If you've recently visited the pollinator gardens at The Hive, a family business owned by Z Specialty Food, 1221 Harter Way, Woodland, you've seen the spectacular Pride of Madeira, Echium candicans.

Now another "pride" awaits.

Z Specialty Food will host a Nature Day celebration, a free public event from 11 a.m., to 5 p.m., Saturday, April 2. 

The 20,000-square-foot facility, which houses the Moon Shine Trading Company, Island of the Moon Apiaries, and The Hive,  includes a processing plant, a tasting room (honey and mead), a gift shop, an outdoor courtyard and a pollinator garden.  As the largest honey varietal business in California, it is the pride of all folks eager to say: "Show me the honey!" 

And now on Saturday, April 2, during the Nature Day celebration, you'll see the pride of The Hive. 

What's on tap for Nature Day?

Don't Toss Those Scraps! – Natural Dye Workshop 
Time: All day
Learn how to utilize food scraps and create one-of-a-kind dyes for clothing, fabric and yarn.  You'll be provided white cloth, avocado pits and black beans. What's with food waste? Each year Americans waste 108 billion pounds of food, contributing to extensive environmental, economic, and societal impacts. 

Miridae Living Labs 
Time: All day
You'll get to play with seed bombs, bugs, and plants with Miridae Living Labs! This is a non-profit, Sacramento-area organization dedicated to using native insects and plants as tools for education, research, and community engagement. The business "strives to generate positive ecological changes in our communities under the guidance and leadership of community members," a spokesperson said.

Miridae Mobile Nursery 
Noon: Container Gardening with California Native Plants (first-come, first-serve basis with purchase of plant) 
Miridae Mobile Nursery is a customized box truck that transforms into a curbside native plant shop. Its goal is "to bring people together through plants and gardening."  All profits from its sales of native plants support its science education, non-profit Miridae Living Labs.

The Hive Nature Loop Scavenger Hunt 
Time: All Day
You can grab a pamphlet and go on a scavenger hunt for plants in The Hive Nature Loop. Find all the plants and show to a team member to win a prize!

Pollinator Garden Tour
Time: 1 p.m.
Join plant curator Rowan Boswell for a tour of the two-acre pollinator gardens at The Hive. It's billed as: "Get inspired by our oasis and outdoor courtyard, designed to meet the needs of our community and native species. Discover pollinator favorites, California natives, and drought-tolerant plants."

Bohart Museum of Entomology
The Bohart Museum of Entomology at UC Davis will display specimens of bees. The insect museum, directed by Lynn Kimsey, UC Davis distinguished professor of entomology, is the home of a global collection of eight million insect specimens; a live "petting zoo" (Madagascar hissing cockroaches, stick insects and tarantulas); and a gift shop. 

Photography
Some 24 images of honey bees by award-winning photographer Kathy Keatley Garvey of UC Davis will be showcased. A communication specialist for the Department of Entomology and Nematology who takes images of honey bees and other pollinators in her leisure time, she comes from a long line of beekeepers. She writes a daily (Monday-Friday) Bug Squad blog.

The Hive Facility Tour 
Times: 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.
Visitors are invited to tour the four-year development, created to educate the public on honey, bees, and pollination. Nectar director Josh Zeldner will guide the tours of 20,000-square-foot, Zero Net Energy facility.

Z Specialty Food began as the Moon Shine Trading Company, founded in 1979 by Ishai Zeldner (1947-2018), who died at age 71. He worked as a commercial beekeeper and studied beekeeping at UC Davis. He became fond of yellow starthistle honey. "He loved it so much that he began giving it away to his friends, and quickly realized he was going broke doing so," remembers his widow, Amina Harris, the director of the UC Davis Honey and Pollination Center. Her title at the family business? "Queen Bee." Son Josh Zeldner is the "nectar director." Liz Luu is the marketing manager and tasting room manager, or a "worker bee."

