NORMAL, Ill. — A new program will help consumers interested in better nutrition. The new seed library works like a regular library, only instead of checking out books, consumers will peruse seeds that are stored in a converted card catalog.

“We stocked the Normal Public Library with seeds,” said Bill Davison, Local Food Systems and Small Farms educator at the McLean and Woodford County extension office. “The idea is that people can check out seeds, plant them, grow them, then return harvested seeds to the library.”

This program is a partnership between the University of Illinois extension and the town of Normal. It offers free seeds to help make homegrown food available to the community. The seeds, Davison said, “are of both new and old seed that is not pollinated.”

While this is new to central Illinois, the program began on the East Coast. “This started in New York State in the Hudson Valley,” Davison said. “Now there are 300 seed libraries across the United States.”

Consumers from Springfield, Ill. ,learned about this new project on Dec. 3 when Grow Springfield, a new network of urban growers, hosted a presentation by Davison. “It is always encouraging to see innovative things happening in central Illinois,” said Lindsay Record, program director at the Illinois Stewardship Alliance and an administrative committee member of Grow Springfield.

The seed selection for the spring of 2015 at the Normal Public Library is already diverse. “We had seeds on hand for lettuce, tomato, beans and peas and herbs, crops easy to save seeds from,” Davison explained.

The basic seeds they started with have grown quickly adding in new items that many consumers have a hard time finding. “There has been a tremendous loss of diversity over the years,” Davison said.

He said this seed-saving and cost-saving program can create more biodiversity and increase community involvement. Consumers can control their nutritional choices. One recent success story for saving seeds is the Auburn University (AU) watermelon. “You can’t buy seeds for this anymore, but farmers in the area have been growing them for 20 years,” added Davison.

From those local farmers, the seed library now has the AU watermelon seed available for consumers. The seed library has focused on vegetables, but they also are adding in native plants and flowers. “We are working with farmers, too, and will have some corn, beans and small grains,” Davison said.

Staying within the regulatory good graces of various state governments is difficult. States such as Minnesota ruled it was illegal for libraries to sell seeds. Minnesota is cooperating with the seed library programs to make things work, though.

“I know of two instances where Department of Agriculture seed laws are out of date and need to be updated,” Davison said. “States need to adapt.”

He noted that a group of lawyers have worked together to create a website to assist seed libraries.

A living seed library called the Food Forest is a program to establish a connection between people and their food sources. Volunteers will manage a garden that will offer fruit, nuts and herbs.

“We will have fruit tree cuttings and bulbs,” Davison said. “This is part of the Normal City Park. They have one acre, and they are providing labor from the Parks Department. A local non-profit group that works with farmers has ordered the plants and will help with the planting which is targeted for late March.”

The Food Forest, until a couple of weeks ago, was a field of mowed grass. Now it is tilled, and a trellis has been built for grapes. “It will be very diverse and colorful,” Davison said. “The idea is to get kids out to appreciate fresh fruit.”

Davison who has worked as a biologist and also had his own organic farm said he has seen how gratifying integrating fresh food into a diet can be first hand. He is excited about the program that encourages kids to eat items they never ate before.

The Forest is open to the public. “You just pick what you want,” Davison said. “We are planting mostly perennials like Chestnut trees, blackberries, asparagus, rhubarb, etc.”

The Food Forest is the result of a University of Illinois case study based on a book Restoration Agriculture by Mark Shepherd, which explains how farmers and consumers can have all of the benefits of natural, perennial ecosystems and create agricultural systems that imitate nature in form and function while still providing for food, building, fuel and many other needs.

“They are looking at chestnuts that can replace corn and hazelnuts that can replace soybeans,” Davison explained.

This would mean groves of trees rather than fields or crops needing to be replaced each year. They are calling the project a Woody Perennial Polyculture using research plots with diverse perennial plantings on farmland.

For more information about the Central Illinois Seed Library or Food Forest, call Davison at 309-663-6308.