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Do you like zucchini? We have lots of fresh local zucchini for sale

While our cold, wet summer hampered the growth of some of our veggies, zucchini has been our bumper crop of the season at the St. Peter’s Fellowship Farm communal garden. We’re harvesting about 70 pounds a week right now. We tried a new type of zucchini seed from FoundRoot seed company in Haines, and it really does well in Sitka.

So if you need any zucchini, please give St. Peter’s Fellowship Farm lead gardener Laura Schmidt a call at 738-7009. We also will have zucchini for sale at the Sitka Farmers Market from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 12, at the Alaska Native Brotherhood Founders Hall (and again on Aug. 19, and possibly on Sept. 2 and Sept. 9).

Don’t know how to use zucchini? The UAF Cooperative Extension Service has this free publication that has all kinds of information about zucchini and several recipes. Zucchini is very versatile and can be used in main dishes, side dishes, pickles, breads, salads, and desserts.

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Celebrate National Farmers Market Week by attending the Sitka Farmers Market on Aug. 12

The 18th annual National Farmers Market Week is Aug. 6-12 this year, so stop by the Sitka Farmers Market to join the celebration, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 12, at the Alaska Native Brotherhood Founders Hall. This is the 10th season of Sitka Farmers Markets.

The annual National Farmers Market Week celebration is the first full week of August, when growing season is peaking around the country. Click here to read this year’s National Farmers Market Week proclamation from U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue.

The number of farmers markets in the country has more than tripled since 1996, growing from 2,410 markets in 1996 to 8,675 in 2016. There has been similar growth in Alaska, and now markets can be found in many Bush communities from Bethel to Thorne Bay. This growth has improved Alaska’s food security while also serving as an incubator for new businesses.

According to the Farmers Market Coalition, farmers markets …

  • Preserve America’s rural livelihoods and farmland. Farmers markets provide one of the only low-barrier entry points for beginning farmers, allowing them to start small, test the market, and grow their businesses.
  • Stimulate local economies. Growers selling locally create 13 full-time farm operator jobs per $1 million in revenue earned. Those growers that do not sell locally create three jobs.
  • Increase access to fresh, nutritious food. Several  studies have found lower prices for conventional and organic produce at farmers markets than at supermarkets. Due to this and other factors, 52 percent more SNAP households shop at farmers markets and from direct marketing farmers today than in 2011. The Sitka Farmers Market was the first market in Southeast Alaska to accept SNAP and WIC benefits, and we have a matching program for SNAP and WIC beneficiaries.
  • Support healthy communities. Farmers market vendors educate their shoppers. Four out of five farmers selling at markets discuss farming practices with their customers, and three in five discuss nutrition and how to prepare food.
  • Promote sustainability. Three out of every four farmers selling at farmers markets say they use practices consistent with organic standards.
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Sitka Seafood Festival returns Aug. 10-19 after spending a year in hiatus

After spending a year in hiatus, the Sitka Seafood Festival returns Aug. 10-19 with a wide variety of events as Sitka celebrates its local seafood culture.

“Southeast Alaska is an amazing place, and the Sitka Seafood Festival is going to be a great opportunity to bring our community together to celebrate it,” Sitka Seafood Festival coordinator Emma Edson said. “There are a lot of great minds coming together to make it happen. It’ll be a lot of fun, and it’s all for a good cause.”

The Sitka Seafood Festival began in 2009 through the work of volunteers, and became its own nonprofit in 2012. But in 2016, organizers decided they needed to take a break.

The rekindled Sitka Seafood Festival now is sponsored by the Alaska Sustainable Fisheries Trust and the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association. The proceeds from the festival will benefit the Young Fishermen’s Initiative, which helps young Alaskans get into the fishing industry with financing for permits and boats, deck hand apprenticeships, and policy programs.

“Central to the mission of the Sitka Seafood Festival (SSF), as well as the mission of Alaska Sustainable Fisheries Trust, is the belief that Alaska needs a vibrant and sustainable fishing industry supporting economically empowered and self-sufficient Alaska communities,” said Willow Moore, ASFT’s executive director. “Also, no one knows good seafood (and where to find it) like Alaskans. The Sitka Seafood Festival celebrates the fishing culture and heritage that local economies (and plates and palates) depend on, and the unique ecosystems of Southeast Alaska that sustain our local fish and families as they grow.”

In addition to the two host organizations, there are several partner groups hosting activities, such as ArtChange Inc., the Sitka Maritime Heritage Society, Sitka Film Society, Sheldon Jackson Museum, Sitka Local Foods Network, the Sitka Kitch, and Sitka Tribe of Alaska.

