The Alaska Way of Life 4-H Club (aka, Sitka Spruce Tips 4-H Club) and Sitka Conservation Society will host a summer harvest camp from 1-3 p.m. on Wednesday, July 11, at the Sitka Public Library.
The 4-H club members will be making kid-friendly snacks from ingredients collected from public lands or grown in Sitka soil. Participants will create a recipe booklet.
For more information, contact Claire Sanchez at 747-7509 or claire@sitkawild.org
Sitka Farmers Market manager Nina Vizcarrondo, center, presents the Table of the Day Award to Rachel Henderson, left, and Liz Maric of the Alaska Native Sisterhood Camp 4 Clam Chowder Booth during the first market of the summer held Saturday, July 7, at the Alaska Native Brotherhood Founders Hall. ANS served bowls and cups of homemade clam chowder with pilot bread or crackers. As Table Of The Day Award-winners, Rachel and Liz received two Sitka Farmers Market t-shirts, some Evie’s Brinery fermented food, some birch syrup products from Kahiltna Birchworks, and a jar of Inga’s Spice Rub. The next Sitka Farmers Market is scheduled for 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, July 21, at ANB Founders Hall (235 Katlian Street). To learn more about the Sitka Farmers Market and how to be a vendor, go to the Sitka Local Foods Network website, http://www.sitkalocalfoodsnetwork.org, or check out our Facebook pages for the Sitka Local Foods Network and the Sitka Farmers Market.
We held our first Sitka Farmers Market of the summer on Saturday, July 7, with a full slate of booths and a big crowd. The weather even cooperated, providing just a few light sprinkles even though the forecast was for rain showers.
We kept running out of fresh produce at the Sitka Local Foods Network farm stand, even though our lead gardener made two extra runs back to the St. Peter’s Fellowship Farm communal garden to restock our supplies. Our vendors had a wide range of products for sale, including frozen fish and canned salmon (we’ve been without a regular fish vendor for a couple of years). We had vendors selling homemade clam chowder, home-baked bread, jams and jellies, sea veggies and teas, garlic scapes, carrots and other produce, locally produced medicinal herbs and tinctures, arts and crafts, and more. We also had a couple of food trucks and a hot dog vendor outside. And we introduced a couple of new Alaska Grown product lines at the Sitka Local Foods Network’s farm stand.
The next Sitka Farmers Market takes place from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, July 21, at the ANB Founders Hall. There also are markets scheduled for Aug. 4, Aug. 11, Aug. 25, Sept. 1, and Sept. 15. To learn how to be a vendor at the market or how to be a volunteer, contact market manager Nina Vizcarrondo at (907) 738-9301 or assistant manager Charles Bingham (907) 623-7660, or email us at sitkafarmersmarket@gmail.com. We also have a kids vendor program at the market for young entrepreneurs age 12 or younger. Don’t forget to like our Sitka Farmers Market page on Facebook.
Also, join the Sitka Local Foods Network and Sitka Food Co-Op at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, July 11, at the Sitka Public Library, as we host a free community conversation about our food and food systems with nationally known food policy/food systems expert and author Mark Winne. Mark is in town researching a book where he’s looking at the local food systems of 8-10 small communities around the country, and he chose Sitka. Healthy snacks will be provided.
A slideshow of scenes from the first Sitka Farmers Market of 2018 is posted below.
Wednesday, July 11, is the registration deadline for a certified food protection manager workshop being taught on Wednesday, July 25, by University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service. This is an all-day statewide class that will be offered by videoconferencing to Bethel, Craig, Fairbanks, Juneau, Palmer, Sitka and Unalaska.
A certified food protection manager (CFPM) is responsible for monitoring and managing all food establishment operations to ensure that the facility is operating in compliance with food establishment regulations.
A CFPM is knowledgeable about food safety practices and uses this knowledge to provide consumers with safe food, protect public health and prevent food-borne illnesses. Alaska regulations require food establishments to have at least one CFPM on staff.
This course takes place from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. (with a half-hour lunch), and participants will take a computer-based exam at the end of the class. The reason the deadline is two weeks before the class is to guarantee course materials reach all the students in time for the class. The cost is $200, and the course will be taught by Julie Cascio of Palmer. Students can register here.
