Author: Charles Bingham

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• Reminder to submit nominations for Sitka’s best gardens

Cindy Westergaard, left, and Kerry MacLane pick lettuce from the St. Peter's Fellowship Farm community garden in August 2008

Cindy Westergaard, left, and Kerry MacLane pick lettuce from the St. Peter's Fellowship Farm community garden in August 2008

Last week we posted an item (click here to read it) seeking nominations for an informal survey about Sitka’s best gardens. We’ve had a few nominations come in, but it doesn’t hurt to remind everybody that the deadline to submit nominations is Wednesday, Aug. 12.

Check the original post linked above to see all the categories. You can nominate your own garden, or you can submit a neighbor’s garden (please double-check with them first). Hopefully we’ll be able to set up an informal garden tour, so other Sitka residents are inspired to grow their own gardens next year.

There are two ways to submit nominations. You can click the “Leave a Comment” link below and post it to this site (please keep them family rated and realize that all comments go to a moderator before they show up on the site). The other option is to e-mail the information to charles@sitkalocalfoodsnetwork.org. When you submit your nomination, please write a note about why you enjoy this garden and include the address since we might want to go take pictures and feature the garden on our site.

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• Local foods articles in Capital City Weekly and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner

This week’s issue of Capital City Weekly, a free weekly newspaper distributed throughout Southeast Alaska, included four local food-related stories. The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, a daily paper in Fairbanks, also has had a couple of local food-oriented stories the past couple of days. Here are some links to the articles.

Click here to read a Capital City Weekly article on a new community garden being built behind the Glory Hole homeless shelter in downtown Juneau.

Click here to read a Capital City Weekly article on the Montessori Borealis Adolescent Program’s vegetable garden project in Juneau’s Mendenhall Valley.

Click here to read a story about a couple of upcoming University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service classes this weekend in Juneau about how to market specialty food products (geared toward people selling at farmers markets).

Click here to read a Capital City Weekly article on home canning of crab and geoducks by Sonja Koukel of the Juneau office of the UAF Cooperative Extension Service.

Click here to read a Fairbanks Daily News-Miner story from Wednesday’s paper from Roxie Rodgers Dinstel of the Fairbanks office of the UAF Cooperative Extension Service about how fireweed (which grows wild in Sitka) can add a subtle flavor to different meals.

Click here to read a Fairbanks Daily News-Miner story from Tuesday’s paper about how Fairbanks students are turning their schoolyards into blooming gardens as part of the EATING (Engaging Alaska Teens IN Gardening) program run by the Calypso Farm and Ecology Center. Click here to read more about the EATING program on the Calypso Farm site.

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• Pete Karras, Mimi Goodwin win second Table of the Day Award

Pete Karras, left, of Pete's Sourdough Bread, and Mimi Goodwin, right, of Just Arts, receive the Table of the Day Award from Maybelle Filler for the second Sitka Farmers Market of the season

Pete Karras, left, of Pete's Sourdough Bread, and Mimi Goodwin, right, of Just Arts, receive the Table of the Day Award from Maybelle Filler for the second Sitka Farmers Market of the season

Pete Karras of Pete’s Sourdough Bread and Mimi Goodwin of Just Arts won the “Table of the Day Award” for the second Sitka Farmers Market of the season on Aug. 1.

The Sitka Local Foods Network selected the shared table — which featured Pete’s freshly baked sourdough bread and Mimi’s beaded artwork — to receive the $25 cash prize, an Alaska Farmers Market Association tote bag, a bouquet of flowers and a certificate of appreciation. An identical prize package will be awarded to a deserving vendor at each of the four remaining Sitka Farmers Markets.

The third market of the season takes place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 15, at Alaska Native Brotherhood Hall. Keep your eye on this site for more information.

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

Gimbal Botanicals sold beach asparagus

Gimbal Botanicals sold beach asparagus

Kerry MacLane grills black cod for the Alaska Longline Fisherman's Association

Kerry MacLane grills black cod for the Alaska Longline Fisherman's Association

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• This week’s e-newsletter (Aug. 2)

Here is 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.

Click here to read this week’s Sitka Local Foods Network e-newsletter.

