Food Masters launched its newest program, the Orcas Island Seed Library, to the public last week.

The new self-service seed exchange is located in the foyer of the Orcas Island Public Library. It seeks to empower Orcas Island to be a resilient seed stewardship community.

The project aims to make a diverse variety of open source seed available to the public to promote knowledge of seed saving practice and importance through outreach and education.

The Orcas Island Seed Library contains seeds for the community to share and grow. Like a regular library, the seeds borrowed must be returned. The library is set up for people to check out seeds they are interested in growing, learn seed saving techniques and return a portion of the saved seed to the library for others to use. This process will help the Orcas Island community to develop a free and reliable local seed source.

“The seed library supports independence and cooperation among gardeners and seed savers,” said Food Masters Director, Learner Limbach. “Access to locally adapted and open-source seed is incredibly important in creating a sustainable local food system. The seed library plays an important role by providing an easy way for people to save and share seed, which over time will create seed that is better suited to local growing conditions.”

The seed library is open for self-service use during regular public library hours: Monday through Thursday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday from noon to 3 p.m.

The seed library launch was made possible by volunteers, donations and a grant from the Orcas Island Garden Club.

For more information, visit http://islandfoodmasters.org/orcas-island-seed-library/.