The Sitka videoconference for the class will take place in a room TBA at the University of Alaska Southeast Sitka Campus. To learn more, contact Jasmine Shaw at the Sitka District Office of the UAF Cooperative Extension Service at 747-9440, or contact Julie Cascio at (907) 745-3677 (Palmer number) or jmcascio@alaska.edu, or Melissa Clampitt at (907) 745-3551 or mrclampitt@alaska.edu. Note, this class is taught in English but textbooks are available in Korean, Chinese and Spanish, just contact Julie or Melissa at least three weeks before the class.
Also, the ServSafe book ($70) and certification exam ($75) now are available online, if people want to order the book and study independently without taking the class. Just go to this website and purchase the book and exam items.
Students learned how to bake pretzels, bagels and crackers during the Savory Breads class, the first class in the Sitka Kitch’s three-course Baking With Betsy series, held July 3 at the Sitka Kitch community rental commercial kitchen.
The Sitka Kitch class series is being taught by professional baker and culinary skills instructor Betsy Peterson Sanchez of St. Charles, Ill.
In addition to the Savory Breads class, the other two classes are :
Betsy comes from a long line of people who love to cook and that passion has been passed down to her. Although Betsy considered a career in music, she happily decided to go into what she loved the most, baking and cooking.
Betsy headed for New York and attended the Culinary Institute of America, receiving a degree in culinary arts. Then it was off to Chicago to work as a pastry chef in several different establishments. Baking is Betsy’s first love, particularly yeast breads.
After a career as a pastry chef and raising her family, she went back to school. Betsy attended The French Pastry School in Chicago for a certificate in French Pastry as well as a continuing education course in Artisan Breads. Currently, Betsy teaches in a Culinary Program at a community college in Glen Ellyn, Ill. She is a member of The Baker’s Guild and a Chef Mentor for Fox Valley Food For Health, a non-profit providing healthy meals for families going through devastating illnesses.
Betsy is so excited to be spending part of the summer in Sitka, where she plans to spend as much time as possible with her daughter, Claire Sanchez, and enjoy the beauty of Alaska.
Classes in this series had a reduced food/supply fee thanks to a donation from Sea Mart Quality Foods.
A slideshow of scenes from the class is posted below.
The Sitka Local Foods Network just sent out the July 2018 edition of its monthly newsletter. Feel free to click this link to get a copy.
This month’s newsletter includes short stories about the first Sitka Farmers Market taking place on Saturday, a a community discussion about our food with food policy expert Mark Winne, an invitation to join our board of directors, and an item about our sponsorship program.. Each story has links to our website for more information.
You can sign up for future editions of our newsletter by clicking on the newsletter image in the right column of our website and filling in the information. If you received a copy but didn’t want one, there is a link at the bottom of the newsletter so you can unsubscribe. Our intention is to get the word out about upcoming events and not to spam people. We will protect your privacy by not sharing our email list with others. Don’t forget to like us on Facebook, like our new Sitka Farmers Market page on Facebook and follow us on Twitter (@SitkaLocalFoods).
Please join SEARHC Health Promotion in engaging with local foods during the bountiful summer season. The event begins July 2, 2018, and runs through July 31, 2018.
To register, you may download and print a registration form and activity logs below.
Eating local, nutrient-dense foods available in Southeast Alaska is one of the most important things you can do for your health. It has nutritional benefits as well as physical, mental, and cultural significance. Benefits may include:
Program Guidelines:
You may register at our Health Educators’ local office sites.
Fill out and turn local foods log(s) in to your designated site by noon each Monday in person, by phone, or email. (To email, scan or photograph your log or type your weekly activity into the body of the email).
Participants who turn logs in on time will be automatically entered to win a weekly prize.
Participants must be 18 or older to register, but we encourage families to harvest, process, eat, and share traditional or local foods together!
Suggested Activities:
If you have questions, please contact the Health Educator in your community.
The Sitka Local Foods Network is bringing the excitement back to the Sitka Farmers Market, which opens its 11th season of markets from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, July 7, at the Alaska Native Brotherhood Founders Hall (235 Katlian Street). We rebuilt some of the vitality of the market last year, and now we’re hoping to build on that momentum.
