The Tumbler Ridge Public Library has always been about more than just books. It offers internet connectivity, computers, and now, seeds.
No, that isn’t an acronym; the new seed library is a repository of actual seeds for actually growing actual food, made possible with a grant from the United Way of Northern BC.
“It is a free program committed to increasing our ability to feed ourselves wholesome food by offering seeds and education,” says librarian Chris Norbury, who says the idea of a seed library was planted in his mind by exploring what other libraries are doing. “This is something I saw other libraries already doing, so we replicated it. Why reinvent the wheel when the idea is already there?”
Last year, says Norbury, the library did videos in conjunction with the Community Garden on how to garden. “The idea was to help people with how to create their own garden and develop food security, and all that sort of stuff. This year, we wanted to do something different and at the same time to have a way for people to access seeds to plant their own food. We bought all of our seeds locally through Freshmart and Home Hardware. And if people can come back after their harvest and return some seeds so we can keep it going and hopefully expand as we go on.”
The library offers a dozen or so seeds for people to plant at the moment. It’s not a lot, says Norbury, but it’s a start, and these plants grow well here. “Seed saving is a time-honoured tradition, allowing for biodiversity, letting us nurture locally adapted plant varieties, and foster community resilience, self-reliance and a culture of sharing. The seed library operates on the honor system to maintain a collection of pure, healthy, viable seeds for the community to use.”
At the end of the year, Norbury is hoping to schedule a day when local gardeners can return to the library with some of the seeds from the plants they’ve grown. “We’re hoping that they will take the seeds from their harvest and bring them back. We would ask that they dry the seeds, and we might have a night that they would dedicate to it and have everyone come in and sort the seeds and repackage them.”
The idea, says Norbury is to start small and grow. “Right now we’re just starting with vegetables. And then if there’s more demand, we might start offering flowers, or see what else we can grow.”
The seed library is located at the beginning of the Adult Non-fiction collection in the library. Seeds are free to borrow, but patrons are asked to replace the seeds, either by buying new seeds, or by harvesting their own seeds and bringing them to the library for next year.
Trent is the publisher of Tumbler RidgeLines.
