Did you know that with your library card, you have free access to over 16 million books, audiobooks, movies, and music from public libraries across the state? This borrowing magic happens through a service called SearchOhio. Did you know that SearchOhio will deliver the item you borrow from Dayton, Cincinnati, Lima, or wherever, here to RML at no cost? If you don’t know, keep reading to find out how it works.
Continue reading “Borrow 16 million more items with your library card”
Did you eat a warm, juicy tomato from your garden this summer, only seconds after picking it? How many zucchini did you get from that plant you grew and tended all summer long? Are your cucumbers still going strong, even as the weather cools?
We hope your garden harvest was amazing but remember that it’s more than the fruit and vegetables, it’s also the seeds. Each seed that you save can grow into its own plant and feed you again next year. In one tomato, there are an average of 150 to 300 seeds. You could save the seeds from just one tomato and have way more than you and your neighbor need for next year.
We launched our Reed Seed Library in Spring and distributed a lot of seeds. As you close down the gardening season, think about saving seeds for next year – for yourself and to donate back to our seed library.
Before you save seeds, you’ll need to know if your seeds will be true-to-type. In its simplest terms, will your seeds produce the exact same plant next year? This all depends on pollination.
Some plants like tomatoes, peas, and beans are self-pollinators and will generally produce the same seed. Wind and insect-pollinated plants like squash, cucumbers, corn, and melons, are more likely to cross-pollinate unless you’ve taken precautions beforehand. If your plant cross-pollinates, the resulting seed will be a hybrid – a combination of both plants’ characteristics. A hybrid isn’t a bad plant, it’s just not the original. Don’t let the worries about cross pollination keep you from saving and donating your seeds. Those hybrid vegetables will still feed the family and taste amazing.
It’s a little different for each plant but harvesting your seeds is not difficult. Your garden crops (and their seeds) will either be dry-fruited or wet fruited. Example: Beans are dry fruit. If you leave a few green beans on the vine, in time the pods will mature, dry out and do most of the work for you. Collecting those seeds will be as easy as picking some of the mature, nearly dry pods and bringing them inside for further drying and cleaning.
Tomatoes are wet fruited. To harvest those seeds, you need to cut apart the ripe fruit and extract seeds from the flesh and pulp before drying them. When you are harvesting any seed, the most important thing is to make sure your final seeds are dried properly. Wet and mold are your enemies.
We’ve just skimmed the surface of pollination and seed saving. If you’d like to dive deeper into these subjects, we have some books to help, so stop in. You can also check out these great resources below.
The most important thing to remember is to make sure and label your donated seed properly, as in the illustration below. Then we can correctly file your seeds into the library.
If you’d like to package your seed in our handy, labeled folding packet, stop by the second-floor desk and pick some up or download and print them yourself. Once your seeds are dried, labeled, and packaged, bring them back to our staff at the second-floor desk.
Our seed library’s inaugural year was fantastic. With your help, we hope to make it even better next year.
Did you grow anything using seed from the library this summer? What was your best crop?
Are you a parent of a newborn? Expecting? Let us shower you with fun and freebies! This Saturday is our second annual Community Baby Shower and we hope you’ll drop in. It’s kind of like a traditional baby shower – food, games, fun – but this is for everyone and we bring in a group of really helpful guests that you’ll be glad to meet.
We’ve brought together as many community partners as we can fit in the room and they’re all here for you and your new bundle of joy. Each partner has free resources, information and guidance to help you and your little one. From healthcare, to car seat safety, to literacy, these partners are focused on helping you parent successfully in all areas.
You can drop in anytime from 11 am through 12:30 pm. Have some refreshments, talk to experts, get freebies, gather some resources and contacts. Play a game if you’re up for it! Siblings are welcome, so don’t worry about a babysitter.
On top of the freebies, we have some great door prizes and three grand prize bundles that you can win. Anyone who attends is eligible for the grand prizes and If you play a game, you get an extra entry. We’ll draw the winners at the end and contact you, so you don’t have to hang around waiting for an announcement. These are the sweet prize bundles you could win. Which one could you use the most?
Our Community Baby Shower is a great opportunity to make connections with local partners who can help you navigate parenting. Drop in, have some fun, get some freebies, and find a solid connection to help that you probably didn’t know existed. You’ll be glad you did.
Sincerely, Cornelius 