Spring is just around the corner. Can you feel it? The bees are busy pollinating the almond trees around Bakersfield, and above. Los Angeles Beekeepers Association members are looking forward to bringing their hives back so that the flowers down here along the foothills of the L.A. Basin (which have bloomed early), can be tapped for their rich nectar.
    Gardens in California Schools have been shaping up, thanks to the money from AB1535 that has already been awarded. However, as of February 15th the remaining  dollars are no longer available, as noted on the California School Garden Network website (csgn.org):

            “Grants
California Assembly Bill 1535, Nunez
California Instructional School Garden Program
Pupil nutrition will provide $15,000,000 to support school gardens. More information
Update: We regret to inform you that one of the budget cuts made to education is the elimination of a variety of unallocated grant funds, including the remaining $4.2 million dollars of the $15 million for the CISG Program grant. Due to this budget cut, the Nutrition Services Division will not be posting a Request for Applications (RFA) for the 2008 CISG Program grants during March 2008 as originally intended. “
    Please note that the csgn.org website does tell of other grant opportunities. Please keep up the good work that you are doing for our children. When one door closes, another usually opens with other opportunities.

Farmology Report
      We have booklet requests coming in via the website and phone calls, and will probably be out of booklets by April.  Denise attended the California Association of Museums Conference at the end of February.  The conference had some great information.  Most of the museums had received the brochures about Farmology sent to them by AAL . Denise has had requests for the exhibit for various events and dates. Wow! We can tell that this exhibit is going to be in demand, once it is built. We know that it will address agriculture awareness in a meaningful and understandable way. It is so exciting to have this exhibit in the works. Go, Team CWA!

Ag Day L.A. will be held in the Big Red Barn at the L.A. County Fairgrounds on May 14th and 15th this year.  It will be held in conjunction with the 48th DAA Fair, and we will be able to share Ag Day with twice as many children this year as we did last year. You can find out more about this event at the agdayla.com website. The L.A. County Farm Bureau has a nice write up on their website as well, as they are major partners with us. You can view this at (http://www.lacfb.org/newsletters/MarchAprlfinal.pdf