Sharing your harvest’s bounty at library produce swaps

Posted on August 8, 2017 at 6:00 am

by Gwendolyn Haley

My eyes are bigger than my freezer and pantry. Every year, I plant a little garden, only to be overwhelmed when everything starts to ripen at once. My family starts to groan and say, “No more… beans, tomatoes, squash” and so on.

Each spring, I underestimate just how much produce will come from six tomato plants—and don’t get me started on the zucchini plant that seems to shoot out squash with the speed of a howitzer. Every summer, my mother keeps trying to give me more and more plums, but you can only eat so many crisps and cobblers.

This year, I plan to take full advantage of the Produce Swaps at our seed library locations. The idea of a produce swap is simple. Bring your extra, fresh produce and take home something different. So if you too feel overwhelmed with an abundance of fruit and veg, I invite you to bring your extras to the swaps and pick up something different, that way you can have little more variety on the dinner table. Once you visit a produce swap, you may find a new favorite variety to plant next year. Any leftovers from each produce swap at the seed libraries will be donated by library staff to a local food bank—that way everybody benefits. And yes, the library will take your excess zucchini. Just put it on the table next to mine.

The produce swaps are not trade or barter events. All is given and taken freely. Here’s the schedule for Produce Swaps, starting in August, continuing through September:

OTIS ORCHARDS
Saturdays, 10am–2pm

FAIRFIELD
Tuesdays, 10am–2pm

CHENEY
Tuesdays, 1–5pm

MEDICAL LAKE
Wednesdays, 1–5pm

DEER PARK
Sundays, 1–5pm

Looking for recipe inspiration or a new way to prepare your bounty? The cookbook section at the library (section 641) is one of the largest in our libraries. Plus we add new titles all the time, both in print and in our Digital Library, including OverDrive. Bon appetite!

Tags: backyard bounty, bounty, community, food, fruit, garden, gardening, produce, produce swap, vegetables, veggies