Vicki Heyman: Lornado's lasting legacy
When the Heymans depart Ottawa, they will leave behind 100,000 honeybees and a lush new kitchen garden
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It’s the hottest part of the afternoon on one of the hottest days of the summer, well over 40 C with the humidity.
Vicki Heyman has a miserable head cold that she picked up during two weeks of appointment-packed travel in the North with her husband, U.S. Ambassador Bruce Heyman.
She must be wilting, but she excitedly pulls a heavy, hot jumpsuit over her clothes, complete with gauntlet-like leather gloves and full headgear.
“We call them the Ghostbuster suits,” she says, referring to the three new beekeeper suits she has had custom-made for the embassy residence.
While the stately Rockcliffe home has long been a hive of political activity, it has never before had this much buzz: Heyman recently made it home to nearly 100,000 honeybees.
“I’m just thrilled about them,” she says, smiling happily as she turns up the heat even more, gently waving a smoke-emitting pot near the two white hives, a measure that helps persuade the bees to return to their hives. “I love learning more about the bees, and getting the conversation going about the pollination project.”
Heyman, bright-eyed and with a quiet, enthusiastic way of speaking, has brought diplomats, leading artists and thousands of guests to Lornado, the 32-room American ambassador’s residence in Rockcliffe Park, which she has dubbed “a welcoming door to the United States.”
She won’t quite close that door when she leaves, however: she will leave behind two projects that make the century-old estate not only a greener place, but one that she hopes will spark conversations about wildlife, pollinating plants and the importance of bees.
Over the winter, with the help of embassy staff, she planned a complete overhaul of the residence’s kitchen garden and worked on bringing in bees. On that blazing hot day in August, she was realizing the fruits of her labour.
“I haven’t been here in two weeks — I’ve been in the Arctic,” she said, as she beheld the lush garden, overflowing with 60 kinds of vegetables and herbs in neat rectangular raised beds. “Are you kidding me? It’s just nutty beautiful.”
Nearby, the bees were doing their work even better than anticipated.
“I said not to expect too much honey the first year,” said Ted Norris, a Kemptville beekeeper who has helped Heyman establish the tidy white apiary. But as they lifted frames from the hive, each one buzzing with bees and dripping with honey, Norris revised his estimate.
“I’m guessing it will be 100 pounds of honey.”
Inspired by the White House vegetable garden established by Michelle Obama, already Le Jardin de Lornado has not only provided the Heymans and their guests with fresh produce, it has been a place to welcome visitors, especially children.
“We’ve hosted school kids, including some with special needs, to help with the planting, and we let them pull up things, like radishes,” says Heyman. “It’s been a great teaching space. It’s so different when you pick something off the vine and eat it. You think: what were you eating before.”
The garden, the beehives and efforts to observe and record plants and animals on the property — from birds and butterflies to groundhogs, foxes and even a deer they’ve dubbed Emily — resulted, in June, in Lornado becoming the first official U.S. residence to be officially recognized as a Certified Wildlife Habitat by the U.S. National Wildlife Foundation.
“It’s pretty cool,” says Heyman. “For me, the whole garden space has been just a dream come true. Not just for the physical beauty, but also to be able to share it and have concrete, tangible ways of saying ‘this is what is important to us, the preservation of nature.’
“It’s a way to share and tell our stories. If you visit the bees, you’ll never forget putting on your bee suit.”
For his part, Norris, the Kemptville beekeeper, feels fortunate that he happened to be seated next to Heyman at an official dinner in Toronto last fall.
“It was a forum on urban aboriginals,” says Norris, who is part Cree. “I brought three jars of honey to the dinner. One was for our host, the lieutenant-governor of Ontario. Another was for the special guest, Sophie, the Countess of Wessex. And I didn’t know who the third jar was for.”
Over the course of the dinner, Heyman chatted with Norris in her usual forthright and friendly manner. By the end of the evening, she was the happy recipient of his third jar of honey and he had made a promise to help her set up the first-ever hives at the official residence.
“The bees are under pressure from global warming and pesticides,” says Norris. “Having people of the stature of the ambassador and Mrs. Heyman promoting bee health is huge. There’s a ripple effect.”
