GREENFIELD — “Cultivate our own garden,” the Voltaire maxim, lives beyond the studies of “Candide” at Greenfield Community College.
The school’s “seed library” is now open to the public so community members can best cultivate their own agricultural garden.
With no charges and just a library garden, locals can walk into the college’s library and “check out” a variety of local seeds from herbs to heirloom tomatoes for free.
“That’s the beauty of this whole model,” Tony Reiber, the college’s greenhouse and science lab technician, said. “It’s really about: seeds that are offered to you, no strings are attached, and if you get to the point that you’re comfortable, you can bring back seeds.”
The seed library started as a pilot program in 2015 as a partnership between the library and the science department. Bolstered by Reiber and the college’s agricultural programs, it started out as an effort to help foster Franklin County’s local population.
The goal is to “cultivate local varieties that have been in people’s families for years,” said librarian Hope Schneider, who oversees the project.
First, the school bought a group of seeds from Fedco Seeds, the co-op seed company based in Maine. Students and faculty helped to harvest the seeds.
In 2016, 357 seeds were checked out, Schneider said. She hopes the program will potentially bring in a greater variety of seeds.
“If Uncle Joe has been growing a certain variety, we’d love to be able to preserve that,” Schneider said.
The seeds are now available in the library, which is on the third floor of Greenfield Community College, in a bookshelf titled “seed library.” Visitors must have a GCC Community Borrower card to take out seeds. Cards can be applied for at the library’s front desk. In addition to being able to choose varieties of seeds, like for Brandywine tomatoes and Turkey Craw beans, there is also literature on the growing history of seed libraries in the country and how to get started in gardening endeavors.
There are other seed libraries in the area, like in Easthampton. When they were working on the pilot for the program, Reiber recalls going to Hampshire College to look at its program.
Greenfield Community College gets help from some of its students in the agricultural departments, like David Strong, who studies farm and food systems.
Strong has been working on the project since last fall, helping to clean, separate and package seeds, which he says isn’t as simple as it may seem.
“It’s not back-breaking but it’s definitely pretty time intensive,” Strong said.
What excites those involved with the project is it brings back a part of the roots of agriculture: seed collecting and harvesting as a communal activity.
“I love the idea about reaching people about the idea of seeds … That is a resource that goes through the season and gets shared,” said Christine Copeland, the internship coordinator at the college and an avid user of the library.
Plus, in this case, you can go to the library without the anxiety of having to return what you borrow.
“You’re not going to have the librarian after you with overdue seeds,” Reiber said.
You can reach
Joshua Solomon at:
jsolomon@recorder.com
413-772-0261, ext. 264