Metropolitan Community College is offering noncredit beekeeping courses this summer.
Tony Sandoval teaches the courses at Metro. He says they kicked off the summer with two introductory beekeeping classes, one traditional and one organic.
The organic class teaches students alternative methods of beekeeping including a look at several different types of hives that can be used for bee management.
Sandoval says there’s also a class called Honey: From the Kitchen to the Coffee Table. He says that class teaches people how to cook with honey and how to convert from sugar to honey in their cooking and baking.
"It teaches them how to judge honey quality so they know what they’re buying at the grocery store and the farmer’s market. It teaches them the sources, the flavors of the varietal honeys. Then we have kind of a honey tasting, like a wine tasting, that’s a part of that as well. So it teaches them to pair up various kinds of foods with various kinds of honey.”
Sandoval says this quarter there will also be a class featuring apiary tours. He says students will tour apiaries around the City of Omaha, including one that is located on the top of a landmark building in the historic Old Market area.
In the fall, Sandoval says Metro will offer some advanced beekeeping courses that work with the Omaha Bee Club’s Beekeeper Certification programs. He says these classes will help students prepare for the written test.
More information is available at mccneb.edu/ce.