Some students at The Culinary Institute of America will soon be donning beekeeping suits for one of their classes.
The culinary college has created an apiary with beehives housing about 50,000 bees on its Hyde Park campus. The apiary was built as part of a class for the Applied Food Studies major. Juniors and seniors in the course who raised funds for the project and built the hives will care for the bees. Dr. Maureen Costura, who teaches the class, says one out of every four bites of food depends on pollinators. Plus, she says beekeeping is an important skill for chefs as many farm-to-table restaurants are starting their own hives. The apiary is expected to produce up to 120 pounds of honey each year, to be used in the college's baking and pastry classes and in dishes served at the restaurants on campus.
