NE Home Goods Library

*The Home Goods Library is on vacation starting 9/19. Please check back soon.*

Nurture hosts a home goods library, thanks to a generous grant award from the City of Portland’s Planning and Sustainability Portland Recycles! Grant Program! Also thank you to Dre Davey at Swap-n-Play for her mentorship in getting our library seed planted and sprouted.

What is a home goods library?
Good question! Inspired by Swap-n-Play’s North Portland Preserve and Serve as well as the local Tool Libraries, we have been gathering equipment and supplies for preserving foods, decreasing the amount of waste when you host a party or function, and other DYI projects.

Our Home Goods Library currently has (not the complete inventory list):
The Serve Collection:

  • 100 place settings (dishes, bowls, cups, forks, spoons, knives, cloth napkins, etc.), which can be checked out when you have a party or large function to encourage you to forgo using disposables.
  • Wine & Cheese: wine glasses, platters
  • Deluxe Celebration: silver platters, place setting card holders, etc.
  • Tea/Coffee Time: mugs, carafes, tea pots
  • coming soon…Funky Feast Collection (100 mismatched fine china and silverware place settings)

The Preserve Collection:

  • Canning: 8 kits (4 water bath canners with rack + utensils & 4 pressure canners (16 quart) + utensils
  • Dehydrators: 6
  • Steam Juicers: 2
  • Bread Machine: 1

The Healthful Homes, Bellies, and Planet Library Collection (found in Nurture’s Family Wellness Library):

  • A Guide to Canning, Freezing, Curing & Smoking Meat, Fish & Game, Wilbur F. Eastman
  • Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition, and Craft of Live-Culture Foods, Sandor Ellix Katz
  • Make Your Place: Affordable & Sustainable Nesting Skills, Raleigh Briggs
  • Putting Food By, Hertzeberg, Vaughn, & Greene
  • Nourishing Traditions, Sally Fallon
  • Well Preserved: A Jam Making Hymnal, Jan Hassol
  • Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, Barbara Kingsolver

The Community Forum:
Our e-village Feeding the Family forum is designed to provide a space for recipe exchange, nutritional information, green living practices, and a place to provide education about preserving and sharing resources.

The DIY How-To Classes:
It was our goal to offer food preservation classes each year as a part of the library, but there is a great organization in NE Portland already offering many fabulous classes (and much more)!  So we are supporting the wonderful work that the Portland Fruit Tree Project does with food preservation by offering coupons to access the library for Portland Fruit Tree Project class participants.  The Portland Fruit Tree Project offers classes, gatherings, and support for growing trees, harvesting, and preserving foods.  Their mission is to increase equitable access to healthy food and strengthen communities by empowering neighbors to share in the harvest and care of city-grown food resources.

Our Wish List:
We hope to expand our inventory, in and out of the kitchen-related supplies, through donations and other funding sources. If you would like to donate an appliance, gadget, book, or other related item that is in good working condition, please let us know (info@nurturepdx.com). Items on our wish list include:

  • sewing machines
  • large mixers
  • food processors
  • bread machines
  • ice cream makers
  • small spinning wheel and hand spindles
  • table top looms
  • food mills
  • felting kit (foam (soy or other green material), needles, needle felting tools)

    • How does it work?
    Fees:
    Members of Nurture, Community Partners, and local non-profits will be able to access the library at no cost.  NE Portland residents are welcome to use the library with a sliding scale fee of $5-30 or 1-5 Timedollars.  Class participants of the Portland Fruit Tree Project can request coupons for a one-time, free check-out.  Accepted donations of equipment will allow free access to the library for 1 year and will be given a coupon for this purpose.

    The fees will help us to maintain the equipment and further our inventory, and we hope to eliminate all fees eventually. Upon return of the equipment, you will be asked (via e-mail) to fill out a simple questionnaire to help us quantify the waste prevention benefits the library is fulfilling.

    Borrowing Rules:
    Please visit the Borrowing Rules page for information about the process and rules for borrowing from the library.

    Reserving and picking up equipment:
    To make a reservation, please visit our on-line reservation system.  You will need to register with our system prior to your first reservation.  Please read and familiarize yourself with the borrowing rules prior to registering and each subsequent reservation.  You may check items out for one week.  Pick-up and return days/times are currently on Wed mornings between 9am-12pm and Sundays by appointment.

    Why do we need a home goods library?
    To paraphrase Dre’s beautiful explanation: By offering this resource to the community, we will be significantly reducing the amount of paper plates and cups, plastic cutlery, and disposable napkins that end up in our landfills. We anticipate that approximately 100 NE Portland households will access the library per year. With 100 place settings in the Serve Collection, we estimate that 2 events per week will be covered. That equals 5200 less disposable cups, plates, cutlery settings, and napkins in our landfills each year.

    As more households learn to preserve food and have access to needed equipment, fewer cans, jars, and plastic containers will be disposed of because canning jars can be reused year after year and dehydrated foods and juices from the juicers can be stored in reusable containers and bottles.

    And sharing is good for you, our community, and our fabulous planet!

    Thank you City of Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability!