September 29, 2009 by Charles Bingham

• Aliens from Running of the Boots fundraiser show up in Daily Sitka Sentinel and Juneau Empire

Screenshot of the Daily Sitka Sentinel site on Monday with the aliens photo from the 2009 Running of the Boots

Screenshot from Tuesday's Juneau Empire featuring the aliens photo from the Running of the Boots

The green-headed aliens were the hit of the Running of the Boots on Saturday, earning spots on the front page of the Daily Sitka Sentinel on Monday and in Tuesday’s issue of the Juneau Empire. The Running of the Boots is a fundraiser for the Sitka Local Foods Network, and we greatly appreciate race founder Sheila Finkenbinder and the Greater Sitka Chamber of Commerce donating the proceeds from the event to our organization. A photo gallery from the race is posted just below this one, or click here to go directly to the gallery.

In other recent local foods news, Sitka filmmaker Ellen Frankenstein and her movie, “Eating Alaska,” are featured in Wednesday’s Anchorage Daily News. Ellen will be in Anchorage to show her film on Sunday night at the inaugural Alaska Local Food Film Festival, which runs Oct. 2-8 at Anchorage’s Beartooth Theatrepub and Grill.

Click here to read a “Local Flavor” column by chef Ginny Mahar about chanterelles from Sunday’s Juneau Empire, which local mushroom enthusiasts can find throughout Southeast Alaska about this time of the year. Ginny, who works for Rainbow Foods in Juneau, writes the Food-G blog where she has posted several recipes that use chanterelles. Chanterelles are popular this week, because Carla Peterson also writes about them in Capital City Weekly.

Click here to read a letter to the editor in Tuesday’s Juneau Empire about how to eat healthy foods on a budget. The letter, written by staff members from the Juneau office of the University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service, was in response to a Fairbanks Daily News-Miner story (that appeared later in the Juneau Empire) about Alaska lawmakers trying to live on food stamps for a week.

Click here to read a Seattle Times article about how Northwest cooks are falling in love with the sablefish (aka, black cod), a fish frequently caught in Sitka waters and available at the Sitka Farmers Market. The article includes a recipe.

Click here to read a blog post on The Atlantic Food Channel called “Local Food Comes To Alaska,” by New York University nutrition, food studies and public health professor Marion Nestle (author of “Food Politics,” “Safe Food,” “What To Eat,” and “Pet Food Politics,” as well as the “Food Matters” column for the San Francisco Chronicle).

If you haven’t visited the “Eat Local Northwest” blog, it’s worth a look. This blog is maintained by two friends — Stephen lives in the Mat-Su Valley and works in Anchorage, while Audrey is from the Seattle area. In the most recent post (as of Tuesday night), Stephen writes about his happy discovery that some of the prices at the South Anchorage Farmers Market actually were comparable or lower than what he was finding at several of local grocery stores. There is a link to this blog in our blog roll on the right side of the page.

Click here to read a story from KTUU-TV (Anchorage NBC affiliate) about Meyer’s Farm in Bethel, a project started by Tim Meyers that now involves a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program where local residents pay a fee and get weekly boxes of fresh, local produce. You can click a video link in the upper right corner, too. Meyer’s Farm was featured in the April 2009 issue of Alaska Magazine (link opens a PDF file of the article). There also is a Flickr photo gallery that shows nearly 100 photos of Meyer’s Farm.

Finally, the new farmers market near the White House isn’t about Alaska food, but it does promote and encourage people to eat local food. Click here for a story about the new farmers market on National Public Radio and click here for an article from the Washington Post. Click here for an article from USA Today about the growth of farmers markets across the nation.

September 28, 2009 by Charles Bingham

• Big crowd joins Running of the Boots to support Sitka Local Foods Network

High school exchange students dressed as aliens won the best group costume category in the costume contest

Despite a heavy downpour before the race, about 200 people showed up the Crescent Harbor Shelter on Saturday, Sept. 26, 2009, for the 15th annual Running of the Boots, a fundraiser for the Sitka Local Foods Network. The event was part of the second annual Summer’s End Celebration hosted by the Greater Sitka Chamber of Commerce and the Alaska Cruiseline Association.