“We learned a lot over the past couple of years, and we hope we’ve been able to move on from our mistakes and make the markets better,” said Sitka Local Foods Network president Charles Bingham, who is assisting Sitka Farmers Market manager Nina Vizcarrondo for the second year. “We regained a lot of the vendors we lost in 2016, and that brought back a lot of the community-gathering-place feel to the market. We still want to see more local food producers at the market, but we know now we need to develop those outside the market, which is one reason we launched the Sitka Food Business Innovation Contest this spring. We want the market to be a great way to connect with neighbors and support local entrepreneurs.”
Other new innovations last year included a kids vendor program for youth ages 12 and younger, and new Alaska Grown food products for sale at the Sitka Local Foods Network’s farm stand. Both are continuing in 2018. In addition to freshly grown produce from the St. Peter’s Fellowship Farm communal garden, there will be Alaska Flour Company barley products from Delta Junction, Evie’s Brinery fermented foods from Anchorage, Barnacle Foods kelp salsa and kelp pickles from Juneau, and Chugach Chocolates from Girdwood. We also have fish vendors back this season. There still is a focus on local and Alaska food products, with the Alaska Grown products being a way to inspire Sitka food entrepreneurs to try making new food items locally. The more local products we have, the more the money circulates in Sitka’s economy.
“Come support your community at our farmers markets,” Vizcarrondo said. “By working toward Sitka’s food sovereignty, shopping local reduces our food miles. Food doesn’t get any fresher than this.”
The first Sitka Farmers Market of the season takes place from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, July 7, at the Alaska Native Brotherhood Founders Hall (235 Katlian St.). The other markets this summer take place from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturdays, July 21, Aug. 4, Aug. 11, Aug. 25, Sept. 1, and Sept. 15, at ANB Founders Hall.
The markets feature a variety of locally grown produce, seafood, cottage foods, a hot lunch, locally made arts and crafts, live music and fun. The Sitka Farmers Market was the first market in Southeast Alaska to accept Alaska Quest (SNAP) electronic benefits transfers (EBT) and WIC coupons. We have a matching program where SNAP and WIC clients can double up to $20 of their benefits in local produce. This year we received a grant from the Sitka White Elephant Shop (the White E) to help with the matching program.
“In recent years we’ve been proud to welcome Alaska Quest EBT and WIC shoppers at the market, and this year the White E is helping us match those produce benefits,” Bingham said. “It is so important to make sure local food is accessible to everyone.”
The April 2008 Sitka Health Summit planted the seeds for the Sitka Farmers Market, as Sitka residents chose starting a local foods market as one of their community wellness initiatives for the year. About the same time, St. Peter’s By The Sea Episcopal Church was looking for a way to put some recently cleared land behind the church’s See House into use for a community project. St. Peter’s offered to lease the land to the group that became the Sitka Local Foods Network for $1 a year, and in May 2008 a group of Sitka residents built raised garden beds and planted a variety of crops. Later that summer, there was enough produce grown at St. Peter’s to supply our first three Sitka Farmers Markets starting in August 2008.
There were five markets in 2009, followed by six markets each year from 2010-15 and now seven markets in 2016. Led by lead gardener Laura Schmidt, the production of local produce at St. Peter’s has grown each year, and there now are satellite gardens, such as one on land owned by Pat Arvin. Most of the food grown at St. Peter’s and the satellite gardens is sold at the Sitka Farmers Market, but there has been enough for the Sitka Local Foods Network to also have a table when Chelan Produce is in town and to sell to local school lunch programs and restaurants. The money raised helps support the Sitka Local Foods Network, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, in its mission “to increase the amount of locally produced and harvested food in the diets of Southeast Alaskans.”
To learn more about the Sitka Farmers Market and how you can become a vendor or volunteer, contact Nina Vizcarrondo at (907) 738-9301 or Charles Bingham at 623-7660, or email us sitkafarmersmarket@gmail.com. The Sitka Local Foods Network website, http://www.sitkalocalfoodsnetwork.org/, has more info on the markets and links to vendor rules and registration forms.
The Sitka Local Foods Network receives sponsorship funding from the Alaska Comprehensive Cancer Partnership, the SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium (SEARHC), the Sitka White Elephant Shop (the White E), Charles Bingham, the Sitka True Value, Harry Race Pharmacy, ALPS Federal Credit Union, Beth Short-Rhoads and Jeff Budd.
Sitka Local Foods Network 
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