Feb 7, 2012
03:41 AM
Seed-To-Seed Library
How about this crazy weather, huh? Snow in October and spring time temperatures in February. That radiant sun warming the earth makes you just want to dig out your garden tools and think spring!
The Fairfield Woods Branch Library has linked with the Fairfield Organic Teaching Farm for the second year in a row for their Seed-To-Seed program. It functions much like borrowing a book. You take some seeds to plant in your garden and return the rest when you’re done. Bring some seeds of your own to “deposit” in the “seed bank” so a fellow gardener can benefit from your seeds. It’s a sort of pay-it-forward system.
The main goal stems from Fairfield Organic Teaching Farm: they hope to have every Fairfield resident plant their own garden. Grow vegetables in the yard. Grow them in pots. Or, just grow herbs on your windowsill.
(The FOTF called it quits this past August after its third round of pleas to the town to allow a lease for two acres of land use on Hoyden Hill. After another review requested and more delays, the non-profit organization has chosen to work in partnership with local schools, libraries, and civic groups in organic garden-centered activities. They hope to still find suitable land to build a teaching farm.)
So what better way to start a garden than through your local library?
Nancy Coriaty, the Deputy Town Librarian at Fairfield Woods, has been at the helm of launching this initiative. “We would love every Fairfielder to visit our library and ‘check out some seeds,’” she said. “We have over 1,000 seed packets. We have also supplied seeds to several of the school gardens in town.
Coriaty noted that the seed donation came from Comstock, Ferre and Company of Wethersfield, Connecticut, which is owned by Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds of Mansfield, Missouri. Many of the varieties are heirloom, which is very attractive to gardeners.
Heirloom varieties—whether a fruit, vegetable, or flower—are not used in large-scale agricultural production. Often, the varieties are indigenous to local or regional areas. So what you grow isn’t something that can be found in a Styrofoam package at the supermarket. It’s actually something that previous generations remember picking off the vine.
Many residents got to plant the heirloom varieties for the first time this way. About 75 people signed up for the program last year and they’re expecting more this year. And, nothing says summer like the taste of a freshly picked heirloom tomato still warm from the sun, drizzled in a little olive oil and dusted with sea salt. That represents everything a garden is all about: fresh, juicy, and flavorful.
Coriaty also indicated a noticeable trend toward people growing their own food. To bolster its popularity, the library has a few seminars planned for the coming weeks to better educate Fairfield’s fledgling gardeners.
On February 25th, Nick Mancini, a master gardener, will present a program on Nightshade Gardening, or planting inside the house to be later brought outside to the garden. On March 3rd, Eric Frisk, who manages the Drew Park Community Garden will discuss Starting a Vegetable Garden: Grow It, Eat It.
“People will still have to be aware of frost so the actual outside planting will probably be pretty close to what it always has been,” she said, “sometime in May or perhaps earlier for some of the hardier plants.”
The library will also feature a program on herb gardening and a series with a Master Gardener later in the spring. Seed lending will continue right up into the fall. They have already started this year’s collection in their seed cabinet.
Most of the seeds are for vegetables, but there are some available for herbs and flowers. There is no fee attached to the program. It is free and open to the public. All the seeds are organic.
For more information about this program, visit their web site at fairfieldpubliclibrary.org or call 203-255-7307. Or, contact Nancy Coriaty at ncoriaty@fplct.org.
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