Seeding Community Spirit
It’s almost a year since the concept of a local Seed Library was introduced at the original Blue Sky Festival. Inspired by the one Swan Shire launched early in 2018, a small bunch of MiT people (who hang out at Cafe Mojo’s Wednesday mornings) decided to give the idea a go in the Hills (great coffee makes you bold).
Our fabulous local Librarian Helen (and wonderful staff) got right behind the idea, so we could publicly launch at the festival. All we had then were the printed donation bags and a whole lot of faith that our community would get behind such a worthwhile project. And you haven’t let us down. People in the Mundaring Shire rock!! In fact, we are apparently one of the few libraries that have done this ENTIRELY with seeds donated from the community.
We’re doing an audit at the moment to report back some interesting loan data, but so far we know that over 128 varieties of seeds were offered and 1000s of packets were delivered for the opening. A modest, but very proud beginning wouldn’t you say! Happily, the donations are still arriving at the Albert Facey Library, so our goal of a sustainable collection is looking promising. To extend our donation base into the future, the Seed Library group are also really interested in liaising with local schools …. where our future growers are.
We invite you all to get involved too. There are currently a small, but growing, bunch of volunteers who are helping to process donated seed. Thankyou so much Ralph & Lynne, Gina, Cheryl & Laurence, Julie, Liz, Jenny, Sarah and Lori. And very grateful also to Mundaring Sharing for allowing us to use the backroom for the latest seed saving morning. A real community effort.