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• Juneau Empire article gives uses for wild berries

Salmonberries await picking near the entrance to Sitka National Historical Park

Salmonberries await picking near the entrance to Sitka National Historical Park

This definitely has been a great years for berries in Southeast Alaska. There have been bumper crops of salmonberries and the blueberries are just starting to come in. Other types of berries also have done well, and I’ve got a friend who’s given away several Zip-Loc bags full of strawberries from her garden.

So now that you’ve picked all these berries, how do you use them? Earlier this week we had a post to a link about home canning, which had information about making jams and jellies and info about freezing the berries.

Sunday’s Juneau Empire has an article about how to use your berry booty to make two fun desserts. The article is written by Ginny Mahar, a chef who works for Rainbow Foods and also writes a blog full of recipes for locally grown food. Also, there’s a new book on Alaska’s Wild Berries from the UAF Cooperative Extension Service for sale at Old Harbor Books.

Click here to read the Juneau Empire article about using berries

Click here to read Ginny Mahar’s “Food-G” blog

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• Vote for Sitka Farmers Market in the America’s Favorite Farmers Market contest

SitkaFarmersMarketSign

America's Favorite Farmers Markets

Do you enjoy the Sitka Farmers Market? If so, vote for us in the America’s Favorite Farmers Market contest sponsored by the American Farmland Trust, a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving America’s agricultural resources.

To vote, click here and then search for the Sitka Farmers Market by using the zip code or state directories. The deadline to vote is midnight EST on Saturday, Aug. 8 (8 p.m. Alaska time on Friday, Aug. 7). The online voting form asks what you like about the market, so be prepared to type something in the box. The top small, medium and large markets win a large quantity of “No Farms, No Food” totebags to distribute at a market in September.

By the way, the next Sitka Farmers Market is from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. this Saturday, Aug. 1, at Alaska Native Brotherhood Hall (235 Katlian St.). We’re looking forward to seeing you at the market.

This weekend’s market will feature nearly 30 vendors with local fish, produce and arts and crafts. There also will be music on the stage by Ted Howard and friends, and the jam tent outside. As usual, there will be children’s activities.

If you have extra produce from your garden, the Sitka Local Foods Network table (outside by the Sitka Farmers Market sign) accepts donations and does buy some produce to sell at its booth. All money raised by the Sitka Local Foods Network booth goes into various projects sponsored by the 501(c)(3) non-profit group, including the Sitka Farmers Market, community gardens, the proposed Sitka Community greenhouse and other projects.

Click here to vote for the Sitka Farmers Market in the America’s Favorite Farmers Market contest

Click here to learn more about the America’s Favorite Farmers Market contest hosted by the American Farmland Trust

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• Gardening column reminds us time to harvest food is now

Anchorage Daily News garden columnist Jeff Lowenfels, a member of the Garden Writers Association Hall of Fame, in his column on Wednesday reminded us that the time to begin harvesting our vegetable gardens starts now. We don’t want to let any food go to waste on the ground. If we don’t want the food, there are others who do.

In his column, Lowenfels tells us which plants to harvest and how to do it, with special tips for broccoli, Kohlrabi, cauliflower, carrots and others. While geared toward the Anchorage audience, the column is worth a read for Sitka gardeners.

On a side note, Lowenfels is the garden columnist who first suggested the “Plant a Row for the Hungry” campaign, which encourages gardeners to plant an extra row or two of food that will be donated to local homeless shelters or food banks. He raised the idea in his column as a way to help out Bean’s Cafe, an Anchorage soup kitchen, and the Garden Writers Association liked the idea so well that they made it a national effort.

Click here to read the Anchorage Daily News gardening column by Jeff Lowenfels about the time to harvest is now

Click here to learn about the Garden Writers Association’s “Plant a Row for the Hungry” campaign

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• UAF Cooperative Extension Service offers online resources for home canners

Salmon ready for canning in jars (Photo courtesy of University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service)

Salmon ready for canning in jars (Photo courtesy of University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service)

Did you catch a lot of fish this summer and now you want to can some of them to eat this winter? Do you want to make salmonberry preserves with all those lush, ripe salmonberries you picked this week?

