The Yew Mountain Center recently announced its 2018 event calendar that includes family events, performing arts, and weekend workshops all centered on experiential learning in the heart of Appalachia. The organization just wrapped up its inaugural year.

“We are excited by the successes in our first year, and we’re fine-tuning our start-up organization to become a destination for educational programming centered around our core values,” director Erica Marks said. “The response from our participants has really been encouraging and we’re excited to bring back popular programs and some new additions.”

The weekend workshop series begins March 23, with an Introduction to Bee-Keeping, a family friendly weekend workshop that allows participants to learn the basics of honey production while building their own take-home hive. Each weekend workshop has a free session open to the public on Saturday during programming.

For a full schedule of the bee-keeping activities go to yewmountain.org/beekeeping.html

Also this year, the organization is beginning a forest farming project with support from the Sacharuna Foundation. The aim of the program is to demonstrate how to grow native plants that have medicinal, edible or decorative uses in the forest as a way to sustainably manage one’s woodland, improve health and even realize income.

The Yew Mountain Center was created in 2017 with a community vision for creating a space that celebrated experiential education and the area’s rich ecology and culture while providing economic benefits to an underserved area. With a lodge and 500-acre facility, the Yew is ideally situated to provide immersive experiences in the natural world with modern conveniences. Last year, the Yew served more than 300 participants at weekend events and provided educational programming for more than 160 youth.

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