Are you just beginning to keep bees or a first-few-year beekeepers? Well this course is perfect for you! This is the first course in the three-part Beekeeping series. We will cover introductory bee biology, needed equipment, apiary preparation, options for obtaining bees, and how to get them into their new home. Basic beekeeping skills and challenges are also reviewed. The dates of this class make it unlikely we will get into the hives in the apiary, although the class covers important fundamentals to prepare us.

This course is the second in the three-part Beekeeping series. Weather will hopefully allow us to work hives in the KVCC apiary every week, where we will evaluate hive strength, health and how to support growing colonies. Classroom review will cover swarming, splits, integrated pest management, and a further focus on biology through the season and keeping bees in SW Michigan.

Join local herbalist, Brenna Pixley, for a conversation about choosing products that are safe and natural- something that is becoming increasingly important to families today. Brenna will demonstrate how to make some of these natural products and participants will get a chance to take home samples and recipes for products that they can easily recreate at home.

The Kalamazoo area Master Rain Gardener Certification course is co-hosted by the Kalamazoo River Watershed Council and Kalamazoo Nature Center in partnership with Kalamazoo Valley Community College and Kalamazoo Valley Museum. An in-depth and in-person class that will teach you everything needed to create a living rain garden at your home or place of work. A rain garden mimics nature by letting rain water soak into the ground. It's a garden bed planted in a shallow depression with plants especially adapted for dry and wet conditions. The class will lead you through all the phases, from locating and designing to planting and maintaining a beautiful and functional rain garden. Week 1: Introduction to Rain Gardens / Week 2: Moving Dirt to Move Water and Site Selection Principles / Week 3: How to: Measuring, Planning, Digging, Sculpting / Week 4: Plant Designs: Rain Garden Plant Palette / Week 5: Present Your Plan / Optional: Rain garden tour (based on growing season). Instructors will continue to be available as a resource to students as they begin digging and planting their rain gardens after the course has ended. An optional field trip will be offered during that time to check out established rain gardens throughout the community. As part of our Master *Rain* Gardener community, students will have access to plant sales, exchanges, and other continuing education opportunities. **There will be NO CLASS February 27!!!**

The Michigan Racial Equity in the Food System Summit will focus on education, dialogue, and inspiring advocacy concerning structural inequities in the food system. Sessions will center on the theme of access to power as it relates to land, labor and food by historically marginalized communities.

Keynote speaker for the event is renown chef and writer Tunde Wey, who uses food to help illustrate institutional inequities that exist in food and health.

Dairy free and vegan options will be provided, and gluten free breads will be available. To request any additional dietary needs or other accommodations, please email Mariel Borgman at mborgm@msu.edu by 3/22.

Interested in identifying tasty plants growing in your own backyard? In this multi-session series participants will meet up with local herbalist, Brenna Pixley, at a different local nature preserve each week to adventure on a spring foraging walk. Participants will learn to identify tasty and useful plants, become more aware of seasonal and traditional parts of our diets and practices, and discuss native and invasive species and sustainable and ethical wild crafting techniques.

A recent Michigan State University poll found that food labels are influential in the food buying decisions of 2/3 of consumers and half of consumers would be willing to pay more for food items if their production had a less damaging impact on the environment. At the same time, the labels used to communicate these qualities on the foods we buy are confusing or even misleading. This class will go over the different certification programs and other food labels associated with food production with the goal of empowering food buyers to make informed decisions. Some of the terms covered will include: Organic, Natural, Non-GMO, Grass Fed, Pasture Raised, Cage Free, Antibiotic Free, Hormone Free, Local, Marine Stewardship Council and Fair Trade.

Join us in revealing many of the ways to make more food with less from home! In an era of climate change and energy decline, we will benefit from being more involved in producing our own food to ensure access to the most nutritious and life supporting meals. But the secret is that it can be fun and easier than you think to care for your family, friends and the ecology of the city. Come join us in learning to make simple gardens (indoor and outdoor), planting perennial food crops, foraging wild edibles, preservation and fermentation of crops, husbanding urban livestock, cheese making, composting and mushroom cultivation. A class for all ages and all scales of land access (or not! Lots of ideas for dorm and apartment dwellers!)