BRATTLEBORO — The Brooks Memorial Library will celebrate and unveil its newest collection of tools to cultivate your garden, to help cardholders harvesting their yield, and prepare and preserve food on Saturday, June 4, from 10 a.m. to noon.
In the Big Red Shed in the municipal parking lot behind the library, you will find tools ranging from simple spades to fancy food dehydrators, all supporting local, sustainable food security and enhancing the experience of food preparation.
“Libraries are built on a model of mutual support and the sharing economy,” Library Director Starr LaTronica said in a news release, calling the new collection “a natural fit with the Library's mission to connect people and resources to inspire, inform and empower our diverse community.”
The shed is the combined vision of LaTronica and Brattleboro Sustainability Coordinator Stephen Dotson, who secured funding for the shed and the initial collection from the Vermont Foodbank.
“According to research on consumer goods, the average cordless hand drill is used for roughly 12 minutes in its entire lifetime, but everyone buys one,” said Dotson.
He said the collection “represents a concrete step towards uniting Brattleboro in a sharing economy that helps everyone and lowers our impact on the environment.”
The project came together through the work of library staff and volunteers from Brattleboro Time Trade and Edible Brattleboro.
Opening day events include a ribbon cutting at 10 a.m., tours of the tool inventory, an introduction to the reservation system, a chalk flower garden mural project, a demonstration of paper making with embedded seeds, and a seed bookmark decoration activity.
Andy Davis will lead garden songs on the accordion from 10 to 11 a.m, followed by more songs and dance with Robin Morgan from 11 a.m. to noon.
Families can follow a story walk featuring Lola Plants a Garden and Lola Loves Stories by Anna McQuinn between the library and the Edible Brattleboro plant giveaway event at the Retreat Farm on Route 30.