The last remaining hot sauce bottle sits upon one of the new garden beds.
The Library Farm, located across from the Northern Onondaga Public Library (NOPL) Cicero Branch, is an organic community garden on a mission to provide a place for the community to grow, share, and learn about food literacy and sustainable gardening. In 2022, thanks to local funding, the Library Farm is happy to announce the building of 12 new garden beds.
“We have a minimal budget, so each dollar has to count. This year, we were lucky to obtain grant funding, local sponsorship, and raise funds to grow and maintain our gardening beds,” says Sue Buswell, Library Farm Manager.
The hot pepper sauce fundraiser started last year with a unique partnership with Small Axe Peppers, a hot sauce manufacturing company. As a Certified B Corporation, Small Axe Peppers’ model is to connect each customer directly to community gardens and urban farms. Located in the Bronx, New York they founded a program in 2014 with Grow NYC to donate serrano hot pepper seeds to community gardens to help produce their hot sauce. The community gardens receive a packet of donated seeds and sell their harvest back to Small Axe Peppers. After production, the company sends back one bottle of hot sauce per pound of peppers. The sale of the hot sauce by the Library Farm this year raised enough money to fund the cost of two new garden beds and has sold out of bottles!
This year the NOPL’s Cicero Friends Group provided funds to replace four raised beds at the Library Farm. The Friends are a non-profit, charitable group formed to support the library. The Friends of the Library are often involved in fundraising, advocacy, volunteering, public awareness campaigns, and literacy programs. The sponsored beds are specifically Pantry Garden beds, which contain plants for fresh produce donations to local area pantries.
“I was very excited that the Friends voted to fund the cost,” says Buswell, “much of the food literacy programs and volunteering happen within these beds. We take pride in helping our local community and are grateful for the Friend’s donation to help us continue that work.”
Syracuse Grows, a grassroots network that cultivates food justice through advocacy, education, and resources in support of urban food production, was another financial contributor to the growth of the Library Farm by awarding a grant to build four more garden beds.
The library was left with only the cost of two raised beds, an 83% savings to the community.
Sue worked with Willey Lumber Co to purchase the needed lumber and hardware. Library Farm members assembled all 12 beds in less than 2 hours, during their annual Build Day, on April 9, and the rest of the beds were installed by volunteers of the community at the Library Farm’s monthly Work Day on May 14.
If you’re looking to volunteer, partner, donate or purchase hot sauce, contact Sue Buswell at NOPL Cicero Library. To learn more about the NOPL Library Farm, visit nopl.org/libraryfarm.
