The word “library” brings to mind books, magazines and perhaps movies, but the one run by the Kootenay Local Agriculture Society (KLAS) is a bit different — it offers the rental of small-scale farming tools to the region’s farmers.
“People don’t know this scale of equipment exists,” said Nigel Francis, who is co-ordinating the Creston library for the non-profit KLAS. “You can’t borrow it from your neighbour.”
Part of the library’s purpose is to support beginning farmers like Francis, and the society has tool caches in Creston, Kaslo, Castlegar and Nelson.
The key item in the library is an Italian-made BCS 853 walking tractor, which has a 13-horsepower engine and two wheels. A variety of implements can be attached, including a tiller, rotary plow and flail mower, and the Creston Valley library also offers a power harrow and fruit press/dehydrator. For KLAS members, the cost is $50 per day for the tractor and one implement.
By borrowing from other caches, farmers around the West Kootenay also have access to a sickle mower, hoop benders, hay making equipment and honey extractors.
KLAS — through which the Kootenay Mountain Grown organic label is administered — started with a grant from the Columbia Basin Trust, and according to the KLAS website, the objectives are to support the sustainability of local agriculture and farms, and increase the availability and production of locally grown agricultural produce.
The tractors require very little gas, and are the tool of choice for market gardeners such as Quebec’s Jean-Martin Fortier — who sells $140,000 of vegetables each year, grown on 1.5 acres using $230 of gas —and Eliot Coleman, author of Four Season Harvest.
The size of the tools increases financial viability by allowing closer planting and, therefore, less open space between rows — simply put: more food with less weeding.
“You design your farm according to the style of equipment,” he said. “This means you can plant much more intensively.”
And for those who don’t farm, the equipment can also come in handy.
“Even if you have a backyard to till or are making raised beds, this works really well,” said Francis.
For more information, contact the Kootenay Local Agriculture Society at klasociety@hotmail.com or visit www.klasociety.org.