Honey enthusiasts all, they and their crew will greet the public on Nature Day, April 2. The bees will be there, too, foraging on the Pride of Madeira.

You may associate “tasting room” with wine in the Napa Valley, or olive oil in Fairfield, but now there's a tasting room in Woodland to sample honey and mead (honey wine). 

That's Z Specialty Food's newly constructed The HIVE, located at 1221 Harter Ave. Woodland. It's 42 years in the making, including four years of design and construction, said self-described "Queen Bee" Amina Harris of the family-owned business.

A grand opening public celebration, featuring live bands, plant tours, family activities, and honey and mead sales,  as well as food available from the HIVE and local food trucks,  will take place Saturday, Nov. 13 from 1 to 7 p.m., and Sunday, Nov. 14 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. 

Z Specialty Food, home of the Island of the Moon Apiaries, the Moon Shine Trading Company, and The HIVE, specializes in 30-plus honey varietals, including Mexican coffee golden reserve varietal honey, Northwestern blackberry gourmet  varietal honey,  Florida white tupelo honey, and California spring wildflower honey.  Another favorite: starthistle honey, favored by many beekeepers.

“I am passionate about introducing people to taking the time to taste honey properly, noticing every unique color, flavor, aroma and texture that comes through,” Harris said.

Inside the 20,000-square-foot, Zero Net Energy facility is an  "upscale wine tasting room, with a rustic wood rustic-clad bar where visitors stand while an employee behind the bar offers honey samples on tiny plastic spoons," according to an article in Sacramento Magazine. "Each honey is surprisingly unique, with its own distinct color, aroma and flavor profile."

Harris, who serves as the director of the UC Davis Honey and Pollination Center at the Robert Mondavi Institute, said her  husband, the late Ishai "Charles" Zeldner, founded Z Specialty Food in 1979. A  fourth-generation food merchant who worked with a beekeeping operation in Israel while living in the kibbutz, Beit HaShita, he later studied apiculture at UC Davis. He died June 17, 2018 at his home in Davis at age 71.  

"Our late founder, Ishai Zeldner, always wanted a place to host people from all over the world, and blow their minds around the vast array of flavors, colors and textures of varietal honey," the website relates. "Now you can experience the fruits of our labor, from a family business that has been through it all over the last 42 years, and counting."

Son Joshua Zeldner, nectar director of Z Specialty Food, commented about the grand opening celebration: "It's hard to believe we are finally here, a true dream come true..." His dad, he said, "always wanted to have a ‘honey museum' on I-5, and now we do. I am so excited to invite people to experience what we have created, the full circle of plants, bees, honey and mead."

The site includes a courtyard and a pollinator garden.

They're described as "groundbreakers" and "risk-takers" and "trendsetters."

They're known for their creativity.

What they do, however, does not involve correcting social injustices, breaking ceilings in workplaces or pushing the latest fashions, as the descriptive adjectives might indicate.

It has everything to do with making award-winning mead or honey wine.

Elite mead makers will divulge their secrets when the UC Davis Honey and Pollination Center hosts a two-day online course on "Mead: Getting Creative" on Friday and Saturday, May 21-22.

The event runs from 8:30 a.m. to noon each day.

"This course is for anyone who has experience making mead and wants to take their craft to the next level," says Amina Harris, director of Honey and Pollination Center, affiliated with the UC Davis Mondavi Institute and the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology.

 Presenters include:

• Jeff Herbert, Superstition Meadery (Prescott, Ariz.)
• Carvin Wilson, a vocational meadmaker and mead promoter extraordinaire (Phoenix, Ariz.)
• Chrissie Manion Zaerpoor, Kookoolan Farms and Kookoolan World Meadery, and author of The Art of Mead Tasting and Food Pairing" (Yamhill, Ore.)
• Pete Bakulic, director of the Mazer Cup International Mead Competition and mead consultant
• Billy Beltz, owner of Lost Cause Meadery (San Diego.)
• Michelle and Jeremy Kyncl, owners of Hierophant Meadery (Mead, Wash.)

