Ingredients

1 cup Quinoa

1 cups boiled chickpeas

½ diced cucumber

½ medium diced onion

¼ diced red bell pepper

¼ diced orange bell pepper

¼ diced yellow bell pepper

2 Medium diced tomatoes (or 1 cup sliced cherry tomatoes)

¼ cup chopped walnuts

Salt to taste

½ tsp freshly ground black pepper

1 freshly squeezed lemon juice (May add more lemon for a burst of flavor)

Directions

Rinse and boil Quinoa to keep aside for cooling.

In a large bowl, mix all of the ingredients into cooled quinoa.

Keep in fridge for about 1 hour and serve cold.

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The diet world is a very crowded place, and advice is constantly changing. But, very slowly, we’re coming to realize what the physicians of Greek antiquity well understood — that “food” is far more than something we put in our mouths and swallow. In fact, the ancient diet of the Cretans is once again gaining favor.

What is the Cretan diet?

A eureka moment early in our own societies’ attempts to understand the relationship between food and health took place 70 years ago. In wealthy America, heart disease was on the rise. A U.S. researcher, Ancel Keys, discovered that in war-torn Europe, especially in poverty-stricken Crete, heart disease was relatively rare. He concluded that it was because of the Cretans’ diet and way of life. The timing of his study has since been criticized (the Orthodox Church observes many fasts and, in the 1940s, these were strictly adhered to), but the general good health of the people was there for all to see.

I first visited Crete just 20 years after Keys. I was there as a student volunteer on an archaeological dig. It took me more than a day to reach the dig (there was, then, less than 40 miles of tarmac road on the entire island). It was a two-hour walk to the nearest village, and this Crete wasn’t much different from the island Keys experienced. In the weeks I spent there, I felt much healthier than I had at home in London. I knew that the reason for this was the food, and the sharing of our tables with friends and strangers. In short, it was because of the Cretan diet.

Sorting fact from fiction isn’t easy

In the intervening years, a great deal has been written about the benefits and dishes of various diets, especially the Mediterranean diet. The subject of food attracts huge research grants and promotional fees from commercial companies. Unsurprisingly, the core finding in that original research on Crete — the link between local foods, food production, enjoyment of food and good health — has disappeared under a pile of lab-inspired markers and recipes.

Today, some of us can buy Cretan olive oils and cheeses in our stores. These give us the good flavors of the island and the advantage of being able to consume cheeses made with milk from animals that have roamed free over herb-covered hills, but it isn’t the whole story. We can follow the Cretan diet (from the Greek, diaita, meaning “way of life”) to our advantage wherever we are by enjoying a large diversity of foods that are grown or gathered locally, that are at the peak of their seasonal (nutritional) best and that excite us with their different flavors and textures. This holds true for fish and meat, too. They both have seasons, based on the breeding habits of the animals and fish, and their ability to feed well.

Thus, what are now the two most serious Orthodox fasts — Lent (March, lamb-breeding season) and August (when it’s hot and the land is parched) — have their roots in a way of life that was followed long before Christianity. This attitude to true sustainability (which ensures future life) exists on Crete even when food is plentiful, and some of the most appreciated island foods are what we generally consider to be “lesser” fish and meats – octopus and other seafood, tiny fish, snails, offal and small game.

What the Cretan diet can do for you

But we’re not Cretans, so why should we want to follow their diet? There’s one particular reasons why I like to: It means I can rely on my own judgment as to whether something is “good for me,” as I can always check the 4,000 years of food wisdom that has passed down from those smart, early inhabitants of Crete, the Minoans. Following a few simple tenets, and stocking your pantry with some quality ingredients, you, too, can create for yourself the Cretan diet.

Use olive oil like a Cretan

Until a generation ago, Cretans consumed around five times more olive oil than other Greeks, and Greeks consumed per capita the most olive oil in the world. To an islander, all olive oil is extra virgin, and only consumed in the year of its production. There’s plenty of evidence now that olive oil (extra virgin and fresh) is a “super food,” so much of the Cretans’ good health can be traced to its copious use in island kitchens. For those of us without an olive tree, it’s not quite so simple. Extra virgin olive oil is not only expensive, it’s rare for the current season’s product to reach our stores. So we lose out on what is its greatest value for us. One solution is to build a relationship with a producer and buy direct.

