Sustainable Foods, Farm & Gardens   

This hands-on course for youth between 11-14 years old includes inquiry-based learning experiences that connect to state and national academic standards. Upon completion of this 6-week course, participants will have a deeper understanding of the life cycle of plants, learn how to create and maintain a garden, understand the effects of soil health and other environmental factors on seed germination learn the benefits of seed saving and food preservation, and experience other innovative methods of growing food. In addition, through collaborative projects, participants will strengthen their leadership skills, social skills, and have an increased interest in environmental stewardship and community engagement. Participants will also have the unique experience of visiting, touring, and learning within the Kalamazoo Valley’s Food Innovation Center, which could inspire their future academic plans. 

Join instructor Charlotte Hubbard in the first course of this three-part Beekeeping series, and learn about introductory bee biology, needed equipment, apiary preparation, options for obtaining bees, and how to get them into their new home.

This will be a vitual course, and a Zoom link will be sent to all registered participants the day before the class begins. 

This course is the second in the three-part Beekeeping series. Weather permitting, hands-on learning in the Food Innovation Center’s apiary is planned for each week, where students 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 Southwest Michigan.

Tunnel nesting bees are important pollinators for fruits and vegetables. Unlike honey bees, tunnel nesting bees do not live in colonies or move in swarms, so they are also often called solitary bees. Participants in this class will learn how to build and manage a bee hotel to support their local tunnel nesting bees. Each participant will be able to take home a bee hotel at the end of the class.

Plan your garden to create stunning bouquets, wreaths and other home décor all year long. Learn how to choose plants for staggered blooming and explore the benefits of year-round blooms and berries for adding beauty to your home landscape and sustaining local wildlife populations. This class will be a combination of classroom time and hands-on plant propagating to get your own gardens started. 

Do you want to lower your carbon footprint and make your own organic fertilizer in one simple process? Learn to compost! Composting is the process for recycling wastes like kitchen scraps and grass clippings into an organic soil amendment that will help your garden retain moisture and support beneficial microorganisms. It is a great alternative to putting food and yard wastes in landfills, where they generate methane. Join us and learn some potential yard composting recipes, structures, and share your knowledge with others.

This course is for the homeowner or interested beginning designer to learn how to develop and design a home landscape that enhances local ecosystem services. Learn the basics of “right plant, right place”, and how to use plants and hardscapes to amplify aesthetics and ecosystem function.  
You will also learn how to use iTree® software to properly place trees in your landscape; this will enable you to reduce heating and cooling costs, maximize the benefits of shade, and reduce air and water pollution. 
We will provide you with a landscape design toolkit, and you will have the chance to design your own site, and get peer and expert feedback on your ideas and final design. 
 

Join us for a fun and informative class that focuses on how beneficial insects in the yard and garden help protect your plants from damaging pests.  We will take an up close and personal look at lacewings, lady beetles, “true bugs' ', mantids, and others. These insects serve as predators of aphids, thrips, and caterpillars, just to name a few.  The course will be a combination of hands-on and classroom learning and at the end of the day, you will take home a packet of seeds for plants that will help you attract predators to your garden. Attracting guardians to your garden could be part of your Integrated Pest Management program – and - it’s fun to see them in their ecological habitats.  Come join us!

All gardeners at some point have to deal with garden pests. In today’s online world, there’s a lot of information out there, good and bad; sometimes it’s tough to even know where to start looking for information. Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is a practical six step strategy used in gardens big and small to monitor and manage insects, diseases, and other pests. In practice, IPM helps promote ecosystem balance, increases treatment success, and saves you time and money. Over the course of three meetings, we will discuss 1) how to identify garden pests, 2) how to determine if, when and what treatments should be applied, and 3) some steps you can take to increase your garden’s resilience to pest populations. This course will have indoor and outdoor classroom and hands-on experiences. At the end of the course, you will receive a packet of seeds for plants that will attract beneficial insects to your garden, a hand lens, and an IPM for the Home Garden reference manual.

