Sustainable Foods, Farm & Gardens   

This event will bring together current and prospective ValleyHUB partners - farmers, foodmakers; retail, restaurant and institutional food service customers; and friends. We’ll share the current state of our food hub, along with relevant information and upcoming opportunities in food safety, procurement, funding, and more. Then we’ll spend some time getting to know each other and planning ahead for the coming season.

Herbs are a traditional source of nutrition and healing. Participants in this class will explore the impact of ancestral plants, sources of materia medica, ethical and sustainable foraging techniques, as well as recipes for building a home apothecary. Participants will engage in on-campus plant walks to discuss bioregional, cultivated, and seasonal plants. Includes hands-on workshops.

Note:   (No class on March 23)

Hydroponics, or the process of growing plants in nutrient-rich water without the use of soil, has been around for hundreds of years. Although typically run as large-scale commercial operations, hydroponics provides a variety of benefits to the home gardener as well. This class will teach the very basics of home hydroponics including light needs, water, pH, growing mediums, and building and operating your own small-scale setup. Participants will leave with resources for purchasing table-top gardens, plans for DIY setups, and starter plants or seeds.

 

This three-part course is for those thinking about keeping bees, or in their early years of this fascinating hobby. Beekeeping 101 will detail how to get started and fundamental bee biology. This will likely be a virtual course, with the link sent to all registered participants the day before the class begins.

This second part of the course will (weather permitting) be hands-on in the college apiary. We’ll hopefully install a package and a nuc, split overwintered colonies, and evaluate hive health each week.  We’ll also cover pests, diseases, swarming, splits and integrated pest management with the goal of teaching successful beekeeping for SW 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.

 

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. Vermiculture composting uses worms to recycle food scraps and other organic material. These two methods are a great alternative to putting food and yard wastes in landfills, where they generate methane. Join us in this 2-part series to learn the basics of composting at home, and to become familiar with the variety of composting systems. The first class of this series will be a classroom-based component at the Food Innovation Center, and the second class will be more of a hands-on experience with multiple composting systems at the Western Michigan University’s Gibbs House. 

 

Fairy Gardens have been cultivated in Ireland, the British Isles, Germany, France, and Scandinavia since druidic times, and are still very popular today in the Celtic regions of Europe. Especially popular in Ireland, fairy gardens serve as passageways that enable fairies to join the human world; they’re also an excellent way to add a bit of whimsy and mystery to your garden. This course teaches you how to design and create your own traditional fairy garden using natural items like cones, acorns, and twigs. You will learn which plants work best in your garden (and which plants fairies prefer!). You will be provided with a pot, soil, gravel, plants, and items to make your garden come to life. 

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.  

(NO class on 10/04).

 

 

 

Prerequisite: Eco-Friendly Landscape Design 1.0 is required for enrollment. 

This three-day course is the second in a two-part series and will give you additional hands-on experience designing your eco-friendly home landscape. Students will 1) revisit the design principles, 2) review right plant, right place concepts, 3) enhance their drawing and design skills, and 4) visit local residential spaces with a professional designer. These experiences will enable students to feel confident structuring a design plan works for their space and local ecosystem. One class session will be offsite so students can gain hands-on experience measuring and evaluating outdoor spaces.

This fun and informative class will focus 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!

In this introductory class to keeping backyard poultry, the participants will learn the basics of raising chickens on a small scale, including breed selection, raising chicks, housing, handling, sanitation, and flock wellness.

Intro to Nut Production will help landowners decide if nut production is right for them. We will provide education on various nut varieties that grow in Michigan; walnuts, hazelnuts, chestnuts and pecans.  We will go over their uses, common pests, tools, equipment, and offer a taste test of nuts and value-added products.

 

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.

 

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!

The Dapper Hammer will teach community members to create a wood planter box. This class will be a two part series that will cover introduction to basic power tools including; miter saw, drill, power sander, and basic joinery. There will be additional instruction on finishing methods. This class focuses on how to build a simple planter box you can take home with you, while learning how to properly use and understand power tools. 

 

Location: The Dapper Hammer 1415 Fulford St. Kalamazoo MI 49001

Stretch your harvest further into the winter and start harvesting earlier in the spring by using low tunnels. Using  our hoop bender, you’ll make a set of 4’x4’ low tunnels for your farm or garden and learn what and when to plant for successful winter and early spring harvests. Low tunnels can be used directly in the ground, inserted into raised beds, or used inside of a hoophouse to provide additional protection. Each participant will receive a set of 4 steel hoops,nursery clear film to cover the hoops, and fasteners to keep the covering in place.  

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.

If you are interested in beekeeping, but not sure what it takes to be a successful beekeeper, this class is for you. Join instructor Charlotte Hubbard in this VIRTUAL 3-hour session where you will learn about the financial, time, physical and emotional commitment required for beekeeping. You will also learn about the essential equipment needed, where to locate hives, the various options for obtaining bees and a timeline for making it happen. 

Information to connect to virtural class will be sent via email the week this class meets. 

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.

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.

Do you have a favorite shirt or pair of jeans with a hole in them, stains, or weak spot? Do you hate the idea of sending them to the landfill? Here’s your solution: transform your holey clothing into a work of slow fashion art! If you can thread a needle and sew on a button, you’ve got the skills you need. The fiber industry is one of the biggest polluters in the world- behind only the oil and gas industry. Repairing and refurbishing your clothing keeps your clothing out of the waste stream, saves you money, gives you a creative outlet, and will make you the envy of your friends. Join us in this 6 week exploration into the world of mending. We will be learning mending of socks, jeans and other pants, shirts and more types of clothing using techniques of weaving, embroidery, knitting, and more. Minimal sewing skills are required- we’ll teach you what you need to know although some familiarity is useful.