A mead refresher: This alcoholic bracer made from fermented honey has ancient cultural associations. Paired in the fermenting process with any combination of botanicals, unusual fruit and wild yeasts, modern mead can be sparkling, frizzante, dry, sweet, or a star performer in cocktails.
Mead in its many forms can be sampled at Honey’s Bar, the tasting room of Enlightenment Wines Meadery in Bushwick, Brooklyn. Six years ago, herbalist and garden designer Naneh Israelyan (whose business goes by the name Pioneer Flora) took on the rooftop garden, which had been conceived as “a botanical library of historically significant and medicinal plants.” It is run separately from the meadery although Naneh collaborates with its founders, Raphael Lyon and Harris Gilbert Shper. “The rooftop has served as a space for exploring the shared history of plant medicine and mead-making.”
The garden is also a place for experimenting with urban growing, plant lore, and alchemy. We visited in the summer and retreated indoors with her in the fall to find out more.
Photography by Valery Rizzo.
Plantings on the roof change from year to year. This season’s collection of medicinal and cultural plants included Japanese mugwort, lavender, wormwood, common tansy, edible amaranth, and rose geranium. “I am, at my core, a gardener, deepening my knowledge in edible landscaping, meadow gardens, and medicinal plant cultivation,” says Naneh.
When Naneh first joined joined Honey’s rooftop garden, it was a rudimentary setup that nevertheless supported an impressive selection of plants. “Some of the earliest plantings I inherited were wormwood, dittany, Greek mountain tea, rosemary, yarrow, lavender, and beach rose. Over the years, the garden has expanded to house over 50 species, including medicinal, edible, and rare varieties.” From seed, she grew gentian, nettle, feverfew, valerian, mallow, calendulas, blessed thistle, licorice, and lobelia. “This ongoing evolution reflects a changing seasonal theme that I later translate into limited-edition botanical extracts under Pioneer Flora.”
