Hot sauce fundraiser planned

By AMAnDA roBerTs Creative DireCtor

The Northern Onondaga Public Library (NOPL) has had a community garden at its Cicero location for 12 years. But two years ago, the Library Farm was in need of resources to support maintenance projects and growth opportunities. In the winter of 2020, Library Farm Manager Sue Buswell began looking for unique ways the library’s community garden could better sustain itself financially. She soon found a promising program with a company called Small Axe Peppers. The company would donate serrano hot pepper seeds to community gardens in exchange for growing them and sending them back.

Small Axe Peppers is an urban garden located in the Bronx that started a hot sauce program in 2014 with GrowNYC offering community gardens seeds to sow in the spring to send back in hot peppers in the summer. After production, Small Axe Peppers would ship back one bottle of hot sauce per pound provided. The community gardens could then sell the hot sauce and keep the proceeds, and the sale of the remaining hot sauce by Small Axe Peppers would fund the purchase of seeds for community gardens to grow the following year, continuing the cycle.

In the summer of 2021, the Library Farm sent Small Axe Peppers 26 pounds of serrano peppers and received two dozen bottles to sell. The bottles quickly sold out after an email went out to Library Farm patrons and NOPL staff. In 2022 Sue committed to more seeds and grew 35 pounds which provided her with 36 bottles; this time, hoping to offer sales to library patrons, staff, and community members.

The Bronx Greenmarket Hot Sauce is an

SubmitteD PHoto all-natural, 2 out of 5 heat index green sauce made with New York State grown serrano peppers, including those from the NOPL Library Farm. It has a sweet yet bitter bite of apple cider vinegar and is masterfully balanced by the garlic-forward base and fiery spice; salt, onion, and cane sugar are added to round everything out beautifully. create a Clay senior dance video. step one for the process saw those wishing to participate making their own boogie shoes to wear in the project in a Boogie shoes Free Art Workshop with Chrissy held on March 1 at the center, 4948 route 31, Clay. Participants in the video will be dancing while standing, seated and with limited movement will be available, as the project is designed to be inclusive for all abilities. Above is rosanna Harrington working on her boogie shoes. Below is Janet young and her boogie shoes.

The noPl library Farm Hot sauce Fundraiser will be held saturday, March 18, from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at noPl’s Cicero Branch.

The NOPL Library Farm Hot Sauce Fundraiser will be held Saturday, March 18, from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at NOPL’s Cicero Branch. You can place a purchase request by registering for the event through NOPL’s event calendar at NOPL.org/events or by calling the Cicero library at 315-6992301. The hot sauce is priced at $10, and all proceeds go to fund projects and maintenance for the Library Farm’s 2023 season.