Non –Timber Forest Products is an experiential, hands-on learning course taught by Environmental Studies and Sciences professor, Jason Hamilton.  This class primarily focuses on maple syrup production, mushroom cultivation, and beekeeping.  This class functions as a “mock” business in which students are the employees of a company – South Hill Forest Products – and we sell oyster mushrooms, maple syrup, and honey.  The year the class is looking to expand its product lines to beeswax candles, woodworking, and medicinal products – dried herbs, tinctures, and herbal infused honey and maple syrup.​

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Besides being “an employee” in this business I focused my efforts on mushroom cultivation and starting a medicinal plants line. The medicinal plant team put together their innovative brains to create some interesting and delicious infused syrups, and the class taste tested the final products. The overall consensus was in favor of the lemon balm/lemon verbena blend, rosemary/sage blend, and cayenne pepper infused syrups. With the medicinal plants team we ran a trial on different herbal infused maple syrup and wrote a grant to put in an apiary garden, purchase medicinal trees, bushes, and plants, as well as build a solar dehydrator from scratch.

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The biggest challenge of this semester understanding the legality issues surrounding sell of herbal infused honey/maple syrup, tinctures and dried herbs.  As a result of the efforts this semester, we have applied for a license to sell dried herb blends starting next Fall.  The herbs will be grown in the Permacultture and Organic Garden at Ithaca College and will be dried in the soon-to-be-build solar dehydrator.