Thursday, August 5, 2010

Seed of an Idea Takes Root at Richmond (California) Public Library


Link to August 4 San Francisco Chronicle article, "Seed-saver library sprouts in Richmond".

Excerpt: Hard times can incubate good ideas, and one of those is seed saving in home gardens. Nationally, Native Seeds/SEARCH and Seed Savers Exchange, and locally, Bay Area Seed Interchange Library (BASIL) at the Berkeley Ecology Center have been doing this for some years.

The latest cultivar of the idea is the Richmond Grows Seed Lending Library in the main Richmond Public Library - such a logical pairing that it's surprising it seems to be the first anywhere.

An offshoot of Richmond Rivets, an organization building community resilience to climate change and fossil fuel shortages, Richmond Grows is part of a network of homegrown programs like Urban Tilth, which promotes food gardening in schools and on the Richmond Greenway (the repurposed former Southern Pacific right of way) and the Five Percent Local Coalition, pushing local food production. Richmond and Kennedy high schools operate urban farms; many elementary schools have their own gardens. Last year's urban homestead tour included 20 sites
.

Related article.
Richmond now has its own seed-lending library.  (Richmond Confidential, 7/20/2010)

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