Love those green leaves, the wilder the better

A neighbor of mine on Crete was able to identify more than 60 wild greens and herbs. She knew exactly where and when to find certain species, and how they were best served. She was well known locally for her remarkable skill, but every Cretan cook could — and many still can — identify a dozen or so wild greens. Wild greens contain more, and a greater variety of, nutrients than garden- or commercially grown greens. Many of the best garden greens, as far as nutrients and flavor, end up on the compost heap — beet, turnip and radish greens. Farmers markets are now a good source of these greens and others, and many of us enjoy foraging in the countryside, wherever we are. Turned into salads or side dishes, Cretan-style, with plenty of olive oil, they make very good eating.

Look for sheep-milk and goat-milk cheeses

Not only do Cretans have an admirable capacity for consuming olive oil, they are also among the world’s largest consumers of cheese. But their cheeses are different from many available in our stores. Made with milk (mostly sheep, some goat) from animals that eat a melange of wild herbs and greens, and graze outside year-round, they possess nutrients that are missing from cheeses made with highly processed factory-farmed milk. If you can’t buy Cretan cheeses, seek out cheeses made with milk from pasture-raised cows or goats.

Measure herbs with your hand, not with a spoon

Measuring spoons are unknown in traditional Cretan kitchens. Your hand is the perfect measure for herbs and spices. You see what you are adding to a dish and, with dried herbs and spices, the heat of your palm releases their wonderful aromas, in the process delighting you, the cook.

Sweeten the natural way

Honey is another “super food” that Crete has in abundance. With only a few days a year without sunshine and much pesticide-free land, bees have a good life on the island. Honey is more than sugar-sweetener — it has nutritional and medicinal qualities, too. But only when the bees have a healthy environment. A good substitute is local honey from bees that have enjoyed pesticide-free pollen.

Give your gut a helping hand

Yogurt made from the milk of animals that have grazed on herbs or grass and the necessary “friendly bacteria” is a very different food from the commercial yogurts that have a shelf life of weeks. Its bacteria are alive and ready to do their good work, keeping your gut in good order. These bacteria are even more valuable to us now, with so much of our foods being highly processed.

Cretan yogurt, made from sheep/goat milk, is thick, creamy and utterly delicious but, at the moment, travels only as far as Athens. It’s easy to make your own at home; for the best results, use full-fat organic milk. Other ways, Cretan-style, to keep your gut healthy is to include naturally fermented (wine) vinegar, pickles, fish and cured olives in your culinary repertoire.

Drink like a Cretan, too

Existing right at the heart of the ancient “wine world,” it’s no wonder wine is as much part of a Cretan’s diet as olive oil. Like olive oil, wine to a Cretan is a drink made that year from grapes nearby (village wine) and consumed with gusto. Appreciated as it is, village wine takes getting used to, so it’s good news that, today, some of the island’s wineries are winning medals on the world stage. Well-made, modern Cretan wines are particularly interesting when made with the island’s unique, and sometimes ancient, grape varietals. On Cretan tables, wine and food are inseparable. Wine is a digestif, and a way of welcoming all to the table — there’s always plenty of it on Cretan tables.

Staples for the ‘Cretan shelf’ of your pantry

Olive oil: extra virgin

Olives: brine-cured, young and green, salt-cured, plump and fleshy, sweet and tiny

Capers and caper leaves, salt-packed

Red wine vinegar

Sea salt, fine and coarse

Spices: allspice, ground; cinnamon, sticks and ground; coriander seeds, whole and ground; cumin, whole and ground; black peppercorns; sumac, ground; nutmeg; cloves; vanilla

Dried herbs: rigani (Greek oregano), marjoram, rosemary, thyme, sage, bay leaves

Dried fruit: currants, small dark raisins, large plump sultanas, figs, prunes

Honey: Cretan mountain sage, orange blossom, Hymettus

Nuts: whole unblanched almonds, walnuts in the shell, pine nuts, unsalted pistachio nuts, hazelnuts (filberts)