Many of the runners showed up in costume, including green-headed aliens, pirates, fairy princesses and even a young frog. Others wore enough heavy rain gear so they looked more like ancient mariners than runners. While there was a little bit of a race, the event was all about fun, with a lip-synch event and blues band to spice things up. And we even had a table to sell Sitka Farmers Market produce, and Keri Fish brought along her crepe-making booth.

Click here to view a photo gallery from the 15th annual Running of the Boots. The Sitka Local Foods Network appreciates everybody who participated in this fundraiser. Our next event will be to host an informational table at the Wild and Scenic Film Festival on Saturday, Oct. 24, at the Sitka Performing Arts Center and hosted by the Sitka Conservation Society. Booths open at 6 p.m. and the movies start at 6:30 p.m. We look forward to seeing you there.

A pack of kids takes off at the start of the 2009 Running of the Boots on Sept. 26

Sitka sunbathers huddle up before the race

The Three Moo-sketeers

Young runners all dressed up and ready to run. The boy on the left had the fastest boots on Saturday

September 25, 2009 by Charles Bingham

• Daily Sitka Sentinel features Running of the Boots preview, plus other news about local foods from around the region

Runners hit the trail during the 14th Annual Running of the Boots race on Sept. 27, 2008, in Sitka.

The Friday issue of the Daily Sitka Sentinel featured an article and photo previewing the 15th annual Running of the Boots on Saturday (Page 9), which is a fundraiser for the Sitka Local Foods Network. Unfortunately, the announcement did not make onto the Sentinel’s Web site. The Running of the Boots starts at 11 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 26, at the Crescent Harbor shelter (registration opens at 10 a.m.). The entry fee is $5 per person, or $20 per family, and there is a lip-synch contest after the race that costs $10 to enter. Click here for all the details about Running of the Boots.

In other news about local food around the region, the Juneau Empire ran several stories in its Outdoors section on Friday.

Click here to read the On The Trails column by Mary Willson, who writes about picking berries this late in the season.

Click here to read a brief item about some gardening presentations hosted by the Juneau Garden Club from 1-4:30 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 26, at Centennial Hall in Juneau.

Click here to read a story by Kwame Diehl about a fishing trip in Juneau to catch some halibut.

Click here to read a story by Abby Lowell about where to catch silver (coho) salmon in the Juneau area.

Click here to read Anchorage Daily News photographer Fran Durner’s “Talk Dirt To Me” garden blog, who writes about growing organic produce and a potato dig in Palmer this weekend.

September 23, 2009 by Charles Bingham

• Capital City Weekly features Sitka Farmers Market Table of the Day, Running of the Boots fundraiser for Sitka Local Foods Network

Screenshot of Capital City Weekly page about Mike Wise winning the Table of the Day Award at the final Sitka Farmers Market of the summer

Click here to see this week’s Capital City Weekly coverage of Mike Wise of Raven’s Peek Roasters and Sailor’s Choice Coffee winning the Table of the Day Award for the final Sitka Farmers Market of the summer on Sept. 12.

Click here to read a notice in this week’s Capital City Weekly about the Running of the Boots on Saturday, Sept. 26.

For those of you who will be in Juneau and not in Sitka on Saturday for the Running of the Boots, click here to read about the Autumn Garden Party and Wine Tasting event on Saturday at the Jensen-Olson Arboretum up in Juneau.

In a local foods story from the Northwest Arctic, Kotzebue author/photographer Seth Kantner (author of “Ordinary Wolves” and “Shooping for Porcupine”) writes an essay for the Alaska Dispatch Web site about hunting caribou to provide meat for his family.

Finally, we have two stories about the role salmon played in the development of two Southeast Alaska communities — Ketchikan and Pelican. Ketchikan’s Dave Kiffer writes one of his regular history columns for the Stories in the News Web site about how Ketchikan became “the canned salmon capital of the world.” In the Capital City Weekly, Norm Carson writes a story about how a cold storage plant helped Pelican “settled closest to the fish.”

