UC Davis has been sharing its knowledge locally, regionally, nationally and globally for decades, to improve people’s quality of life. Lately, we are sharing something else: quality products that bear the unmistakable mark of UC Davis — olive oil, books, designer scarves, and wood bowls and vases.

We call it the Good Life Collection — and you can learn all about it on the collection’s new website: goodlife.ucdavis.edu. Also, you can see (and taste) parts of the collection on Picnic Day (April 16), at the UC Davis Olive Oil exhibition and the Campus Grown exhibition. See the details below.

Most of the products are homegrown. And when we say “grown,” we mean it literally.

As in campus-grown olives that are turned into award-winning oils. As in campus trees that provide the wood for the bowls and vases (the salvaging takes place after the trees come down on their own, or after they are felled for safety reasons).

As in “exceptional, eye-catching” scarves, inspired by art from faculty and students, and the university’s fine art and design collections. The first five scarves draw on the talents of Wayne Thiebaud, Maurine “Fay” Morse Nelson, Elaine de Kooning, Kathan Brown and Susan Taber Avila.

The university plans an annual collection made from the finest silk and manufactured to the highest quality — reflecting the long-standing tradition of excellence in art and design at UC Davis.

The Good Life books include volumes from the Robert Mondavi Institute Collection and others by campus authors, including Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Alan S. Taylor.

No collection of UC Davis products would be complete without some wine. It is not strictly homegrown, but the winemakers certainly are. The alumni wines are available through the Vintage Aggies Wine Club.

Picnic Day attractions

• UC Davis Olive Center — The Olive Center offers three product lines: olive oil, olives and body products.

For olive oil, look for the tasting table in Freeborn Plaza, next to the bookstore entrance. The President’s Blend will be available for sampling from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

If you are interested in making an olive oil purchase, you will need to go inside the bookstore. The store also has a new supply of Olive Center olives (in three varieties: Garlic, Lemon and Sicilian Spice).

Also inside the bookstore: olive oil lotion, body butter, bar soap and lip balm, for sampling and for sale.

• Campus Grown — This is a new division of Grounds and Landscape Services, finding new uses for salvaged wood, turning it into bowls, vases, utensils and cutting boards.

Barry Hanna, a lifelong Davis resident, is responsible for these one-of-a-kind creations, and Picnic Day visitors are invited to meet him from noon to 5 p.m. at the Grounds and Landscape Services office (directions below). Organizers of Campus Grown's Picnic Day program had hoped Hanna would be demonstrating his work — but an injury prevents that.

Hanna's parents worked at UC Davis, his mother, Myrna Hanna, as a secretary in the botany department, and his father, George, as a professor of agricultural engineering. Just after World War II, George Hanna built his own woodworking shop, where Barry gained firsthand knowledge of the craft. He further honed his woodturning skills by taking clases at the UC Davis Craft Center.

Selected items from the Campus Grown collection will be for sale in the grounds office from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. With each purchase, the buyer will receive a free bottle of President's Blend olive oil (one per person, while supplies last).

You will find the Grounds and Landscape Services office on the trail between Mrak Hall and the back side of Wright Hall, overlooking the west side of Lake Spafford. (Still can’t find it? Go to the southeast corner of Shields Library, walk south across Hutchison Drive and keep walking south, through Wright Hall. Exit the building and turn right.)

Trees and tiles

Speaking of the "good life," Picnic Day visitors also might want to visit the Good Life Garden, amid the buildings of the Robert Mondavi Institure for Wine and Food Science.

And, all around campus, if you happen to see trees growing out of gift boxes — let us explain: These are advertisements for the campus's Dedication Program, under which you can dedicate a tree, a bench, a decorative ceramic tile or a mosaic plaque (for oak trees) — in return for a gift to the university.

According to the Dedication Program's website, tree and bench purchases help fund UC Davis' 100-Year Tree Plan, which is dedicated to replacing campus trees as they decline or are removed.

The tiles that are available for dedication comprise Nature's Gallery — a project of the Art-Science Fusion Program. Students, staff, faculty and community members made more than 140 tiles for the gallery — with each tile featuring a different plant or insect found in the arboretum's Storer Garden.

Nature's Gallery debuted in 2007 at the U.S. Botanic Garden on the National Mall across from the Capitol in Washington, D.C. Eventually, with funds from tile dedications, the artwork will be installd permanently in the arboretum.

The mosaic plaques are for trees in the Shields Oak Grove. Proceeds support the arboretum’s education programs for children and families, including the arboretum's partnership with the Art-Science Fusion Program.