by Ron Limoges, ABG Board President
Although I am a Founding Board Member and, currently, President of Alameda Backyard Growers I really dislike gardening.
I tried it twice: both times large furry deer and small-ish furry rodents ate every green sprout before I could get from my back door to the pea patch. They ignored my fine fencing and the sprinkles of dried bears’ blood. I realized I was never going to be an “old wife”, so I ignored all the old wives’ tales about how to protect my plants and happily retired to read good books and buy my produce.
ABG now has three Free Seed Libraries in Alameda. In order to keep them stocked, my job is to re-package all sorts of organic bulk seeds into one-portion packets for the individual gardener. This requires the coolest tools – a small bowl, a standard set of measuring spoons and a highly specialized set of very tiny measuring spoons labeled “dash”, “pinch” and “smidgen” (and I did not make that up)! I am now adept at deftly scooping out a minuscule portion of 100 future carrots from a 4 oz. bag containing 72,800 seeds.
Besides the neat little spoons, the seeds also have the coolest names ever: Japanese Black Trifele Tomatoes; Freckles Lettuce; Red Cored Chanteney Carrots; and Lolla Rossa Dark Lettuce, just to name a few.
So I am thankful for these slight smidgens of hope in a very dark year.