Richmond Grows Seed Lending Library

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Lettuce Unite! Newsletter

May 2020! Issue - Little Free Seed Libraries, Growing Basil & Tomatoes from Cuttings

Need Seeds?

CLICK for Seeds available & growing instructions

Guidelines for Getting Seeds

Wear a mask
Know what seeds the location is providing ahead of time to minimize time at the location
Consider patronizing these community businesses while getting seeds.
Don't call them about availability.
Take what you need.
Take what you touch.
Plant what you take.
Learn about seed saving.

Arlington Market
6462 Arlington Blvd.
8 AM - 9 PM Daily

Lettuce, Farmer's Market Mix
Bush Beans, Jade
Fennel, Florence (bulbing & leave edible too)
Zucchini, Costata Romanesco (Limit 1/household) - eat fresh or cut and dehydrate for winter soups!

Joe's Market
95 W. Macdonald
7 AM-10 PM Daily

Veggie Mix: (Limit 1/household) Yellow Crookneck Summer Squash, Early Wonder Tall Top Beets, Marketmore 76 Cucumbers, 5 Star Greenhouse Lettuce Mix, Provider Bush Bean, Kalebration Kale Mix, and (#1 = Glass Gem Corn, #5 = no corn)
Zucchini, Costata Romanesco (Limit 1/household)
Lettuce, Year Round Bronze
Bean, Painted Pony
Lettuce, Red Sail - OUT
Bean, Jade Bush - OUT

Rancho Market
500 Market St.
9 AM - 10 PM Daily

Veggie Mix #2: (Limit 1/household) Costata Romensco Zuc, 5 Star Greenhouse Lettuce Mix, Kalebration Kale, Early Wonder Beets, Provider Bush Bean, Painted Mountain Corn
Bush Beans, Koronis Purple
Winter Squash, Fordhook
Bush Beans, Jade - OUT
Winter Squash, Buttercup Burgess - OUT
Cilantro, Santo - OUT

La Raza
705 23rd St.
8 AM - 9 PM

Bean, Jade Bush
Fennel, Florence
Amaranth, Burgundy
Lettuce, Farmer's Market Mix

Rich City Rides
1500 Macdonald Ave.
12 - 5 PM M, W-Sat.

Veggie Mix #1: Limit 1 per household - Yellow Crookneck Summer Squash, Early Wonder Tall Top Beets, Marketmore 76 Cucumbers, 5 Star Greenhouse Lettuce Mix, Provider Bush Bean, Kalebration Kale Mix, and Glass Gem Corn
Zucchini, Costata Romanesco (Limit 1/ household)
Bush Bean, Painted Pony
Lettuce, Year Round Bronze
Bush Bean, Jade - OUT
Lettuce, Red Sail - OUT

Richmond Grows Little Free Seed Library
624 31st. St. (between Roosevelt & Clinton Ave.)
Mondays-Fridays

Zucchini, Costata Romanesco (Limit 1 / household) - eat fresh or cut and dry for winter soups
Bush Bean, Jade
Lettuce, Farmer's Market Mix
Fennel, Florence (bulbing type)
Winter Squash, Potimarron - OUT
Lettuce, Red Sail - OUT

La Loma Market
12899 San Pablo Ave.
7 AM - 6 PM Daily (closing hours vary)

Beans, Painted Pony

The Latina Center
3701 Barrett Ave. (check either on 37 or 38th St. on the chain link fence)

Bush Bean, Jade
Cilantro, Santo (Limit 1/household) - OUT
Amaranth, Burgundy

New to Gardening?

CLICK HERE TO GET STARTED.

Seed Saving in a Time of Crisis

Thurs., June 18th 6:00-8:00 PM Register
FREE, online

Learn how to save seeds from common vegetables such as beans, peas, lettuce, tomatoes, squash, and cucumbers. 94% of commercial varieties that were available 100 years ago are gone and the biodiversity that we have left will be stewarded by community members like you. Explore how seed saving can enrich your life, save you money, and preserve biodiversity. Help save heirlooms of the past and breed heirlooms of the future. Create more resilience in your life and community by saving seeds!

Not from the Greater Richmond California Area?
It's easy to create your own seed lending library or locate a sister seed library.

What's a Seed Lending Library?

A seed lending library is a place where you can borrow seeds for free. You may be asking, “How can you ‘borrow’ seeds?” The basic is idea is that you plant the seeds, let some go to seed, then return some of these next generation seeds for others to borrow. (Don’t worry. We don’t have fines if you don’t return seeds.)

We encourage home gardeners to save seeds from the "super easy" plants: tomatoes, lettuce, beans, and peas. Do not save seeds from plants in the "easy" or "difficult" drawer until you have more experience seed saving. Learn more about seed saving.

Richmond Grows is a non-profit seed lending library located in the public library. We’re open whenever the public library is open. You do not need to have Richmond Public Library card to use the seed library, but we do ask people to watch our on-line orientation. We provide free classes on organic gardening and seed saving, and of course, you can also borrow books from the public library on these topics.

Stories of Seeds
Highlights from our Collection

Take a picture of a plant that you are saving seeds from. We want to hear your story of the plant you saved seeds from. Maybe let us know what dishes you made with it or share a favorite recipe using the plant. Each month we'd like to highlight something in our collection. You can submit your photos and a little write-up to RichmondGrows@gmail.com.

Envelopes - Grow Out Program

Return quality seed that is well labeled. Use our envelope labels (make a copy) or see if the variety you are growing already has a label pre-made on our Grow Out Program list.
NOTE: Some plants readily cross pollinate, such as sunflowers, corn, and brassicas. If you are saving seeds from these plants and did not cage or hand-pollinate them, write "Crossed?" on the packet.

Help Us Grow Local Seed

Our intention is to grow more local seed for the benefit of the community. We're focusing on preserving varieties that have cultural significance or are rare or unusual while increasing food security and local resilience. What can you do to help?

Grow out seed - Never saved seeds before? We'll start you with "super easy" things you can save. Click on our Grow Out List plants and email us about what you'd like to grow. Pick ups of the seeds, seed saving instructions and return envelopes are at Richmond Grows.
Join East Bay Local Seeds - We're a group of individuals, seed librarians, public librarians and nonprofits working together to vision and create a network of local seed to be shared through and among seed libraries. Email us to get info about our next meeting.

Face-Place-Story

Video about Richmond Grows' Co-Founder Rebecca Newburn's garden