JTEL Children's library: a call for volunteers

The Ansgar and Ida Lane Clausen Cabin, at 3629 Main Street in Ester, was donated to the John Trigg Ester Library this year and is now open for as often as we can staff the place. Volunteers are encouraged to apply for the following hours roster:

• Saturdays: 9 am to 6 pm
• Sundays: 10 am to 6 pm
• Mondays: 2 pm to 6 pm
• Tuesdays: 2 pm to 6 pm
• Wednesdays: 2 pm to 6 pm
• Thursdays: 2 pm to 6 pm
• Fridays: 2 pm to 6 pm

The Clausen Cabin is an annex to the main library, which still is at the first floor of the red-and-white building across the street. Now, however, the main library holds adult fiction and nonfiction, reference titles, and movies, while the Clausen Cabin holds the Ruth Jasper Children's Collection, gardening and cooking books, food and agricultural issues titles, music books and recordings as well as sheet music, homesteading titles, and the Growing Ester's Biodiversity seed library. For the time being, Alaska nonfiction titles remain in the main library.

The main library has its 9 am to 9 pm, 7 days a week hours, but the Clausen Cabin will be open only when staffed. The neon OPEN sign in the window will let you know we're there! Come on by!

Poster for the 2013 LiBerry Music Festival

Here it is! the poster for the LiBerry Music Festival & Berry Pie Throwdown, 2013! This year's extravaganza will be August 17 from 2 'til the cows come home (so to speak) at the Golden Eagle Saloon (3630 Main Street, Ester). Come getcher pie (or better yet, enter the pie contest!) and dance to great music by the Interior's best!

Remember, this is a FUNDRAISER, so we are looking for lots of donations to help 1) operate the library; 2) open up the Clausen Cabin (across the street from the Eagle) for the Ruth Jasper Children's Room; and 3) sock more away toward the new building on Village Road!

Spread the news! See you in a couple of weeks!

Fabulous poster design by Amy Cameron of Bad White Dog.

Yummy berry list for pie making

So what constitutes a berry? Botanically speaking, it's a fleshy fruit produced from a single ovary containing one or more seeds. Examples include:

• avocadoes
• bananas & plantains
• citrus fruits: lemons, oranges, limes, kumquats, Buddha's hands, grapefruit, etrogs, clementines, pomelos, red finger limes, papedas, mandarins, kinnows, etc.
• bearberries, bilberries, blueberries, cranberries, crowberries, honeyberries, huckleberries, lingonberries
• coffee (roasted coffee berries!)
• cucumbers (that means pickles!)
• currants, gooseberries
• elderberries
• grapes
• kiwis
• melons: canteloupes, honeydews, muskmelons, watermelons
• persimmons
• squash, winter & summer: pumpkins, zucchinis, gourds, luffas, etc.
• Solanaceae family fruit: Cape gooseberries, chiles, eggplants, groundcherries, peppers, tomatillos, tomatoes, etc.

Then there are fruit commonly referred to as berries that are not true berries, such as aggregate or accessory fruits. These can include:

• blackberries, cloudberries, raspberries, salmonberries, etc.
• highbush cranberries
• mulberries
• rose hips
• strawberries

More types of berries will be added here as we find out different varieties!

Library lecture: Sine Anahita on Blackface Peformance in Territorial Alaska

Tonight at 7 pm UAF associate professor of sociology and associate director of UAF Northern Studies Sine Anahita will be giving a talk for the John Trigg Ester Library's monthly lecture series. The talk will take place at Hartung Hall in Ester Village, a block east of the Golden Eagle Saloon's parking lot.

Anahita, a fiddler, has a special interest in music. Her topic is on blackface performance in territorial Alaska and the Pacific Northwest. Americans were fascinated with blackface, where (mostly) white (and some black) performers painted their faces black, playing in shows for well over 100 years. How can blackface in the territorial Pacific Northwest be interpreted? In what context can we place blackface performance in relation to Alaska Natives and other colonized groups?

"Cake-walkers": a 1900 blackface minstrel show in Dawson, Yukon Territory. Grace Carr Raymenton Photographs, Archives and Special Collections, Consortium Library, University of Alaska Anchorage.

Seedy Saturdays!

The Growing Ester's Biodiversity Program (GEB) is pleased to present the 2013 Seedy Saturday Series!

These fun educational seed-trading events will be held every other Saturday starting February 2nd at Hartung Hall in Ester. (directions to the hall) Parking is at the nearby Ester Village Square, opposite the Golden Eagle Saloon and the John Trigg Ester Library, down the street. Bring the whole family!

Seedy Saturday is a seed swap designed to encourage local agricultural biodiversity, where participants trade seeds of heirloom varieties and seeds gardeners have saved themselves.

Rules:

Come at 1 pm and place your seeds at the appropriate plant family table by 2 pm. Trading begins 2 pm sharp and ends at 4 pm. Participants must have their items out of the hall by 4:30.

No seed sales, please. Local seed sellers and farmers are encouraged to provide literature for seed swap participants to take away, however.

At the end of the swap, participants who brought seeds may either leave their remaining seeds to donate to the GEB program's seed library or take them away, as they wish.

Dates:

Feb. 2: 1-2 setup, 2-4 trading, 4-4:30 cleanup
Feb. 16
March 2


The GEB program will provide some seeds, containers, and labels. Also, a few seed-saving informational brochures will be available for donation. Signup lists for the GEB program e-newsletter and information on John Trigg Ester Library membership will also be available.