New Jersey seed libraries let patrons take home seeds and stories
Seed advocate Jeff Quattrone founded the Library Seed Bank in 2013 and opened seed libraries in Pitman and Woodbury, New Jersey, in 2014, with a third planned in Gloucester Township. Writing for Seed Savers Exchange, he describes how stories and art draw people into saving seeds.
Jeff Quattrone fell in love with seeds as a child, in the seed room of a farm supply store in Sewell, New Jersey, where he watched farmers trade stories at the counter. Decades later, he founded the Library Seed Bank in 2013 and set up two seed libraries in 2014, the first in Pitman, New Jersey, and the second in Woodbury. A third, in Gloucester Township, was about to open at an arts-based community organisation, outside the public library system, with the mayor's full backing.
In a piece for the nonprofit Seed Savers Exchange, Quattrone describes how he draws people in. Storytelling, he says, was instrumental in the creation of seed libraries. He tells people about his family's fig tree from Italy, and encourages them to grow a family garden and pass its seeds down through the generations.
Art helps too. For the opening of his first seed library, he worked with an elementary school art teacher on a contest to design the front of the envelope patrons take seeds home in, with prizes from a hobby shop across the street. He has also worked with an art school in Philadelphia to make seed sculptures with children and seed bombs with adults.
His advice to others starting out: seed libraries can be housed at any community organisation, farmers' markets and local chefs make good partners, and people who do not garden can still join the conversation.
A seed library turns a public building into a place where neighbours share plants and family stories.
Source: Building Community: Think Outside the Seed Packet (Seed Savers Exchange).
Written by the HappyGood desk from the primary source linked above and checked against it. Every story links its source. Corrections: [email protected].
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