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Cultivating Community Articles

Cultivating Community @ Your Library: Fall Harvest
Cultivating Community, LibraryPoint Blog
09/25/2012 - 3:45pm
Cultivating Community @ Your Library

"Cultivating Community" has been a Spring/Summer 2012 community-wide initiative designed to share information in the Fredericksburg region about farm-to-table and sustainable food communities. Two informative and enriching library events wrapping up the growing season are coming up!

Foraging for Edible Food

Saturday, September 29, Porter Branch, 3-5pm

Adults can learn about the difference between what you can and can’t eat from the wilds.

For more information, call branch manager Martha Hutzel at 540-659-4909.

Big Read Book Discussion: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver

Monday, October 8, Headquarters Theater, 7-9 pm

The library is encouraging a community-wide Big Read. Adults and teens are invited to enjoy refreshments and listen to or participate in discussion of Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, the story of her family’s challenge to grow and buy food locally in southwest Virginia.  Books are available for loan from all CRRL branches. The discussion will be moderated by University of Mary Washington Professor Emeritus Steve Watkins. Mr. Watkins is a writer and frequent contributor to the Free Lance-Star’s “Healthy Living” blog. His books will be available for purchase and signing at the event.

For more information, call branch manager Margaret Beattie at 540-372-1144.

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Seedfolks by Paul Fleischman
Community Gardening -- fiction, Cultivating Community, immigrants -- fiction, inner city -- fiction, LibraryPoint Blog, Virginia Johnson, Shelf Life Blog, unRequired Reading Blog, Guys Read Too, Gutsy Girl Reads
08/14/2012 - 3:31am
Seedfolks by Paul Fleischman

She never knew her father the farmer.  But in Paul Fleischman’s Seedfolks, Kim is determined to do something to connect with him, though he died before she was born in far-off Vietnam.  Her mother and sisters remember him with incense and candles on the anniversary of his death.  However, that’s not enough for Kim. She has something else in mind even though the prospect of carrying it through is unnerving.  The Cleveland neighborhood her family can afford to live in is scary. But outside the apartment building is vacant lot. Well, it’s not exactly vacant. It’s filled with junk—an old couch, tires, all kinds of trash—a real haven for rats. But it’s ground that’s not spoken for. And Kim has a plan.

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Porter Branch Vegetable Garden
Cultivating Community, Eagle Scout Projects, LibraryPoint Blog, Martha Hutzel, North Stafford Rotary, SERVE food pantry, vegetable gardening, Volunteer efforts, Home & Garden
06/07/2012 - 12:28pm
Porter Branch Vegetable Garden

While discussing the idea of the series of library programs under the umbrella of Cultivating Community, it suddenly hit me that we could have a vegetable garden on the grounds of the Porter Branch! The next thought was...we could give the bounty of fresh vegetables to the Stafford County food pantry, otherwise known as S.E.R.V.E. The idea was to help the community, teach young people about fresh food and where it comes from, and allow those families who use the food pantry to obtain some fresh produce, locally grown.

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Cultivating Community Events this Saturday
Cultivating Community, Farmers' Markets, LibraryPoint Blog, Samantha Thomason
05/04/2012 - 1:26pm
Bunch of asparagus

Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania Farmer's Markets, 9am-noon

If you're at the Fredericksburg or Spotsylvania Farmer's Market this Saturday, May 5, stop by and say "hi!" to a librarian. We'll have fun activities for the kids and cookbooks for you! We'll be at both markets the first Saturday of each month through August.

England Run “Library Blossoms” Plant Sale, 9am-noon

The second annual Friends of the Library plant sale featuring hanging plants from local grower, Dominion Growers.  These plants were gorgeous last year, value-priced, and sold out in 2 hours.  This is your chance to pick up a Mother’s Day gift or create an instant decorative garden.

We hope to see you out and about this Saturday! Check out more Cultivating Community events here like our upcoming film series.