Seeds: melon, pumpkin, sesame

Dried pulses: garbanzo beans (chickpeas), white beans (great northerns, cannellini), green lentils, brown lentils, yellow split peas, butter (large lima) beans, black-eyed peas

Preserved lemons

Preserved fish: salted anchovies, sardines packed in olive oil or brine, tuna packed in olive oil, oil-cured bonito (lakertha), sun-dried or smoked mackerel or octopus, smoked eel

Preserved grape leaves

From your refrigerator or freezer

Cheeses: graviera, aged kephalotyri, manouri, myzithra, brine-stored feta

Yogurt: sheep milk, good-quality cow’s milk

Fresh or frozen filo sheets: you can store fresh filo for up to 2 days, frozen filo for up to 4 weeks

In your herb garden

Flat-leaf parsley, cilantro (fresh coriander), thyme, rosemary, bay laurel, marjoram

Fennel, dill, mint (many varieties, including “garden,” small-leaf), small-leaf basil, sage, lovage, savory, chives

Rose- and lemon-scented geranium leaves

Beet Greens With Latholemono

Beet greens are only one of a huge variety of wild or garden greens Cretans bring to the table. You can substitute turnip greens, radish tops, amaranth greens, water spinach, ruby chard or mustard greens (charlock) for the beet greens, and use a sauce of olive oil and red wine vinegar in place of the lemon juice.

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cooking time: 2 to 5 minutes, depending on the green

Total time: 7 to 10 minutes

Yield: 6 for a meze serving, 4 as a side dish

Ingredients

1 1/4 pounds beet greens

For serving

5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, or to taste

Coarse-grain sea salt and cracked black pepper to taste

Lemon wedges

Directions

1. Rinse the greens in several changes of cold water. Remove any tough stalks from the greens and tear the leaves into bite-size pieces.

2. Steam the greens. Or place them in a non-reactive saucepan, add 4 tablespoons boiling water, and cook, stirring once or twice with a fork, for 1 to 2 minutes. Take care not to overcook. Drain well in a colander, pressing the greens against the sides with a wooden spoon.

3. To serve, transfer the greens to a platter and lightly fork them to lift and separate the leaves. Add the olive oil and sprinkle with a generous amount of salt and pepper. Serve warm or at room temperature, with lemon wedges.

Note: Prepare turnip greens and radish tops the same way as beet greens and cook 3 to 4 minutes. Break off the tender sprigs of leaves from water spinach and mustard greens and cook 4 to 5 minutes. Amaranth greens and young ruby chard take only 1 to 2 minutes to cook. Take care not to overcook.

Copyright 2016 Rosemary Barron via Zester Daily and Reuters Media Express

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The product is a fixed dose combination of paracetamol, phenylephrine and caffeine, which was banned by India’s health ministry in a notice issued over the weekend, Procter & Gamble Hygiene and Health Care Ltd. informed the stock exchange.

The drug was one of 344 drug combinations including several antibiotics and analgesics that India ordered to be prohibited saying a government-appointed panel of experts had found the combinations lacked “therapeutic justification.”

P&G said all its products, including Vicks Action 500 Extra, were backed by research to support their quality, safety and efficacy.

It wasn’t immediately clear how much the product contributed to P&G’s sales.

(Reporting by Zeba Siddiqui in Mumbai; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier)

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Reuters Health – People who quit smoking all at once are more likely to be successful than those who cut down on cigarettes gradually, according to a new study.

“For many people, the obvious way to quit smoking is to cut down gradually until they stop,” said lead author Nicola Lindson-Hawley, a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Oxford in the U.K.

“However, with smoking, the norm is to advise people to stop all at once and our study found evidence to support that,” Lindson-Hawley told Reuters Health by email. “What we found was that more people managed to quit when they stopped smoking all in one go than when they gradually reduced before quitting.”

The researchers randomly assigned almost 700 adult smokers to either an abrupt quitting or gradual reduction group. Each person set a “quit day” of two weeks after they entered the study, and saw a research nurse once a week until then.

Half of people preferred to cut down gradually, a third preferred abrupt quitting and the rest had no preference before the study began, but preferences did not affect which group they were sorted into.

In the gradual group, the nurse created a reduction schedule for participants to cut back on cigarettes by 75% over those two weeks, and provided participants with nicotine patches and a choice of short-acting nicotine replacement gum, lozenges, nasal spray, sublingual tablets, inhalator, or mouth spray during the reduction period.