Yes, you read that last line right. Mead makers Michelle and Jeremy Kynci of Mead.  You can sip mead in Mead at their Green Bluff Tasting Room. Mead is an unincorporated suburb north of Spokane, population under 8000, according to the 2010 Census. It was NOT named for honey wine but for Civil War Army General "Old Snapping Turtle" George Meade, 1815-1873,  known for defeating Confederate General Robert E. Lee at the Battle of Gettysburg. His name lives on despite an "e" that went MIA.

Curious what Hierophant means? As the owners say on their website: "The Hierophant is generally described as 'one who reveals/shows what is sacred or holy.' We believe that the honey bee should be revered as such, as the declining population of honey bees and wild pollinators most certainly reveal to us that change is needed in the way things are done in our food system. We therefore depicted the honey bee as the Hierophant by adding a kabbalistic tree of life in our logo representation. This tree of life symbol is associated with the Hierophant."

The last day to register for the UC Davis course (the fee for the two-day course is $275) is Wednesday, May 12. Register here. You can contact Elizabeth Luu, marketing and events manager, at luu@caes.ucdavis.edu for more information.

Want to celebrate May Day by learning about mead, the world's most ancient alcoholic beverage? Remember mead? It's also known as "honey wine," created by fermenting honey with water. Sometimes mead makers add fruits, spices, grains, and hops.  

There's a "me" in mead. The American Mead Makers  Association says mead has exploded 130 percent since 2011, making it "the fastest growing alcoholic beverage category in the United States."

And now a me-and-you mead course is buzzing our way.

The UC Davis-based California Master Beekeeper Program (CAMBP) has announced it will sponsor an online introduction to mead on Saturday, May 1. It's a time to learn, taste and sip--and you can do so with friends who also register for the course, says CAMBP program manager Wendy Mather.

The virtual event is set from 9 a.m. to noon. Master Beekeeper candidate Mark Carlson "will lead us in a general mead and honey appreciation class," said Mather,  adding "We will leave the mead-making lessons to the experts at the UC Davis Honey and Pollination Center. "Mark will identify what makes one single source honey different from another, presenting them both from a flavor perspective, but also as a scientist who loves chemistry. The emphasis will be on nectar origins and equipment sanitation for the most part." Special guest Michael Zilber, owner and mead maker at Heidrun Meadery, Point Reyes Station, "will join us at 11:15 to share his passion and lead us in a mead tasting."

The course, "Introduction to Mead 2021," is designed to:  

• Understand honey and mead, using comparative sensory analysis and other scientific tools
• Review options for sanitizing equipment
• Introduce the process of fermentation, and 
• Engage in a honey and a mead tasting

The event is open to the public at $40 per ticket. Register at https://registration.ucdavis.edu/Item/Details/718.

Mather noted that the three-hour course will include a guided experience of honey and mead-tasting. Thus, each participant will "bee on board" with three varietals of honey and two to three different meads. The Heidrun Meadery (415-663-9122)  is offering a 10 percent discount (use coupon code CAMBPSIPS).  Honey can be purchased locally or regionally--from the UC Davis Stores, a beekeeper, farmers' market or at a  grocery store. UC Davis Stores provides "all things honey" (access link).

Extension apiculturist Elina Lastro Niño of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology faculty directs the California Master Beekeeper Program, which uses science-based information to educate stewards and ambassadors for honey bees and beekeeping. Its vision, as detailed on its website, is to train 2500 Apprentice beekeepers over the next five years "so they can effectively communicate the importance of honey bees and other pollinators within their communities, serve as mentors for other beekeepers, and become the informational conduit between the beekeeping communities throughout the state and UC Cooperative Extension (UCCE) staff." Check out the website for upcoming courses. For more information on the program, contact camasterbee@gmail.com.