September 20, 2009 by Charles Bingham

• Juneau Empire on Sunday runs Sitka Farmers Market photo and Running of the Boots article

Juneau Empire screenshot of Mike Wise winning the final Table of the Day Award for the 2009 season of Sitka Farmers Markets.

Click here to see the Juneau Empire’s coverage on Sunday of Mike Wise of Raven’s Peek Roasters and Sailor’s Choice Coffee winning the Table of the Day Award for the final Sitka Farmers Market of the summer on Sept. 12.

Click here to read a Juneau Empire notice in Sunday’s paper about the Running of the Boots on Saturday, Sept. 26.

September 19, 2009 by Charles Bingham

• This week’s e-newsletter (Sept. 19)

Click here to read this week’s Sitka Local Foods Newsletter courtesy of Linda Wilson. Don’t forget, you can sign up for the e-newsletter by typing your e-mail address in the box on the left side of the page. Please note that the newsletter will switch to monthly for the winter.

September 19, 2009 by Charles Bingham

• Just a reminder, the Running of the Boots fundraiser for the Sitka Local Foods Network is this Saturday

The 15th annual Running of the Boots takes place at 11 a.m. this Saturday, Sept. 26 (registration opens at 10 a.m.). In this fundraiser for the Sitka Local Foods Network, runners don their XtraTufs as they run from the Crescent Harbor shelter and around St. Michael’s Russian Orthodox Cathedral downtown and back (more ambitious runners can run to the corner of Lincoln and Katlian streets and back to Crescent Harbor).

For the second straight year, the Running of the Boots is part of the Season’s End Celebration, sponsored by the Greater Sitka Chamber of Commerce and the Alaska Cruise Association. After the run and lip-synch contest, participants can join the rest of the Sitka community for a free lunch with fish and chips near Harry Race/White’s Pharmacy and burgers and hot dogs near the Coliseum Theatre.

The entry fee for the Running of the Boots is $5 per person and $20 per family, and people can register for the race starting at 10 a.m. There is a lip synch contest after the race, which costs $10 to enter. There also are several contest categories for costumes, painted boots and other awards.

Click here for complete details.

The 2008 winner of the fastest boots award

XtraTufs and togas are high fashion at the 2008 Running of the Boots

September 19, 2009 by Charles Bingham

• Sitka Farmers Market says thanks for a great summer

Sitka has many wonderful events that happen year after year; the Monthly Grind, Whalefest, the Running of the Boots and the Sitka Summer Music Festival, just to name a few. Our hope and dream has been to create one more tradition that people can look forward to year after year, summer after summer. Our goal was to create a Sitka Farmers Market that brings Native and non-Native people together to celebrate Sitka and the wonderful things people can do here, which includes growing, harvesting and sharing nutritious local food.

For the past two years, we have seen our dream come true and the seeds for even bigger and better markets have been sown. This happened because of tremendous amount of community support. To every vendor, shopper and sponsoring group that has made this happen, we would like to extend our sincere appreciation.

The Sitka Conservation Society (SCS), SEARHC, the Sitka office of the University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service, Alaska Native Sisterhood, Kayaaní Commission, Baranof Island Housing Authority and the Women, Infants, Children (WIC) supplemental nutrition program have been tremendous and true partners. The delicious smell of grilling local black cod was made possible by the generous loan of the Reindeer Redhots cart to the Alaska Longline Fisherman’s Association. To our friends at the historic Alaska Native Brotherhood Hall, who have provided the perfect gathering space for a Sitka market, we say Gunalchéesh. We are grateful to the media in town, who time and again helped us to promote our market and our cause. Last but certainly not least, we’d like to recognize the vendors.

In the past two years we’ve had almost 50 local entrepreneurs who made this event happen. Your creativity, your enthusiasm, your customer service and your willingness to share your time and talents is most appreciated. You and the shoppers who buy local are the backbone of our market.

The 2009 Sitka Farmers Market season has come to an end. Plans for next year have already begun. We hope to see you there, and thanks again to everyone who is supporting the local foods movement.

