Nottoway County Literacy Program

06/23/2026

A Kitchen Garden is a small personal garden that caters to you and your family's daily preferences for cooking and eating. It is usually located in easy access to your kitchen and where you can dash out for a needed ingredient or herb and get right back to cooking. Planning usually takes place in the winter, but you can start getting the layout in place. Many have opted for raised beds, but you can do inground or a combination. Why not surround a back patio so you can add seating in the garden for a morning cup of tea where a sprig of mint is handy. Or where that grill is located and you can easily top burgers with rosemary. Add containers of flowers around the space for visual interest and to attract butterflies and other beneficial insects. Add a birdbath for bird watching.

A major benefit is for your mental health. You can turn off the screens and put the rest of the world to bed as you enjoy your little garden space that feeds and adds a bit of spice and tranquility to your life.

Here is an excellent post about the ins and outs of creating a kitchen garden of your own. And FYI..the garden pictured here is from my back yard kitchen garden just outside my kitchen door in the town of Crewe. It is still a work in progress and we add to it a bit each year. Pics taken this morning after some much needed rain. I hope you will add comments about your garden and what ideas and tips you might have.
https://paulinemanor.com/benefits-of-a-kitchen-garden/
-Kathy Oliver
NCLP Director

06/22/2026

Debt sneaks up on most of us. The challenge in reducing our debt is figuring out where to start and also to have a plan to follow. USAA has published a workshop in PDF format to guide you through the process with key steps to get you on your way. Such steps include how to stop the bleeding, how to build a safety net, how to confront your debt, understanding your cash flow and adjusting it. It includes worksheets for planning your spending. And it includes different methods to approach paying your debt down. All of this can be printed out. Debt is not inevitable. We need a strategy in managing the money we have to serve our needs best. I hope you try this out and let me know your thoughts and ideas and tips you have for managing money.
chrome-extensio://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://usaaef.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Debt-Destroyer-Workbook-2025.pdf

And here is the a list of other free money managing resources from USAA
https://bit.ly/4eXNZb2

-Kathy Oliver
NCLP Director

06/18/2026

As we learn more about health, we understand that our gut does more than digest food. It is home to bacteria, fungi, viruses and other microbes that form our gut microbiome. And that influences inflammation levels, nutrient absorption, immune function, hormone levels and even mental health. Fruit boosts our gut because they contain fiber, polyphenols, vitamins and antioxidants that feed the good bacteria, calms intestinal inflammation and support immune function. Read all about these 6 fruits and how managing our gut microbiome is essential to managing health.
https://bit.ly/4vWwehW
-Kathy Oliver
NCLP Director
PS: I never knew there was such a thing as Green Banana Flour!

06/17/2026

Some useful info for zucchini gardeners.

Zucchini plants are very dramatic sometimes 😅 A few signs I always check first:

🌼 Dropping flowers can be normal early on, especially before female flowers show up.
💧 Rotten fruit tips usually remind me to water more consistently.
🍃 White powder on leaves often means the plant needs better airflow.
🐝 Tiny fruit that shrivels may need hand-pollinating.
🐛 Sudden wilting is the one I take seriously because vine borers can do damage fast.

🌱 My biggest zucchini tip is to water at the base and give the plants more space than you think they need.

06/17/2026

An important part of gardening, or eating well, is to make use of the whole harvest. Yes, we throw produce scraps into a compost pile, but what if you want to preserve those summer flavors into Fall and Winter? You can make Fruit Vinegar! Use strawberry caps, peach pits, orange rinds, apple cores, berries and bruised fruit. After you have a couple of cups, you add sugar and water, maybe some herbs, and let it ferment at room temperature for a couple of weeks, strain it, then let it continue the fermenting process. The completed vinegar can be used to make dressings for salads, or in any recipe calling for cider vinegar or lemon juice.

There are health benefits as well. Fruit vinegars can help lower cholesterol, improve blood sugar, even reduce your appetite. Those benefits are described here: https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/fruit-vinegar
And here are all the ins and outs on how to make fruit vinegars. You can also come up with your own combinations. And maybe even make enough for gifts for your favorite foodie!
https://champagne-tastes.com/fruit-vinegar/
-Kathy Oliver
NCLP Director

06/15/2026

UPDATE: Free Seeds available at the Crewe Library in the seed library.

Today, we are surrounded by plastic. It gets into our water, our food and even into our skin. And it affects our health and longevity. But you can do something about limiting plastic on your skin, by replacing that plastic bath pouf with a loofah sponge you grow yourself. It can be a fun project for the family. The seeds are easy to plant. Since they grow like cucumbers, it is best to add a support the plants can grow on. Towards the end of the growing season, the long fruits begin to turn brown and the plant dries out. You can then harvest and peel off the skin to reveal your sponge. You just have to rinse and remove the seeds, saving them for next spring's planting.

The sponge is great for exfoliating your skin in the shower. It can also be used to scrub your pots and pans. Or you can slice the sponges, put the slices in a mold and pour liquified home made soap over the slices and let cool and cure. And you have soap with it's own built in scrubby. If you have lots of extra loofahs, you can give them as gifts as part of a "spa basket." I have raised loofahs and I ended up with some small softer sponges and I used those for mini face scrubbies.
Here is an article from Almanac.com that answers your questions on growing and harvesting these sponges
https://bit.ly/43EsGF7
Have fun and let me know if any of you are growing them?
-Kathy Oliver
NCLP Director

06/11/2026

It is becoming increasingly important, in todays world, to be digitally literate. I am not talking about the downside of technology such as addiction to doomscrolling, hours and hours playing video games. I am referring to being able to communicate with friends and family more safely and efficiently, having a source for education and information and being able to contribute to a vital community and society.

What does that look like? Well, imagine being able to attend a gathering across the world to learn about history, the arts and crafts traditions and meet people interested in similar subjects that you are...without leaving your living room. By knowing how to use ZOOM, and Meet Up technology, I was able to attend Shetland Wool Week in the Shetland Islands off the coast of Scotland, attend classes, visit a crofter (farmer) who raised sheep and meet other attendees from around the world. This is just one example.

Do you want to be able to find information? And fact check it? Do you want to start a virtual club of some kind? A book club for instance? Do you need to add to your skill set to be able to apply for a job you are interested in? Do you want to take a class online?

DeVry University has published an article about the importance of Digital Literacy : https://bit.ly/4edsT6V
But the Literacy Program here in Nottoway County can get you started and even provide sources of free classes online in a number of subjects. And I can teach you the basics using your tablet, phone or laptop. Even beyond the basics, depending on your needs. Call me or come by my office at the Crewe Library, for more information or to schedule a class.
-Kathy Oliver
NCLP Director
434-645-9594

06/11/2026

It was a privilege to see the organization involved, the vision,time line and how everything will come about. This is a focus on the facades and also a window in how the businesses will participate and how the grant will be spent. As a town resident, this is a hopeful beginning for some real change in a good direction.