In the abrupt quitting group, the participants were also given nicotine patches of 21 mg per 24 hours, as some evidence suggests doing this before quitting may increase success, but no short-acting products, and were told to smoke as usual until the quit date.

Four weeks later, 40% of the gradual group were still not smoking, compared to 49% of the abrupt quit group, as verified by chemical breath analysis. Those who said they preferred gradually cutting down before the study began were less likely than others to still be abstinent from cigarettes at this point.

By six months, 15% of gradual quitters and 22% of abrupt quitters were still abstinent, as reported March 14 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

“There is a lot of evidence to suggest that if you would like to quit the best way to do so is by seeking help in the form of behavioral counseling and a treatment such as nicotine replacement therapy (i.e. patches or gum) or varenicline,” Lindson-Hawley said. “However, there are also benefits of calling quitlines, particularly if these go on to provide proactive support for quitters.”

Those who choose to quit gradually are often more addicted and have failed to quit abruptly several times before, said Dr. John Hughes of the University of Vermont in Burlington.

About one third of quit attempts include gradually cutting down, Hughes told Reuters Health by email.

“The decision to quit for most smokers is a sudden one, that often occurs because something happens to motivate them,” Hughes, who was not part of the new study, said. “With abrupt cessation, they can act on the decision to quit immediately, while still highly motivated (in fact half of smokers quit on the same day they decide to quit).”

The new results should be useful for people who want to quit but don’t have a preference for how to do it, Lindson-Hawley said. “In this case we can tell smokers and the people who treat them that the best approach to try is abrupt quitting rather than gradual quitting.”

In most cases health care services already take this approach, so no major change is necessary, she said.

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/1Mj12Nv

Ann Intern Med 2016.

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MUMBAI (Reuters) – A powerful antibiotic combination that is marketed in India by U.S. pharmaceutical giant Abbott Laboratories is among 344 drug combinations that have been banned by the Indian health authorities.

A Reuters investigation revealed in December that a unit of Abbott in India was selling a combination of the antibiotics cefixime and azithromycin without approval from the central government. The combination is not approved for sale in major pharmaceutical markets, including the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France and Japan. (For the full investigation: http://reut.rs/1J9azFo)

Abbott markets the combination of cefixime and azithromycin under the Zimnic AZ brand. At least 15 other companies in India manufacture and market the same combination under different brand names.

A notice issued by the Indian Health Ministry at the weekend said that a government-appointed committee of experts had found that the banned combinations were “likely to involve risk to human beings, whereas safer alternatives to the said drug are available.”

The government notice said the ban would take effect immediately. Besides antibiotic combinations, the list of banned drugs also included analgesic combinations containing nimesulide, and codeine-based drugs.

Anand Kadkol, a spokesman for Abbott in India, said the government announcement had been made late on Saturday and the company was “reviewing the notification.”

Fixed-dose combination drugs, or FDCs, combine two or more drugs in a single pill. In India, many pharmaceutical companies have obtained a license from a state to make FDCs, like Abbott’s Zimnic AZ, and sell them across the country without the consent of the central government.

India’s drug regulators have made intermittent efforts over the years to shut down this avenue, but enforcement has been patchy and success limited. In 2007, for instance, the government instructed states to withdraw close to 300 combination drugs that were being sold without the approval of the central government. But drug companies and industry associations took the government to court and the order was stayed.

D.G. Shah, the secretary general of the Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance, which represents 20 of India’s biggest drugmakers, questioned the legality of the government’s decision and said “the lack of transparency raises doubts about the merits and the process followed or not followed.”

Shah said companies that were affected by the ban could challenge the order in court.

K.L. Sharma, a senior Health Ministry official who issued the ban order, was not immediately available for comment.

In its notice, the government said a panel of experts had found that there was “no therapeutic justification” for any of the 344 FDCs it was banning. The panel reviewed 6,700 drug combinations.

In its investigation, Reuters interviewed former and current medical representatives for Abbott who said Zimnic AZ had been promoted and administered as a treatment for a broad array of illnesses, including colds, fevers, urinary tract infections, drug-resistant typhoid and sexually transmitted diseases. Reuters also found chemists who were selling the drug to prevent post-operative infection and for respiratory problems.