The University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service recently launched a series of interactive online demonstrations called “Preserving Alaska’s Bounty.” Want to learn how to can salmon using jars? Click on the link and you are taken to a page with photos and short descriptions mixed in with video clips to show you how to can your fish. There is an introduction and sections on equipment, preparation, packing, canning, cooling and storage. There also are links to additional resources.

If you want to learn about making jams and jellies, there’s an online demonstration on that topic. There also are demonstrations about canner basics, acidity, canning fish using cans, canning wild meats in jars and in cans, and more. Jeff Fay from the UAF Cooperative Extension Service said there also are DVDs that cover some of the same topics, and more titles are expected to be added to the site in the next year or two.

If you do a little bit of surfing around the UAF Cooperative Extension Service’s Web site, you’ll find all kinds of how-to materials. There are materials on gardening, recipes, home construction, food safety, winterizing your house and other topics.

If you can’t find what you need on the UAF Cooperative Extension Service site, other state land grant universities have their own version of the Cooperative Extension Service and most of their materials are available for download off the Internet. One of the attachments below is to a handout from the Iowa State University Cooperative Extension Service about how to freeze a variety of fruits and vegetables to maintain freshness and nutritional value.

Click here to go to the “Preserving Alaska’s Bounty” page on the University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service Web site

Click here to go to a catalog of available DVDs from the University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service

Click here to go to the main page for the University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service

Click here to open an Adobe Acrobat PDF file of a handout on freezing fruits and vegetables from the Iowa State University Cooperative Extension Service

A batch of fruit is ready to be canned in jars (Photo courtesy of the University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service)

A batch of fruit is ready to be canned in jars (Photo courtesy of the University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service)

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• How does your garden grow?

Doug Osborne checks out the WISEGUYS men's health group's plot at the Blatchley Community Gardens in August 2008

Doug Osborne checks out the WISEGUYS men's health group's plot at the Blatchley Community Gardens in August 2008

Now that we’re well into the garden season, it’s time to take an informal survey to find out who is growing the best gardens in Sitka.

Does your neighbor have an incredible garden? Do you think your own garden looks pretty impressive? Then look for the “Leave A Comment” link below this story and post a nomination. Tell us why you think the nominated garden is one of Sitka’s best, and don’t forget to tell us the address (NOTE: if you’re nominating a neighbor, please double-check with them to make sure they want their garden nominated). The Sitka Local Foods Network is focussed on food production, but there is a category for flower gardens.

Hopefully we’ll get enough nominations so we can create an informal garden tour of Sitka to show how people are growing their own food. At some point, a few of the better gardens might be featured here with photos.

Here are some categories to consider:
• Best of show (top overall gardens in Sitka)
• Widest variety of food (most different kinds of food)
• Most productive garden (which garden produces the most food)
• Best looking food garden (for productive gardens that really look nice)
• Most unique plants (who grows stuff in Sitka nobody else grows)
• Best use of limited space (for apartment dwellers and container gardens)
• Best greenhouse
• Best flower garden

Again, click on the “Leave a Comment” link below to nominate your favorite Sitka gardens (all comments are moderated so there may be a delay before comments appear on the page). Those of you who don’t want to deal with the comment function on this site can e-mail nominations to charles@sitkalocalfoodsnetwork.org, then I’ll post them on the site. Please help us recognize the best gardens in Sitka.

(NOTE: Please be respectful of others when leaving comments. Any comments that are excessively negative or those that are worse than a PG rating will be deleted. This is site a place to encourage others, and we want to keep things family friendly. Thanks)

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• Nice article on blueberries in Fairbanks Daily News-Miner

It’s that time of year again, the blueberries are getting ready for picking.

The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner had a nice story on the arrival of blueberry season in Wednesday’s paper. The story includes four recipes from the University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service.

Alaska has a deep and abiding love for its wild blueberries. Blueberries are on several lists of “super foods” because they have very high numbers of antioxidants, which help protect us from disease. Blueberries also have a high level of vitamin C. It’s easy to see why Alaska Natives have included blueberries in their diets for centuries.

Blueberries have all this, and they’re yummy, too.

Click here to read the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner article about the arrival of blueberry season

Click here to learn about the booklet “Collecting and Using Alaska Wild Berries and Other Wild Products,” which is available from the University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service