Even though the Sitka Farmers Market season has ended, the Sitka Local Foods Network will be active throughout the year. We will continue our work on expanding community gardens, getting a community greenhouse built in Sitka, encouraging the sustainable use of traditional subsistence foods and providing educational opportunities to Sitka residents who want to learn more about producing local food. The next Sitka Local Foods Network event is the Running of the Boots fundraiser, which takes place at 11 a.m. (register at 10) on Saturday, Sept. 26, at the Crescent Harbor shelter. For more information, click here.

Sincerely,

Sitka Local Foods Network
Kerry MacLane, Peggy Reeve, Linda Wilson, Doug Osborne, Natalie Sattler, Sharon Romine, Tom Crane, Maybelle Filler, Lisa Sadleir-Hart, Ellen Frankenstein, Charles Bingham (2009 SLFN board members and/or Sitka Farmers Market volunteers)

September 15, 2009 by Charles Bingham

• Mike Wise of Raven’s Peek Roasters/Sailor’s Choice Coffee wins Table of the Day Award from fifth Sitka Farmers Market

Mike Wise, center, of Raven's Peek Roasters and Sailor's Choice Coffee receives the Table of the Day Award from Kerry MacLane, left, and Linda Wilson, right, during the fifth and final Sitka Farmers Market of the 2009 summer on Sept. 12.

Mike Wise of Raven’s Peek Roasters and Sailor’s Choice Coffee won the “Table of the Day Award” for the fifth and final Sitka Farmers Market of the 2009 summer on Sept. 12. Mike and his wife, Dr. Marilyn Coruzzi, have had a table at all five markets in 2009 and all three markets in 2008.

The Sitka Local Foods Network selected the table — which featured a variety of locally ground coffee and locally roasted nuts — to receive the $25 cash prize, an Alaska Farmers Market Association tote bag and a certificate of appreciation. A similar prize package was awarded to a deserving vendor at each of the five Sitka Farmers Markets this summer.

This was the last Sitka Farmers Market of the 2009 summer, but the Sitka Local Foods Network will be around all year with other events. The next Sitka Local Foods Network event is the 15th annual Running of the Boots at 11 a.m. (register at 10 a.m.) on Saturday, Sept., 26, at the Crescent Harbor shelter. Proceeds from the Running of the Boots support Sitka Local Foods Network projects. Click this link for more information.

Also, a new photo gallery from the fifth Sitka Farmers Market on Sept. 12 has been posted on Shutterfly (an online photo-sharing site). Click this link to check out the photos.

Black cod on the grill from the Alaska Longline Fisherman's Association

Keith Greba and his art

Lisa Bykonen and her knitted hats

Natalie Sattler, left, holds parsnips, while Lisa Sadleir-Hart, center, and Doug Osborne, right, hold turnips for sale at the Sitka Local Foods Network booth

September 15, 2009 by Charles Bingham

• 2010 Kayaaní Commission calendars are available for sale

The 2010 Kayaaní Commission calendars are available from Sitka Tribe of Alaska for $16 each. These full-color calendars feature photos and information about many common edible and medicinal plants found in the Sitka area. Also available are copies of “The Kayaaní Commission Ethnobotany Field Guide to Selected Plants Found In Sitka, Alaska,” which cost $15 each. Proceeds from the sale of these two publications go to the Kayaaní Commission to help preserve traditional Tlingít plant knowledge.

The mission of the Kayaaní Commission is “to preserve our spiritual way of life. The religion of the Tlingít is the Earth. The Tlingít are one with the Earth. The Kayaaní Commission is here to preserve and protect traditional ways of our ancestral knowledge.” The Kayaaní Commission is sponsored by Sitka Tribe of Alaska and the Sitka National Historical Park.

Calendar and field guide purchases can be made at the Sitka Tribe of Alaska main building (456 Katlian St.) or the Sitka Tribe of Alaska Resources Protection Dept. (429 Katlian St.), or by calling 907-747-7178 or e-mailing pbass@sitkatribe.org. Please make checks payable to the STA Kayaaní Commission.