Medical experts told Reuters that combining cefixime and azithromycin was risky, and said that prescribing the combination for cold symptoms did not make sense.

While combination drugs are used worldwide to improve patients’ compliance, in India they have proliferated to the point where in 2014 nearly half the drugs on the market were combinations. Companies in India have increasingly added ingredients to existing drugs so they can promote a new product to doctors and chemists in an effort to increase market share.

Doctors and health experts say the spread and misuse of antibiotic combinations may be contributing to antibiotic resistance in India. Some superbugs, which are strains of bacteria that have become resistant to antibiotics, have been found in patients who travelled from India to countries including the United States and Britain.

(Editing by Peter Hirschberg.)

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Have you ever truly considered the merits of black pepper? If not, no one would blame you. This staple seasoning is so commonplace it’s barely an afterthought for most people while cooking or eating. True, peppercorns — the fruits from flowering vines that inspired the ancient spice trade — have been around forever. Given this overfamiliarity, black pepper may be the single most misused and misunderstood ingredient in the kitchen today.

I’ve long been blasé about pepper. Using finely ground black pepper growing stale in a shaker is unthinkable for any professional cook. But even Tellicherry peppercorns, a prized variety of this fruit cultivated on India’s Malabar Coast, ground from my peppermill gets me persnickety. I generally find myself resisting the ever-present cookbook instruction to “season with salt and pepper.” Some recipes assert “freshly ground black pepper,” but it’s all the same to me.

Used so automatically, black pepper, I’ve believed, is sticking its (sharp, biting) nose where it does not belong. When it comes to seasoning meat, and nearly everything I cook, I stick to salt, adding pepper only when and if its musty pungency will complement the dish.

I found a like-minded soul when Sara Dickerman in Slate denounced black pepper’s place in the seasoning pantheon with salt, as if our prized salt was stuck on a perpetually bad date. Her point, for which she was denounced by pro-pepper enthusiasts, was this: Black pepper has wrongfully earned its place at the table.

Pepper exploration

This winter, as I produced quarts of beef and chicken broth and mugs of homemade chai, I found myself radically rethinking this spice. I’d palm four or five puckered peppercorn orbs and roll them into the steaming liquids where they’d imbue their warming, spiced, woodsy aromas. In the building of flavors, black pepper is foundational, essential. I would seriously miss it.

That’s when I realized that I’d been ignoring a medieval spice merchant’s riches of peppercorns in my spice basket. Purchased six months before at The Spice & Tea Exchange in downtown Portland, Ore., along with Ceylon cinnamon sticks, saffron and Hungarian paprika, were five wildly different types of peppercorns. If these had been samples of sea salts or olive oils, I would have tasted them on the spot. But it took a giant pot of beef stock simmering on the stove to get me to study each specimen.

Most surprising were the long pepper shaped like a tiny pine cone and the African kili pepper resembling a twig and filled with bitter seeds. I compared the black and white ponape peppercorns both from the Pohnpei plant, the difference being the black is picked green and matured before sun drying while the white is picked red ripened, then fermented and skinned before sun drying. The intriguing, purple-black Tasmanian pepper, not even related to black pepper, botanically speaking, is a sweet dried berry used for seasoning in aboriginal cooking.

Mind you, these five were less than a whiff of the pepper world. My collection didn’t even include green peppercorns or black peppercorns from other continents or the unrelated pink and Sichuan peppercorns to boot. But truly, they were sufficient to shake me from my own misunderstandings.

I crushed each pepper in a mortar and pestle to get at their flavors, since it’s misleading to sense their aromas through smell. With my finger, I gingerly pressed the bits onto my tongue, anticipating mind blowing heat. Instead, I experienced the nuances of pepper, from spiced sweetness hinting of garam masala in the long pepper to the mild, citrusy burn of the white pepper. For the first time, I appreciated these spices for what they offered on their own terms.

