Happenings at the Clausen Cabin in April

The first week and a half in April at the Clausen Cabin will be a bit busy! We've got Easter Sunday coming up on the 5th, and the Ester Community Association is as usual sponsoring its annual Easter Egg Hunt. Decorated eggs will be hidden throughout the village, including on the library grounds. At the Golden Eagle Saloon, there will be the traditional Deviled Eggs, among other edible goodies prepared in excess for the weekend's musicians and audience.

The next week is the library's seed swap! Just bring any heirloom or open-pollinated seeds you  would like to trade, and come by between 1 and 4 pm to the Clausen Cabin at 3629 Main Street, Ester. Come chat with your fellow seed and garden enthusiasts! Take free gardening literature! Learn about seed saving and seed stewardship networks.

We're only holding one Seedy Saturday this year, and although it's a bit late in the season, Kurt Wold of Pingo Farm assures us that it's not yet too late for trading seeds. He'll be there to provide advice (and hand out catalogs). The JTEL seed library has plenty of seeds, from flowers to vegetables to grains, and you can sign up as a member of the library or just trade with your neighbors.

There's loads of fun at your community library, and this summer will be even better. Come join us!

More on seed swaps and seed libraries in Alaska

The seed library craze has finally hit the 49th state! One aim of the JTEL seed library program has been to inspire other, similar programs in Alaska by setting an example. This year seems to be the year that seed swaps and seed libraries are blossoming:

• with an article in The Ruralite about seed librarians, a University Park Elementary School librarian, Carol Smallwood, has become inspired. U Park has a small school garden that Calypso Farm & Ecology Center helped them set up, so this school is already involved with growing things for educational activities.
• The Dillingham Public Library recently started a do-it-yourself seed package swap on their bulletin board. A local gardening club has a seedling swap that got going last year and proved very popular, and now is working with the library to coordinate their events.
• Saskia Esslinger has begun work on a seed library and a seed swap with the Anchorage branch of the Cooperative Extension.

We hope this is just the beginning. Our check-out program just began this year, so with the book and film collection on biodiversity, seed swaps, talks by local experts, workshops, and now the benefit of seeds available (just like books) to our membership, the Growing Ester's Biodiversity program is slowly fulfilling its mission.

If you would like to start a seed library in your area and have questions, or want to volunteer for the JTEL's GEB program, contact Deirdre Helfferich at geb@esterlibrary.org or 474-6923 (daytime work) or 479-3368 (home) or the JTEL, at 374-8080. 

Thank you!

Seedstock, seed catalogs and seed swaps

It may not be spring yet (even though the pussy willows are a bit confused), but the warm weather and the seed catalogs in the mail remind us that spring is coming soon! This year, the Growing Ester's Biodiversity program is hosting a new event at the John Trigg Ester Library: the Library Seedstock.

Seedstock is a special event to stock the seed library with locally grown, heirloom and open-pollinated cultivars. We are looking for flowers, vegetables, fruits, and grains.

Anyone may donate seeds, but seed stewards check out seed from the JTEL to grow it out to raise and save seed again, and are members of the library. After the harvest, seed stewards bring back about ten to twenty times the amount of seed they checked out from the plants they've grown, thereby replenishing and growing the library's holdings, and sharing those seeds with other members of the library.

That close relationship between you, the library's stewards of its genetic material, and your fellow members, is one that builds community and preserves valuable and increasingly rare  agrobiodiversity. To become a seed steward, simply sign up for membership at Seedstock and fill out a form indicating which seeds you've checked out, just like you would a book. Membership is only $10 per year, and not only do you join a committed group of enthusiastic gardeners, you can also check out anything else in the library!

This year will be the first Seedstock, but will be the third year the JTEL has held Seedy Saturdays.

Seedy Saturdays are straightforward seed swaps: bring seeds, share them with your neighbors. We'll provide some containers and envelopes, pens, and a way to organize the plants (by botanical family, with signs). Please see our seedswap guidelines on our website.

All events are free, but we do incur some costs, so donations are encouraged, and gratefully accepted.

Come join us!

Seedstock
John Trigg Ester Library
Clausen Cabin, 3629 Main Street, Ester (across from the Golden Eagle Saloon)
February 2, Sunday, noon to 3 pm

Seedy Saturday #1
Hartung Hall, Main Street & Ester Loop (one block east of the Golden Eagle's parking lot)
February 15, Saturday, noon to 3 pm

Seedy Saturday #2
Hartung Hall, Main Street & Ester Loop
February 22, Saturday, noon to 3 pm

Seedy Saturday #3
Hartung Hall, Main Street & Ester Loop
March 1, Saturday, noon to 3 pm

Parking for all events is available nearby with special permission for the event from Alaska Visit, as well as a limited amount at Hartung Hall and the Clausen Cabin. We'll have ushers to help you find a spot.