That ripple will spread over the next year as Norris and Heyman extract the honey and put it in 200 jars with the new Lornado logo, and as the Heymans share the golden honey — and the bees’ story — with guests to the U.S. Embassy.
But Heyman hopes the ripples won’t stop there.
“We’ve made this wonderful investment. Both the garden and the apiary are legacy projects. I hope the next person here doubles the size of the kitchen garden. I hope we’ll be seeing the results of the pollinators, the bees, and what everybody can do, for years to come.”
The Heymans’ Honey Cake
Makes: One 8-by-8-inch (20-by-20-cm) cake, about 36 pieces
Preparation time: About an hour
For the cake:
- ¾ cup (180 mL) butter
- ¾ cup (180 mL) sugar
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup (250 mL) all-purpose sifted flour
- 1 ½ tsp (7.5 mL) baking powder
- ¼ tsp (1 mL) salt
- ½ tsp (2.5 mL) cinnamon
- ¼ cup (60 mL) milk
- ½ tsp (2.5 mL) grated orange rind
- 1 cup (250 mL) pecans or walnuts, chopped
For the syrup:
- ½ cup (125 mL) sugar
- 1 cup (250 mL) honey
- ¾ cup (180 mL) water
- 1 tsp (5 mL) lemon juice
- Preheat the oven to 350 F (175 C). Grease and flour an 8-by-8-inch (20-by-20-cm) cake pan.
- Cream the butter with the sugar. Add the eggs, one at a time. Sift the dry ingredients together and add to the batter.
- Add the milk and the orange rind. Beat well, then stir in the nuts.
- Pour into prepared pan and bake for about 30 minutes, until middle bounces back when touched.
- Meanwhile, prepare syrup: Mix sugar, honey, water and lemon juice in a medium saucepan and simmer 5 minutes. Skim and cool.
- Remove cake from oven and cut into diamond-shaped pieces while cake is still hot. Pour the cooled syrup over. Refrigerate and let the syrup soak in.
Lornado Honey Shoyu Glazed Duck Breast
Makes: 4 servings
Preparation time: about 40 minutes (but overnight marinating)
For the marinade:
- 1 tbsp (15 mL) dark soy sauce
- 1 tbsp (15 mL) apple cider
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tsp (10 mL) fresh ginger root, minced
- 1 tbsp (15 mL) mirin (sweet rice wine)
- 1 tsp (5 mL) dried coriander
- ½ tsp (2.5 mL) fresh-ground black pepper
- ½ tsp (2.5 mL) sesame oil
- 1 green onion, minced
- 1 star anise pod
Two 1 lb. (454 g) duck breasts
For the soy glaze:
- 1 tsp (5 mL) unsalted butter
- 4 medium shallots, finely diced
- ¼ cup (60 mL) honey
- ¼ cup (60 mL) apple cider vinegar
- ¼ cup (60 mL) dark soy sauce
- To make the marinade: In a small bowl, whisk together soy sauce, cider, minced garlic and ginger root, mirin, coriander, pepper and sesame oil. Stir in the minced green onion and star anise. Place the duck breasts in a shallow non-metal pan or zip-top plastic bag and pour marinade over. Refrigerate overnight to allow flavours to be well absorbed.
- Preheat oven to 375 F (190 C).
- Remove duck breasts from marinade and pat dry. With a sharp knife, score the duck skin in a diamond-shaped pattern. Season with salt and pepper. Place duck breasts in an oven-safe sauté pan on stove over medium-low heat. Cook slowly until the fat has rendered and the skin becomes golden.
- Place pan in the preheated oven and cook for about nine minutes, until the internal temperature reaches 135 F (57 C). Remove from oven and let rest for a few minutes before slicing.
- Meanwhile, make glaze: In a small saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat and lightly sweat the shallots. Once the shallots are translucent, add the honey, vinegar and soy sauce and simmer until the sauce reaches 240 F (116 C) or desired consistency. Strain the sauce and season with salt and pepper. Drizzle the glaze over the sliced duck breast and serve.
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