Giving black pepper a starring role in two courses

In the following weeks, I crushed long pepper for a Middle Eastern vegetable stew with chickpeas and dropped it whole into my brewing chai. I ground white pepper into clam chowder and French onion soup with gladness. As I prepared dinner, I considered which pepper might enhance its flavors. My new favorite, the long pepper, the bona fide black pepper of the Greeks and Romans, now owns shelf space in my spice cabinet.

It was no leap to invoke the most pepper-forward preparation of all: steak au poivre, or pepper-crusted steak. I served it, by golly, with a creamy peppercorn dressing over salad mix. It seems I’ve learned that there are times, after all, when there is no such thing as too much black pepper.

Pepper-Crusted Steak Salad With Buttermilk Peppercorn Dressing

Serves 4

Prepare the dressing for this meal first and let it sit at room temperature while you prepare the steak. This allows the dressing’s flavors to develop.

Ingredients

For the dressing:

Makes 2 cups

1 cup sour cream

¾ cup buttermilk

2 tablespoons lemon juice

2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper, such as Tellicherry or long pepper

½ teaspoon salt

¼ cup finely chopped chives

For the steak salad:

1 heaping teaspoon each ponape black and white peppercorns

1 10-12 ounce flat iron steak

Kosher salt

1 teaspoon vegetable oil

6 cups mixed salad greens

1 cup shaved Parmigiano-Reggiano

Directions

For the dressing:

1.Whisk the sour cream, buttermilk, lemon juice, pepper and salt until smooth. Stir in the chives and taste for seasoning. If using right away, leave the dressing at room temperature to allow the flavors to develop.

If preparing in advance, store in a glass jar in the refrigerator for up to 5 days to use as a dressing and a dip.

For the steak salad:

1. Crush the peppercorns in a mortar and pestle until most are very coarsely crushed and some remain whole.

2. Dab the steak dry with a paper towel and season generously with the salt. Heat a cast-iron skillet over high heat with the oil. When the oil begins to smoke lay the steak in the center of the pan and cook without moving for 3 minutes. Turn the steak and cook for 3 minutes more.

For rare, transfer the steak to a plate to rest for at least 5 minutes. For medium-rare to medium, turn off the heat but leave the steak in the pan for 1-3 minutes more, testing for your preferred doneness with an instant-read thermometer (130 F for medium-rare; 135 F for medium) and transferring the steak to a plate to rest for at least 5 minutes when done. (The steak can be cooked in advance and cooled to room temperature or served warm.)

3. Pile the salad greens in the center of 4 plates. Dollop on the dressing to taste. Layer on the steak and garnish with the shaved cheese.

Copyright Lynne Curry via Zester Daily and Reuters Media Express

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It’s so easy to gobble up a big bowl of guacamole. Just mash a dozen avocados, add some spiced-up tomatoes, garlic and citrus juice. When surrounded by a pile of fresh tortilla chips, nothing disappears faster in our house when it comes to party starters.

But what to do when you don’t happen to have an avocado tree in your backyard and the price of out-of-season green globes starts climbing into the stratosphere? Sweet peas, fresh or frozen, provide an amazingly tasty alternative when made a little creamier with extra virgin olive oil. If you blindfolded your guests, they would be hard pressed to name the main ingredient, but they’d be just as happy with the flavor.

Best of all, sweet pea guacamole doesn’t turn that nasty brownish gray color over time like avocados do as they oxidize. You can even make it a day or two before the party and it will look and taste just as fresh as the moment you created it.

I have Michelin-starred chef María José San Román to thank for my first introduction to this simple swap when I joined her at Nancy Harmon Jenkins’ Amorolio event in Tuscany. As English shelling pea season kicks into high gear this spring, I’m going to be digging into my own riff with this nonclassical composition.

Sweet Pea Guacamole

Jalapeños can be very hot or mild, so test the level of spice before adding to your dish, according to your preference.

Serves 6

Ingredients

1 pound fresh sweet peas, shelled

½ cup extra virgin olive oil

1 shallot, chopped

1 clove garlic, chopped

2 jalapeño peppers or to taste, chopped

Juice of 2 limes

2 ripe avocados (optional)

2 teaspoons salt

¼ cup cilantro, minced

Directions

1. Steam peas until tender, about 3 minutes. Remove from heat, cool.

2. In a blender or food processor, purée peas, olive oil, shallot, garlic, jalapeños and lime juice until almost smooth but still a bit chunky.

