April 26, 2010 by Charles Bingham

• Planning underway for this summer’s Sitka Farmers Markets

It’s spring again and time to start planning for our third year of Sitka Farmers Markets. This year, the markets are scheduled for 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on alternate Saturdays, July 17 and 31, Aug. 14 and 28, and Sept. 11, at the Alaska Native Brotherhood Hall.

We really, really, need more locally grown produce vendors, home bakers, prepared food vendors and volunteers this year. If you know of someone who can help, please let us know. If you have extra locally grown produce but don’t have the time to staff a booth, you can donate it or sell it to the Sitka Farmers Market for resale at the Sitka Farmers Market booth. Proceeds from the produce sold at the Sitka Farmers Market booth goes toward Sitka Local Foods Network projects.

This year we had to raise the vendor fee for a table to $15 to cover costs of renting the ANB Hall and kitchen, hiring musicians and other expenses. There is an option to get your vendor space free if you help out with set-up and clean-up.

The registration form and market rules are linked below as PDF files. If you have any questions, please contact Linda Wilson at 747-3096 (nights and weekends only) or by e-mail at lawilson87@hotmail.com.

2010 Sitka Farmers Market vendor rules

2010 Sitka Farmers Market food rules

2010 Sitka Farmers Market vendor registration form

2010 Sitka Farmers Market schedule

July 4, 2009 by Charles Bingham

• Welcome to the Sitka Local Foods Network blog

SitkaLocalFoodsNetwork5Logo

Hello and welcome to the Sitka Local Foods Network blog. The Sitka Local Foods Network is a 501(c)3 non-profit group dedicated to promoting the growing, harvesting and eating of local foods in Sitka, Alaska. This blog will be used to keep people updated on what we’re doing and let people know how they can participate in this community effort.

The 2008 Sitka Health Summit planted the seeds for the Sitka Local Foods Network when Sitka community members got together and chose two local-foods-oriented projects as community health priorities. The Sitka Health Summit participants wanted to start a public market so Sitka residents had easier access to local fish and produce, and the participants wanted to build a community greenhouse and expand the community garden programs so more local produce could be grown in Sitka. Since there were a lot of tie-ins between the two projects, the Sitka Local Foods Network was created to streamline the work efforts.

The Sitka Local Foods Network now has five major focus areas:

* Creating and operating the Sitka Farmers Market, where people can sell locally grown produce, locally harvested fish and locally produced arts and crafts.

* Expanding local community gardens, so people who don’t have their own plots of land can grow their own fruits and vegetables. Sitka currently has the Blatchley Community Garden where families and other groups can get their own plot, and the new St. Peter’s Fellowship Farm which is a cooperative community garden with most of the food being sold at the farmers markets or used by non-profit groups.

* Planning and building a Sitka Community Greenhouse, which can help extend the growing season and allow us to grow additional crops.

* Promoting the use of traditional foods (subsistence foods), such as local salmon, halibut, cod, deer, berries, seaweeds and other foods that were in the Tlingít diet before non-Natives arrived in Sitka.

* Providing educational opportunities, technical expertise and encouragement so Sitka residents who want to build their own gardens have the knowledge and support they need.