Saturday, April 13

11:00 a.m.-3:30 p.m. - Main Library

The Seed Read Kickoff Event begins a 4-week-long Book-to-Action program that will celebrate healthy living and seed saving. The event will include exercise classes, information presented by local health agencies, story times, entertainment, and more. To help encourage our community to grow and consume wholesome food, the library will be unveiling its new Seed Lending Library and promoting the Seed Read's featured book The Seed Underground: A Growing Revolution to Save Food by Janisse Ray, and the children's book Growing Vegetable Soup, by Lois Ehlert. Kickoff attendees will  be able to prepare seeds for germination on the library rooftop. Seed germination will also be available from 2:00-4:00 p.m. at Weekes Branch Library.  Germinated seeds can be picked up on May 11 to be taken home for planting.

Building Healthy Families

Saturday, April 20

12:00 noon - 1:30 p.m. - Main Library

This educational program focuses on tools for improving your family's health, including using the latest nutrition guidelines, setting goals, and involving all family members in the planning process. Learn new recipes through hands-on activities to help get your children eating more nutritious and well-rounded meals! Children 4 years and older are welcome to attend. Registration is required. Call 510-881-7945.

Book Discussion: 

The Seed Underground 

by Janisse Ray

Monday, April 22

6:30 p.m. - Main Library

Gather with local readers to discuss the inspirational stories of ordinary gardeners who are trying to save open-pollinated varieties of old-time seeds, and learn about the library's Seed Lending Library. 

Garden Workshop

Wednesday, April 24

6:30 - 7:30 p.m. - Main Library

Learn how to save and plant seeds and grow your own vegetables with Alameda County Master Gardener Birgitt Evans. The workshop will cover techniques for germinating seeds indoors, including growing mediums and light requirements. It will also focus on seeds you can plant directly outdoors in April such as corn, beans, squash and cucumbers.  Save money and expand your horizons to the hundreds of wonderful varieties not available at local nurseries.  Participants will leave with seeds they can try at home in their own gardens. Seeds are life!

Meet Award-winning Author 

Janisse Ray via Skype

Saturday, April 27

2:00 p.m. - Main Library

Enjoy a rare opportunity to hear first-hand from the author of The Seed Underground. Learn why and how we have become dependent on a small group of seeds and discuss with her why this lack of diversity poses a threat.

Writer, naturalist, and activist Janisse Ray is author of five books of literary nonfiction and a collection of nature poetry. Her first book, Ecology of a Cracker Childhood, a memoir about growing up on a junkyard in the ruined longleaf pine ecosystem of the Southeast, was the winner of multiple awards, including the American Book Award 2000. Ray teaches in the Chatham University Low-Residency Master of Fine Arts program in Creative Writing. She holds an MFA from the University of Montana.

Ray attempts to live a simple, sustainable life on Red Earth Farm in southern Georgia with her husband and daughter. An organic gardener, tender of farm animals, slow-food cook, and seed-saver, she lectures widely.