What's a Seed Library?

Building Community One Seed at a Time

When I was a young teenager, I was ambitious. I was a budding feminist and pacifist, becoming aware of politics, the impacts of the deeply troubled Vietnam War, and Richard Nixon’s criminal fall into notoriety. I remember announcing to my mom in our Pepto-Bismol-colored kitchen that I planned to run for president. Worn down by her own working-class life, she simply smiled. Some harsh realities lessened my ambition, but in my twenties, I redirected it toward my goal of becoming an elementary school teacher. I planned to change the system that had failed me.

A decade later, after one year in the system, I quit, defeated and depressed.

I eventually found a good fit as an academic advisor in a community college. I helped thousands of students over twenty years start their higher education pathways. One year, I spoke at the graduation ceremony for adults completing their GEDs, sharing how completing my GED and pursuing higher education changed my life, how I believed I now had many more opportunities and fewer barriers, and how I was creating a better life for myself. I had to read my speech because my nervousness erased all the words I had committed to memory. I will never forget looking out to the audience at the end and seeing smiles and a few tears. One woman in the front row tapped her right hand to her heart and silently mouthed thank you. Later, one of the college administrators told me it was the most honest and genuine speech she had heard in a long time.

I realized then that personal and local connections were as meaningful as big, ambitious goals and careers. Perhaps even more so.

I have volunteered in a variety of community projects for over 30 years. In 2016, I read The Seed Underground by Janisse Ray, which inspired me to begin saving seeds from my garden and germinating the idea of a local seed library. In 2020, I approached the librarian of my public library about collaborating on this idea, but COVID-19 delayed the project. Though she had no idea what a seed library was, she understood it would serve the community (public librarians are unsung heroines in our culture). She agreed immediately and asked the Friends of the Library organization for funding to purchase supplies. In the summer of 2022, the seed library opened.

The seed library cabinet is already too small! Seeds are sorted alphabetically.

What’s a seed library?

Seed libraries mirror the work of a library: patrons check out donated seeds, plant them, save their seeds, and return a portion of the seeds to the seed library for next year’s growing season.

Many of the 500-plus seed libraries in North America are housed in public libraries and operate under a similar concept. Outside of North America, there are hundreds of seed libraries in many countries.

The mission of my community’s seed library is to contribute to a sustainable community food system by offering free access to regionally adapted seeds and promoting gardening and seed-saving.

A local seed library offers an abundance of potential benefits to a community:

• Increase library usage and community involvement (public library)

• Develop a network of skilled seed stewards

• Educate members on ways to save seed

• Reclaim seed as a public resource

• Have safe alternatives to GMOs

• Develop open-pollinated seeds that are acclimated to the regional climate

• Contribute to and support community gardeners

• Conserve endangered varieties of seed

• Foster a community of resilience and self-reliance

• Support genetic diversity and community sovereignty

• Transmission of knowledge from one generation to another through stories

• Preserve seed as a sacred trust

• Reflect all cultural diversity of the region

• Serve underserved populations

• Collective action to build a sustainable community food system

• Prevent hunger

• Promote a healthy diet

• Help low-income households afford nutritious food

• Restore Indigenous varieties of seed

• Empower members through a deeper connection with nature

  (List attributed to Seed Library Network)

I focused on these three goals:

• Contribute to our local food economy by growing this community project so that anyone who wants to grow a crop (or ten) can access free, open-pollinated seeds. (I wrote about local food economies in Gathering the Abundance.)

• Add the ancestral skill of seed-saving to the resumes of gardeners in our community.

• Maintain a seed supply that continually adapts to the local growing conditions.

I started with 150 packets of seeds donated by High Mowing Seeds and Seed Savers Exchange through their programs to support community projects like seed libraries and community gardens. I asked for help repackaging the seeds into smaller envelopes, and 15 community members showed up. The seed library is in its third year and serves 110 (and growing) members. I send a monthly newsletter to members that highlights seed stories and growing and seed-saving resources. Last summer, I partnered with our Master Gardener organization and hosted a series of gardening presentations. Two weeks ago, one of the seed library volunteers formed a gardening group to share knowledge and garden wisdom, strengthen our region’s communities in response to the increasing cost of food, and increase local food security.

The ripple effect of a sharing economy.

A seed library is a simple community project that has the potential to benefit people, communities, and seeds for a diversity of reasons. Growing plants, saving their seeds, and donating to the seed library brings me joy; seeds and gardening offer hope and a belief in the future. Seeds are designed to be shared.

At this point in my life, I have accepted that I won’t be president and don’t have the energy to pursue fame and fortune. I like that the seed library I founded in my small village may have helped someone grow lettuce or tomatoes for the first time. I am now connected to a group of growers who are saving and donating seeds from their gardens. The seed library has united other gardeners to contribute to a sharing economy of seeds. It’s part of my creative and kinder footprint on the planet.

One of the challenges of seed saving is remembering not to eat all of your crops!

Resources

Website: The Seed Library Network is the go-to source for seed libraries. Check out their map to see if your community has one; if not, use the resources to start one.

Website: Seed Savers Exchange community donations application

Website: High Mowing Seeds community project donations information

Documentary: Seed: The Untold Story

Documentary: The Seeds of Vandana Shiva

Book: Seed Libraries and Other Means of Keeping Seed in the Hands of the People by Cindy Conner

Book: The Seed Underground: A Growing Revolution to Save Food by Janisse Ray

Book: The Triumph of Seeds: How Grains, Nuts, Kernels, Pulses, & Pips Conquered the Plant Kingdom and Shaped Human History by Thor Hanson

Book: The Seed Garden: The Art and Practice of Seed Saving (Seed Savers Exchange)

Book: Seed to Seed: Seed Saving and Growing Techniques for Vegetable Gardeners

While writing this article, I read this recent interview excerpt by Heather Cox Richardson:

“One of the really important things to remember going forward as we fear the rise of authoritarianism in the United States is that authoritarians cannot rise if there are strong communities and people are acting with joy. That is, you need despair and anger for an authoritarian to rise. Whatever those things are that you bring to the community, do them, and do them with joy. And don’t stop doing them because you are scared because that is actually a form of resistance. Showing up and doing things you love says to an authoritarian you have no place to root here, and that’s going to be really important moving forward.”

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