Come join us in learning about growing your own gourmet mushrooms from locally available materials! We will grow oysters, shiitake, winecaps, and more. Students will learn how to procure substrates and create good environments for mushroom growth. We will also discuss how to use coffee grounds and other composted material as substrates for mushroom growth.  Some mushroom identification is practiced during this course as well. Come ready to learn about the savory mysteries of fungal farming. Students take home different inoculated mushroom media at the end of each session.

Join us for a spring walk through the beautiful Kleinstuck Nature Preserve. We will see a variety of plants including trees, shrubs, and Michigan’s beautiful spring ephemerals (plants that complete their life cycle before the trees fully leaf out). We will discuss what makes an invasive species invasive and we will discover some of the basic, but often overlooked, benefits of urban ecology.  In addition, we will look for some unusual plants that have interesting folklore and medicinal qualities. Join us at the Stearns Street Entrance for an educational walk in the park!

Are you a new indoor plant parent? Are you struggling with knowing when and what to feed your plant? Is your plant cranky because it is receiving too little or too much water? We can help. Join us for Plant Parenting 101 – a course designed to explain the basics of plant biology in a way that will help you become a knowledgeable and successful plant parent. We will discuss plant nutrition, water and light requirements, soil selection, and more. In addition to learning some biology basics, we will also discuss how to select the right plant for your indoor environment. Lastly, we will head into the greenhouse to practice some hands-on plant propagation techniques – at the end of the day; you will have up to three new plants to take home with you!

Do you want to turn your backyard into a sanctuary for pollinators and native plants, while also growing vegetables, herbs, and flowers from early spring to late fall? Learn the basic principles of polyculture gardening. In this class you will learn how to plan your new garden, how to select seeds, and plants, and how to maintain it for many years to come. The polyculture garden at the Food Innovation Center will be used as an education model, and class participants will engage in hands-on learning through planting a variety of crops in it. Participants will take home some annual and perennial crops to plant in their gardens as well. 

Whether you are tending a half-acre, a few raised beds, or some pots on your patio, you can learn how to design your garden to produce an abundant yield of both food and viable seeds for planting next year! In this hands-on workshop, we will examine a variety of garden designs, plant the seed garden at the Food Innovation Center, and workshop participant garden plans. We’ll help you decide which seed crops will do best in your garden and teach you what you need to know to steward those crops to a successful seed harvest.

Trees and humans have a long and interesting history together. In addition to the joy that trees bring us, they also give us food, building materials, and the Oxygen we breathe. There’s also a lot of things that trees do behind the scenes; they filter pollutants, store Carbon, reduce storm water runoff, and save us millions of dollars annually in heating and cooling costs.  While this is not a tree identification course, you will learn how to select the right tree for your location so that it will enhance the beauty and health of your landscape – and – save you money! The course is divided into three sections 1) Trees in the Landscape: A Lecture, 2) an introduction to MyTree ® landscaping software, and 3) a walk around the Texas Township Campus, to look at trees and discuss their function and placement.
Note: If you have one, please bring a laptop. 

ValleyHUB is a farm, food hub, and education center based at the Food Innovation Center at Kalamazoo Valley Community College. The Urban Farm at ValleyHUB showcases a range of sustainable agricultural practices. The five-acre site includes an indoor grow room, a heated greenhouse, outdoor raised beds, and two passive solar hoophouses. The Food Hub is a licensed food processing facility equipped to produce fresh-cut fruits and vegetables at a range of production scales. Join us on this *FREE* tour to explore our beautiful site, and learn about our programs and practices.  

ValleyHUB is a farm, food hub, and education center based at the Food Innovation Center at Kalamazoo Valley Community College. The Urban Farm at ValleyHUB showcases a range of sustainable agricultural practices. The five-acre site includes an indoor grow room, a heated greenhouse, outdoor raised beds, and a passive solar hoophouse. The Food Hub is a licensed food processing facility equipped to produce fresh-cut fruits and vegetables at a range of production scales. Join us on this *FREE* tour to explore our beautiful site, and learn about our programs and practices.

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. The secret is that it can be fun and easier than you think to care for your family, friends and city’s ecology. Come join us in learning to make simple gardens (indoor and outdoor), planting perennial food crops, foraging wild edibles, preservation and fermentation of crops, raising urban livestock, cheese making, composting and mushroom cultivation. A class for all ages and all scales of land access.