“People have been saving seeds for 12,000 years,” said Rebecca Newburn, kicking off the Seed Saving 101 class in Richmond earlier this week. “Now we’re starting to come back around to learning this skill again in local communities.”

Dressed in signature Rosie the Riveter coveralls and headscarf, Newburn presented the basics of saving seeds from “super easy” and “easy” edible plants available from the Richmond Grows Seed Lending Library. The founder of Richmond Grows – an all-volunteer, community supported nonprofit sponsored by Urban Tilth – she is on a mission to share the knowledge of saving seeds with anyone who wants to learn.

In Monday’s class, Newburn focused on the best practices for “returning” the seeds folks borrow from the library, with the hopes that the community can sustain a self-replenishing (and free) supply of plant varieties that thrive in our unique climate.

In addition to presenting a thorough and engaging overview, Seed Saving 101 offered hands-on practice with saving seeds from a variety of “easy” plants Newburn and others had harvested from their gardens.

Turns out sunflowers could use a little help with self-pollination and rubbing your hand lightly over the flowers when they’re in bloom will ensure pollination.

And the best way to collect tomato seeds is to put the seed pulp and juice in an open container in your refrigerator until mold starts to grow; the mold helps keep the next generation of tomato plants healthy. Rinse off the seeds, dry them and store in a cool dry location for next year. Saving seeds from other plants, like celery and fennel, is more intuitive. Let them go to seed, dry the seeds and save.

Saving seeds correctly – and keeping detailed records of the plants and seeds – is crucial to the success of the seed lending library. Because even though it’s open to everyone who visits the main branch of the Richmond Public Library, there is no librarian monitoring it every minute. The seed lending library’s success depends upon “borrowers” successfully saving seeds from their harvests, ensuring the seeds have not cross-pollinated with other varieties and returning the seeds to the library in well-labeled envelopes.

The public location of the seed lending library – and the fact that it’s accessible to a wide-range of people – is no accident.

“We want to attract the local community, not just like-minded folk from the broader Bay Area,” said Richmond Grows collaborator Catalin Kaser.

And according to Kaser, the Richmond library is thrilled to be the host. Other public libraries have even started looking to it as a model of how to offer similar resources in their communities.

“Free public libraries were revolutionary in their time,” reads the Richmond Grows website. “A free seed lending library can also provide people with a chance to transform their lives and communities by providing access to fresh, healthy food that may not otherwise be available.”

Using the seed lending library is simple and set up to be easily understood, with seeds organized by how difficult it is to save and “return” them. Those labeled “easy” and “super easy” are from plants with flowers that contain both male and female parts – known as “perfect” plants – and include the nightshade family (tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, eggplant), the bean and pea family and the onion family.

The difficult seeds to save come from “imperfect” plants – those with either male or female parts rather than both; they easily cross-pollinate with other varieties in the same plant family. And while cross-pollination can result in some new and interesting edibles (beets crossed with chard), the seeds should not be returned to the seed lending library.

Saving difficult seeds will be the topic of Seed Saving 102 and 103, classes Newburn said will be offered early next year. In the meantime, orientation videos are available online and four seed-saving instructional video shorts are in the works.