitely chicken. I want my fucking intestines to explode out of my ass, chicken everywhere.