3. In a medium bowl, combine mashed avocado, if using, with pea mixture, leaving chunky. Add salt to taste. Garnish with cilantro. Serve with tortilla chips.

Copyright 2016 Caroline J. Beck via Zester Daily and Reuters Media Express

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By Clarissa Hyman (Zester Daily)

Few of the commuters, shoppers and office staff in Manchester’s city center in northwest England know the roof of their historic cathedral is also home to around a quarter of a million workers.

They might feel some concern if they learn these other drones are, in fact, bees. Or they might marvel at the thought of “rus in urbe,” the rural pursuit of beekeeping in the crucible of the world’s great 19th-century Industrial Revolution. They might marvel as well as at the heavenly quality of the honey produced in these sacred surroundings.

Up on the roof

The project to keep bees on the leaden roof of the cathedral, which has medieval origins, was originally encouraged by its dean as part of the “Dig the City” urban garden initiative in 2012. The project has grown each year, as have the honey yields.

For the greater good

Honorary Canon Adrian Rhodes tends his hives with all the devotion of a biblical shepherd for his flock. In the fascinating structure of bee society, he sees some parallel with medieval monastery life where one person reigned supreme, all had their allotted jobs, the community came first and individuals would sacrifice their lives for the greater good — just as a bee dies once it has stung.

It is a recent calling for the former hospital chaplain and psychotherapist of international standing known as the “Canon Apiarist,” who also keeps bees and makes honey at his suburban Manchester home.

A modern twist

Urban and suburban beekeeping is a relatively modern activity but one that increasingly makes sense as monoculture, chemicals and loss of habitat, such as wild meadows and hedgerows, dominate the agricultural landscape.

And, according to Rhodes, city bees provide the best honey.

Sweet treat for bees

Honeybees can fly up to a kilometer from their hives, and inner-city Manchester provides fine foraging. Many canals and railway lines, remainders of extensive Victorian industrialization, have untouched verges. Allotments also provide some of the best hunting grounds, and in return the bees pollinate the produce.

Add to that roof gardens, window boxes, parks and tree-filled squares, and Rhodes’ “ladies” have no need to roam far from home. One lime tree in flower, he explains, can have as much potential as an acre of field. And, although the invasion of the Himalayan balsam plant is cursed by many, it is a sweet boon to the honeybees.

‘You can’t run away’

The cathedral runs a program to help the long-term unemployed, and Rhodes mentors a trainee beekeeper to help him or her learn important life skills.

“You’ve got to turn up on time, take orders and show patience, courage and calmness. The bees must always come first,” he says. “When you get thousands of them buzzing around you, it can be a bit scary but you can’t run away or abandon them. You have to complete the task and learn how to think under pressure.”

Calm above the city

It’s not just the trainees who take away these life lessons. As Rhodes says, “Beekeeping teaches me to take time out from a busy life, and gives me a calm moment out of time.”

It may also be the effect of the aromatic church incense smoke he uses to distract the bees when he needs to lift the frames from the hives.

Rooftop challenges

The honey may be blessed, but collecting it can also be a blessed nuisance. The hives have to be secured against wind (highly problematic on a building whose ancient structure is under government protection), and the heat off the lead roof can also cause the beekeeper problems in summer.

A lack of water supply on top of the the building makes it even more complicated. Access by narrow Harry Potter-style stone spiral steps is also a problem, especially when it comes to removing the honey-dripping frames for extraction. A good supply of plastic bags and a chain of volunteers is the answer.

Heavenly Honey

The extraction is done in the cathedral, where they also jar and label the “Heavenly Honey.” It is neither pasteurized nor heat-treated, simply filtered, and the jars are sold to the cathedral community at a modest price, although there are plans to sell online.

The city’s symbol

Coincidentally, the civic symbol of Manchester is a bee: It reflects a city that is industrious, hardworking, innovative and community-minded, part of a region that also saw the birth of the great cooperative movement in 1844 to provide an affordable alternative to poor-quality and high-priced food and provisions.

The canon apiarist’s bees are part of a proud tradition.

Copyright 2016 Clarissa Hyman via Zester Daily and Reuters Media Express

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