As the end of summer approaches, so does my tenure at UC Davis as the Honey and Pollination Center director.

In the late fall of 2012, I became the founding director of the Center. Honestly, I had no idea what I was going to do! Things changed quickly, and soon, I was involved in way more programs than I ever thought possible. Everything was about improving the use and understanding of honey or helping folks learn more about bees and pollinators.

It’s that time of year again – you can now sign up for the 2023 Introduction to Making Mead and the Mead Making Boot Camp courses!

These courses make terrific holiday gifts for those who are interested in a deep dive into making the world’s oldest alcoholic beverage.
 
WHEN?
Boot Camp: Thursday, February 2
Introduction to Making Mead: Friday and Saturday, February 3 and 4
 
WHERE?

The California Honey Festival has made a $10,000 donation to the Honey and Pollination Center to help the Center continue its work to research quality and healthy bees. In the photo are Festival Committee members: Al Eby, Jordan Waldron, Nick Waldron; Davis Development officer, Abigail McCullough; Director of the Center and coordinator of the UC Davis presence at the Festival, Amina Harris and Director of the Robert Mondavi Institute, Dr. Andrew Waterhouse.

It is a dry springtime out here in California and the almond blossoms are bursting on the branches. Honey bees are doing their jobs pollinating and re-energizing their hives. And, similarly, the Center is re-energizing for a very active season. We will be everywhere!

Throughout the pandemic, many of us have been reassessing our work and programs. This has happened within the Honey and Pollination Center, too.  As we move into 2022, with close to ten years of work, the Center has begun to refine and rethink our vision and mission. Our emphasis will be shifting into educating and promoting pure, unadulterated honey while addressing the needs and challenges of the beekeeping and honey packing industries.

In celebration of Mead Day August 7th, the Center is excited to announce the re-entering of on-site mead education field this coming winter. It has been a long time coming!

With the onslaught of the pandemic and with it the closing of traditional forms of education, the Honey and Pollination Center found itself trying to understand how best to move forward. Over the course of the year, we have run 3 on-line programs. Each one quite different from the one before. A mead sensory course, a honey sensory training and a program on honey adulteration. With each program we learned more and more about the issues of working online. With our new mead course, Getting Creative, we are putting together some creative concepts that we developed over the past 14 months.

Crowdfund UC Davis debuted one year ago as a twice-a-year platform, February and October, to strengthen university programs and their positive community impacts. Student, faculty and staff teams apply to be part of the platform and are responsible for marketing and networking their projects for fundraising success.

Smoke fills the air. What we here in Davis and Sacramento breathe is considered unhealthy. As fires rage through Northern California and much of the West stripping our land of trees and homes, many have been thinking about the animals some of whom escape danger and others who cannot. Some of you may have thought about the beekeepers and what happens to the honey bees that are sprinkled throughout the countryside collecting nectar and producing wildflower honey.

As the year comes to a close, we at the Honey and Pollination Center wish to express our gratitude for your support of the work we did in 2019.

On Picnic Day, the plaza outside the Robert Mondavi Institute’s Sensory Building was once again filled with students, families and people (and their dogs) dressed as bees! Over 2000 people tasted honey from the center and enjoyed the grape vine give-away, olive oil samples, and delicious ice cream from UC Davis food science students!