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.

Seedy Saturday II!

Growing Ester's Biodiversity is hosting its second seed exchange and gardening hobnob on Saturday, March 24, from 3 to 5 pm at Hartung Community Hall in Ester.

Come share your seeds, meet fellow gardeners, find out about seed-saving and local agriculture, and help keep heirloom and Alaska-adapted vegetables, herbs, and flowers growing strong! Gardeners are encouraged to bring heirloom, organic, or other sustainable varieties, and seeds you have saved yourself from plants you know to grow well in the Interior and that will breed true.

No seeds? no problem! Come anyway and get some seeds. There will be plenty to choose from, and even some local seed company catalogs! We ask that if you take seeds away, let some of your plants mature and save their seed to bring to next year's Seedy Saturdays!

Set up at 3, trading begins at 3:30. Some seed packets and small containers will be provided, but bring envelopes and as much information about your seeds as possible to share with other gardeners. Information on seed-saving and other topics will be provided. Farmers, greenhouses, garden clubs, and CSAs are invited to share information and literature on their offerings for the public to take away. Parking & beverages are available at the Golden Eagle Saloon down the street. Guidelines for the seed swap and seed-saving guides are posted at the GEB Facebook page and at www.esterlibrary.org/programs/GEB/seedswap.html.

GEB is a community seed-sharing program of the the John Trigg Ester Library (JTEL); it hosts seed swaps, gardening work parties, lectures, and more on food security and sustainable agriculture issues. The JTEL is a home-grown community library that provides a welcoming and intellectually stimulating environment where community members can meet and share ideas and information. The Library strives to instill a love of reading and learning, to showcase Ester-area history and culture, and to provide resources that will enrich the whole community. The Library is raising funds to construct a new library building in downtown Ester. When completed, it will be the first public building in Alaska constructed to meet strict Passiv Haus, nearly net-zero, energy efficiency standards.

During the summer and fall, the GEB program and the library lecture series intersect: lecturers will be focusing on topics relating to agriculture and biodiversity.

• April 18: marine ecologist Peter McRoy
• May 16: Tom Zimmer & Susan Willsrud of Calypso Farm & Ecology Center
• June 20: ecologist Trish Wurtz on invasive weeds
• August 15: Mike Emers of Rosie Creek Farm
• September 19: Deirdre Helfferich on seed libraries & seedsheds

Visit the library website at www.esterlibrary.org or the library's or GEB's Facebook page for more information.

local seed swap

This Saturday, local gardeners can come on out to Ester and trade locally-grown seeds. Growing Ester's Biodiversity, the John Trigg Ester Library's seed-sharing program, is hosting its first-ever seed swap between 3 and 5 pm at Hartung Hall. If you would like to participate, please come to the hall by 3 pm to set up; seed trading begins at 3:30 pm. (See guidelines for more information.)

No seeds? No problem! Come on by anyway! This is all about sharing information, seeds, and a good time! There will plenty of extras, so if you don't have any seeds yet, you will after this event!

Seed swaps are a time-honored way for gardeners and farmers to share the natural bounty of their local garden plants. The last Saturday in January is National Seed Swap Day (this year it was January 28), but Alaskans generally have to wait a little longer than the rest of the country to start thinking about planting! AWaytoGarden.com has a nice seed viability chart along with some useful links on seed storage. I've personally had very good luck with keeping my seed viable, although the germination rate does slowly go down over the years. Our cold, dry winters help to keep seed dormant and to stay fresh—although too cold and too dry can be a problem, too!

Seed Savers Exchange is offering a webinar series on seed saving and planning your garden for seed saving. These will be released each month:

• January: Introduction to Seed Savers Exchange (available now on YouTube)
• February: Using the Seed Savers Exchange Yearbook (now registering!)
• March: Planning Your Garden for Seed Saving
• April: Apple Grafting
• May: Heirlooms, OPs [Open-Pollinated Plants] and F1s
• June: Basic Seed Saving for Beginners
• July: Corn Hand-Pollination
• August: Squash Hand-Pollination
• September: Tomato Seed Saving
• October: Dry Seed Processing
• November: Listing Seeds in the Yearbook
• December: Seed Storage

The Organic Seed Alliance has several publications that you can download, including a handy seed saving guide.