Month: September 2009

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• Local food news from Juneau: Virus infects Tlingít potato crop; Glory Hole to get community garden

(Photo courtesy of Klas Stolpe/Juneau Empire) Bill Ehlers, assistant gardener at the Jensen-Olson Arboretum in Juneau, holds a Tlingít potato next to some borage plant flowers.

(Photo courtesy of Klas Stolpe/Juneau Empire) Bill Ehlers, assistant gardener at the Jensen-Olson Arboretum in Juneau, holds a Tlingít potato next to some borage plant flowers.

Click here to read an article in Tuesday’s Juneau Empire about a virus that has infected the crop of Tlingít potatoes at Juneau’s Jensen-Olson Arboretum. According to the article, the potatoes still are safe to eat, despite the virus. But the virus means they won’t be used as seed potatoes for other community gardens in Southeast Alaska, as previously planned. Officials from the University of Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service office in Juneau are doing what they can to remove the virus so they can guarantee clean seed, but it might take a few years.

Click here to read an article from Monday’s Juneau Empire about plans to build a community garden at the Glory Hole homeless shelter and soup kitchen in downtown Juneau. The community garden is expected to provide fresh vegetables and fruit for the soup kitchen, as well as giving Glory Hole patrons a project they can work on at the shelter. Plans are to put garden beds on the roof and terraced garden beds on the hill behind the Glory Hole’s back door.

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• Juneau Empire features Table of the Day Award winners from fourth Sitka Farmers Market

Screenshot of Sunday's Juneau Empire feature on the Sitka Farmers Market table of the day award

Screenshot of Sunday's Juneau Empire feature on the Sitka Farmers Market table of the day award

Click here to see where the Juneau Empire on Sunday, Sept. 6, featured Table of the day Award winners Evening Star Grutter and Fabian Grutter of Eve’s Farm from the fourth Sitka Farmers Market of the summer on Aug. 29. By the way, this photo also appeared in the Friday, Sept. 4, edition of the Daily Sitka Sentinel (but there’s no online link).

Don’t forget that our final Sitka Farmers Market of the summer takes place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 12, at Alaska Native Brotherhood Hall (235 Katlian St.). We look forward to seeing you at the market.

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• Another record cabbage at the Alaska State Fair

Screenshot of the Anchorage Daily News article on Steve Hubacek's giant cabbage

Screenshot of the Anchorage Daily News article on Steve Hubacek's giant cabbage

Click here to read about a record-breaking 127-pound cabbage, called “The Beast,” Wasilla’s Steve Hubacek weighed in on Friday at the Alaska State Fair in Palmer. Click here to read the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner’s version of the story, which includes some other big veggie records set at the fair.

This record-breaking cabbage, which qualifies for both the state record and a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records, was weighed in just two days after Hubacek broke a 20-year-old record with a 125.9-pound cabbage. I hope he enjoys cole slaw and sauerkraut. Click here to see a list of Guinness Book of World Record-setting veggies at the Alaska State Fair since 1993 (opens PDF file).

Screenshot of the giant cabbage story in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner

Screenshot of the giant cabbage story in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner

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• UAS-Sitka Campus to host class on how to identify Southeast Alaska mushrooms

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The University of Alaska Southeast-Sitka Campus Community Education and Professional Development program will host Kitty LaBounty as she teaches the class “Southeast Mushrooms: How to identify them.” This two-day class takes place from 7-8:30 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 10, and from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 12, at the UAS-Sitka Campus (with field trips). The course fee is $49 and students should dress for the outdoors, bring waxed paper and a bucket for gathering.

This course is designed to introduce students to the mushroom flora of Southeast Alaska. The focus will be on the use of taxonomic keys for identification of fungi and recognition of both edible and poisonous mushrooms. Cooking and preservation of mushrooms will be discussed. Field trips are followed by in-class identification of collected mushrooms.

The class needs to have at least 10 students registered by Monday, Sept. 7 (note that Monday is a holiday, so you might want to register by Friday). The class is limited to 18 students. For more information, contact the UAS-Sitka Campus Community Education and Professional Development program at 747-7762. To register, call 747-6653. Click here to download the course brochure as a PDF file.

For mushroom lovers who can’t participate in the class, there is a free natural history presentation scheduled for 7 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 18, at the UAS-Sitka Campus called “Why Mushrooms Matter.” The talk features speaker Steve Trudell, affiliate professor in the College of Forest Resources and lecturer in the Biology Department at the University of Washington. He also is co-author of a new book, “Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest.”

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• Alaskans love their giant vegetables and other stories in the news

This is the time of year when Alaska has two state fairs in progress — in Palmer and in Fairbanks — and it’s also the time of year when people bring out the record-setting vegetables they’ve grown. This year is no exception, and there are several stories in the news about huge veggies grown in Alaska.

Click here to read an Anchorage Daily News story about the record-setting 125.9-pound cabbage grown by Steve Hubacek of Wasilla. This cabbage not only broke the Alaska state record, but also qualified for entry in the Guinness Book of World Records.

Click here to see an Anchorage Daily News video of the great pumpkin weigh-off between Dale Marshall of Anchorage and current state record-holder J.D. Megchelsen of Nikiski. Marshall’s winning pumpkin weighed 594 pounds.

Click here to read an article from the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner about monster vegetables entered in the Alaska Feed Co. vegetable contest at the Tanana Valley State Fair in Fairbanks.

Click here to read Anchorage Daily News photographer Fran Durner’s “Talk Dirt To Me” blog entry about colorful Alaska State Fair flowers.

Click here to read an article about invasive weeds by Anchorage Daily News garden columnist Jeff Lowenfels.

Click here to see a Capital City Weekly photo package from the second annual Juneau Farmers Market and Local Food Festival held last Saturday. Click here to see a larger photo gallery posted on the Capital City Weekly online site.

Click here to read a letter to the editor in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner about Alaska’s bountiful harvest of berries this summer.