CICERO — In the cold of winter, the Northern Onondaga Public Library (NOPL) Library Farm Manager Sue Buswell started looking for unique ways that the library’s community garden could expand its reach. Her answer arrived in the form of a newsletter from the American Community Gardening Association.

The email read, “Small Axe Peppers Donate Seeds to Community Gardens in Exchange for Growing Them and Selling Them Back.”

Small Axe Peppers is an urban garden located in the Bronx that started a program in 2014 with GrowNYC to donate serrano hot pepper seeds to community gardens to help produce a hot sauce. The community gardens would receive a packet of donated seeds and sell their crop of hot peppers back to Small Axe Peppers. After production, the company will send back one bottled salsa per pound sent to them. The sale of hot sauce by Small Axe Peppers would fund the purchase of seeds for community gardens to grow the following year and continue the cycle.

In 2014, Small Axe Peppers had five community gardens in the Bronx to help make their sauce; today, it has expanded to 15 cities across America and 75 community gardens. But that’s just half of the story. In 2020 indie-pop trio, AJR, and Warner Artist Services, partnered to create a new hot sauce called BANG! named after their hit song “BANG!”

For Sue Buswell, this was a way to be a part of a more significant community garden connection while providing funding for the Library Farm.

“As with all crops, you can’t guarantee complete success. But this could potentially be a stable source of revenue for the Library Farm, unlike grants and donations,” Sue said.

When thinking of connections, Sue wasn’t done there. She partnered with Cicero Branch Teen and Children’s Librarian Miss Raena to provide a Teen Program pairing gardening, pop music, and salsa scheduled for 10 a.m. Saturday, June 5. Registration is currently open for the program, and teens can register at NOPL.org/events.

This year’s crop is currently a healthy crop of seedlings that, when ready, will be transported and planted at the Library Farm located on the grounds of the Cicero Library. As for the rest of the ingredients to make the sauce, Small Axe Peppers has committed to purchasing 50% of expenses for core products from independent suppliers local to NYC and surrounding areas.

This year’s Library Farm hot pepper contribution will debut in hot sauces produced later this year.

If you’re interested in learning more or purchasing Small Axe Peppers sauces visit smallaxepeppers.com.