What's A-Buzz?

A sweet collab introduces honeybees to a rooftop in The Grove.

- By Samantha Stevenson

AS A CHILD, Scott Holifield remembers listening to his father’s stories about retrieving honey from wild honeybees. He also recalls visits to the Missouri Botanical Garden with him to watch bees at work.

But it wasn’t until years later, in 2013, that Holifield rekindled his interest in the buzzy pollinators. He moved to a house in the city with a yard large enough to host beehives and, calling on his pharmaceutical background, began experimenting. A neighbor’s homecoming gift—a bottle of Compton Heights honey—felt like a sign that he was on the right track.

“It tasted completely different from storebought honey or anything that I’d ever tasted,” says Holifield, recalling the herbal and floral notes derived from the historic neighborhood’s mature linden and poplar trees.