Andrea Fraga of Middle Island Gardens works at the Sitka Farmers Market, at ANB Founders Hall, in 2022. (Daily Sitka Sentinel File Photo by JAMES POULSON)

By COLE HADDOCK
Daily Sitka Sentinel Staff Writer

The Sitka Farmers Market opens its 19th season Saturday at ANB Founders Hall, bringing vegetables, eggs, honey, chocolate, sourdough and ceramics for purchase.

The market, organized by the Sitka Local Foods Network, runs from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. every other Saturday through September. This year’s dates are June 27, July 11, July 25, Aug. 8, Aug. 22, Sept. 5 and Sept. 19.

All 18 vendor tables, including six new vendors, are sold. The event is an opportunity to support these vendors and meet the community.

“You see people hugging during the whole market,” said Debe Brincefield, co-manager of the event. “People can’t wait to get in there and see everyone and participate.”

Two stands will sell produce grown in Sitka. St. Peter’s Fellowship Farm, located behind St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, is run by Laura Schmidt and a team of volunteers who harvest produce the morning of the market. Middle Island Farms is run by Andrea Fraga and Kaleb Aldred. Both farms grow kale, zucchini, squash, carrots, garlic, basil, rhubarb and salad mixes, along with other cold-weather crops.

“When you come and buy produce from St. Peters, it was in the dirt that morning,” Brincefield said.

Other popular vendors include the Alaska Flour Company, known for its cookie, muffin and pancake mixes, and the Theobroma Chocolate Company, which makes milk and dark chocolate bars branded for the market. Vendors also will sell sourdough, baked goods and manuka honey.

One of the oldest vendors is the Sitka Cancer Survivors Society, which auctions a handmade quilt at the end of each season. Other art vendors will sell handmade bowls, Native art, earrings and paintings. The Sheldon Jackson Museum will bring their artist-in-residence to the market.

The market supports the Sitka Local Foods Network’s mission to strengthen food sovereignty on the island.

“We believe food sovereignty is the right of our community to control our own food systems — the power to decide how our food is produced, distributed and consumed,” Brincefield said. She added that the network aims to “prioritize sustainable and culturally relevant food over corporate, market-driven mass production.”

Sourcing local food is especially difficult in Sitka because of the island’s terrain and weather, Brincefield said. She moved to Sitka 25 years ago from New Jersey, where she once grew bell peppers, squash, zucchini and 28 tomato plants. She loves the community she found in Sitka. Adopted by Patricia Svetlak and given the Tlingit name Dosikee, she is of the Tak’deintaan Clan. She said the challenges Sitkans face in growing and finding local food motivated her to join the food network.

“Comparing us to down South, they have more land, they have road systems,” she said. “We don’t have that opportunity to do that here. So in our own little world, [the Sitka Local Foods Network] is trying to make a difference.”

The market is run by many volunteers and vendors, including Joel Hanson, president of the Sitka Local Foods Network, who also oversees the city’s Community Garden on Jarvis Street, and Sam Biancheri, a graduate of Outer Coast and this year’s new co-manager.

For questions or further information, you may call Debe Brincefield at (907) 738-4323.