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Cultivating Computer Community
Chuck Gray, Computers, Cultivating Community, LibraryPoint Blog, Tech, User Groups, Teen Blog, Tech Answers, Science and Technology
05/04/2012 - 8:54am
Cultivating Computer Community

In the spirit of our Cultivating Community effort for this year, I thought I would share with you some of the computing resources that the library and the community both have to offer.  There’s more help available to you than you think!

First off let me start by telling you about the Fredericksburg PC Users Group.  Their website is http://fpcug.org/.  They can also be found on Facebook and Meetup.com.  The FPCUG provides a variety of meetings and speakers for beginners and veterans alike.  If you want to learn more about your new PC or are having difficulties with it, there’s a good chance somebody at the FPCUG can help!

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Grand Opening of the Porter Branch Community Garden: April 28, 2-4 pm
Community Gardening, Cultivating Community, Gardening, LibraryPoint Blog, vegetable gardening
04/27/2012 - 3:31am
Cultivating Community: Grand Opening of the Porter Branch Community Garden

April showers bring summer vegetables! Join us this Saturday for the grand opening of our community garden.

The Porter Branch community garden will be a demonstration garden for the community and produce will go to SERVE.  Join us to learn more about local farming and how easy it is to grow a little or a lot of your own food. 

Watch the garden's progress on our Tumblr site: librarycultivatingcommunity.tumblr.com
 

Activities include:

  • A special story time and movie will be presented and children can pot a plant to take home.
     
  • Jeff and Ginny Adams of Walnut Hill Farm will have a table and information about local farming.
     
  • North Stafford High School Horticulture Program will have plants for sale
     
  • Free packets of seeds, both vegetable and flower, will be available compliments of the North Stafford County-Garrisonville Rotary Club
     
  • The Master Gardeners will answer your gardening questions
     
  • The Master Naturalists will have an information table
     

This is just one way the library is Cultivating Community in 2012: www.librarypoint.org/cultivate.

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Cultivating Community: Web Resources
agriculture, Conservation, Cooking, Cultivating Community, Food, green, green living, LibraryPoint Blog, local, Mary Buck, Sustainability, Health, Mind & Body, Home & Garden, Nonfiction, Self-Help
03/30/2012 - 8:39am
Cultivating Community: Web Resources

"Cultivating Community" is a community-wide program designed to share information in the Fredericksburg region about farm-to-table and sustainable food communities. These web sites support those goals by exploring how you can assess the sustainability of your community and your home, finding locally grown foods or growing your own, cooking, and sustainable gardening.

Community Sustainability Assessment: gen.ecovillage.org/activities/csa/English
A comprehensive checklist that anyone can complete to get a basic idea of how sustainable their community is. While it requires good knowledge of the life-styles, practices and features of the community, it does not require research, calculation and detailed quantification. This assessment takes about three hours for an individual to complete, or a series of sessions if done as a group experience by community members.

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Cultivating Community Kick-off Event: Thursday, March 29, 7pm Salem Church Library
Cultivating Community, LibraryPoint Blog, Organic Farming, Gardening
03/28/2012 - 11:54am
Cultivating Community

Join us for our Cultivating Community Kick-off event, tomorrow night at Salem Church Library, 7pm.

Animal, Vegetable, MiracleLibrarian Wini Ashooh will present a short introduction to Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, the story of her family’s challenge to grow and buy food locally in southwest Virginia.  Books will be available for loan.

The program continues with a panel discussion about local farming and food, organic gardening, community gardening and more! 


Panelists include:

Ellen Snead, co-owner of Snead’s Asparagus Farm

Lawrence Latane -owner of Blenheim Farm – member of Local Harvest Organic Gardens

Elizabeth Borst - Manager of Spotsylvania Farmer’s Market; active in the Fredericksburg Food Initiative, and creator of the Buy Fresh Buy Local guide for Fredericksburg, Spotsylvania and King George

Wendy Stone - Fredericksburg Parks and Recreation- will talk about the Fredericksburg Farmer’s Market and the new Fredericksburg Community Garden Plots.

Kelly Liddington - Richmond County Extension Office
 

See more Cultivating Community events!

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