‘Seed to Supper’ grows garden delicacies

“Seed to Supper. From 6:30-8:30 p.m., presented by Nassau County Cornell Cooperative Extension. Learn how to create your own food garden and eat healthy. No matter what size space you have at home, Master Gardeners will teach you how to build, plan, plant, and maintain a successful garden. Register online, by phone, or in person at the ASK Desk, email ask@freeportlibrary.info, or call (516) 379-3274. This program has a waiting list. Call to see if there is space.”

For weeks, this item appeared in the Freeport Memorial Library calendar, and the series filled rapidly. Now its fruits—literally—are growing on the library grounds, tucked into a protected corner on the east side of the main building, and the participants are busy growing their own plants. 

Reference librarian Chris Bisonette and Maryellen Cantanno, the library’s head of Community Services, set up the popular program with the Nassau County Cornell Cooperative Extension. Only 15 patrons could sign up at a time, so Cornell could supply enough Master Gardeners to work with the patrons one-on-one. 

Library clerk Lupe Velasquez attended the program on her own time, supplying English-Spanish translations as needed and helping out. 

“We’re setting up a maintenance program for the participants,” said Cantanno. “We’ll see how it grows and what direction to take it.”

Cantanno has a personal connection to seeds and growth because her husband, Peter Cantanno, has worked at Atlantic Nursery for 39 years. 

“Peter has helped us out and guided us,” said Cantanno. “Chris goes down to the nursery to pick his brains about seeds and what to feed the garden plants. Chris is in charge of our seed library. We’re one of the first libraries in Nassau County to have one of those.”

The “seed library” is a tall double-sided gondola near the library’s BRIC room, decked with row upon row of seed packets. Patrons, as long as they live in Freeport, can take out up to four seed packets a day after presenting a valid Freeport library card. 

“We started the seed library a few years ago when Ken Bellafiore was library director,” Bisonette said, “and Lee Ann Moltzen (the current director) continued it. I go around to different seed companies locally, regionally and even nationally because a lot of these large seed companies donate to nonprofits, schools, libraries, community gardens, as long as they feel that the place they’re donating to will use it for the benefit of the public.”

Bisonette, who has a strong interest in gardening, is the go-to librarian for seed and gardening questions. If he doesn’t know the answer himself, he knows where to refer people. 

Bisonette himself has taken seed packets to donate to Freeport Village Hall and to senior centers, where the small gifts are always welcomed. 

“It’s been fun doing this program,” Bisonette said. “Our goal is to educate the community on how to grow gardens, and to provide a basis for that goal.”