The main festival day is Saturday, Aug. 12, when there are vendor and food booths plus a variety of fun and games events at Crescent Harbor Shelter. Knot-tying games open the event at 9 a.m., followed by kids games at 10 a.m., the vendor market from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., older kids games from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., a dock walk from noon to 1 p.m., tote races at 1 p.m., and the wild fishermen’s triathlon (which includes fish tote races and other obstacles) at 3 p.m.

Other highlights from this year’s event schedule include a pre-festival screening of the movie “Jaws” on Aug. 6 at the Coliseum Theater; Sitka Tells Tales hosting “Wet Feet: Stories On, In, Under, or Of the Sea” on Aug. 10 at the Beak Restaurant; seafood trivia on Aug. 11 at the Mean Queen; a lecture by Iñupiaq mask carver Erin Katherine Gingrich on Aug. 12 at the Sheldon Jackson Museum; a screening of the film “The Salmon Forest” on Aug. 14 at the Mean Queen; a class on filleting salmon on Aug. 15 at the Sitka Kitch; a class on canning salmon on Aug. 16 at the Sitka Kitch; a film screening of an ocean and fisheries documentary TBA on Aug. 17 at the Coliseum Theater; a “Coming to America: Invasive Species, Ocean Rafting, and Japanese Tsunami Marine Debris” lecture on Aug. a8 at the Sitka Sound Science Center; a walk about the docks on Aug. 19; an ocean treasures family day Aug. 19 at the Japonski Island Boat House; and a fish skin sewing class taught by Joel Isaak from Aug. 22-30 at the Sheldon Jackson Museum.

Don’t forget the Sitka Local Foods Network is hosting a Sitka Farmers Market from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Aug. 12 at the ANB Founders Hall, and another one at the same time on Aug. 19. So make time to attend both events.

The 2017 Sitka Seafood Festival grand finale will come with the Young Fishermen’s Expo and Season’s End Banquet, taking place in early November at Harrigan Centennial Hall.

For more information about the Sitka Seafood Festival, go to http://www.sitkaseafoodfestival.com, or call 747-3400.

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Sitka Kitch to offer two classes in conjunction with the Sitka Seafood Festival

Sitkans love their seafood, and the Sitka Kitch community rental commercial kitchen is offering two great classes in conjunction with the Sitka Seafood Festival — How to Fillet a Salmon and How to Can Salmon.

In the first class, held from 6-8 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 15, at the Sitka Kitch (505 Sawmill Creek Road, inside First Presbyterian Church), local chef Renée Jakaitis Trafton of the Beak Restaurant will teach students how to fillet a salmon. This includes lessons on how to remove the pinbones from the salmon and how to remove the skin. Participants must bring a fillet knife or let the instructor know they need one in advance. Knives can be made available for $15 for those who need them. This class costs $15.

In the second class, held from 5-9 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 16, at the Sitka Kitch, Jasmine Shaw of the UAF Cooperative Extension Service‘s Sitka District Office will teach students how to can the salmon (using the filleted salmon from Tuesday’s class). In addition, she will teach students how to make a simple berry jam while the class waits for the salmon to process in the canner. This class costs $27.50.

As a special deal, the Sitka Kitch has a $35 fee for students registering for both classes. The Sitka Seafood Festival is providing fish and jars for the classes, so there should be little or no food/supply fee.

The registration deadline is 6:55 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 14. Registration is capped at 10 students so sign up early to secure your space in these classes.

Register online at our EventSmart page, http://sitkakitch.eventsmart.com/ (click on class title, there is a separate class title to register for both classes and get the discount), using a debit or credit card or PayPal account. You also can call Chandler or Clarice at Sitka Conservation Society (747-7509) to arrange payment by cash or check. For more information about the two classes, contact Jasmine Shaw at 747-9440 or email sitkakitch@sitkawild.org.

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Check out the August 2017 edition of the Sitka Local Foods Network newsletter

The Sitka Local Foods Network just sent out the August 2017 edition of its monthly newsletter. Feel free to click this link to get a copy.

This month’s newsletter includes brief items about the Sitka Farmers Markets this summer, the Sitka Local Foods Network being this month’s nonprofit to receive tips from Harry’s Soda Shop, and an invitation to join our board of directors. 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.

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Get a milk shake from Harry Race’s soda fountain in August and support the Sitka Local Foods Network

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HRsodaPrices6924544_origThe Harry Race Pharmacy soda fountain, aka Harry’s Soda Shop, will donate its tips in August to the Sitka Local Foods Network.

Next time you get a milk shake, ice cream sundae, bag of popcorn, or fountain drink at Harry Race, leave a tip in the jar and it will get to us. Each month the staff at Harry’s Soda Shop picks a local nonprofit organization to support by donating its tips, and this month the tips will be donated to the Sitka Local Foods Network.

We appreciate the support of White’s Inc./Harry Race Pharmacy in this promotion, especially since the company promotes shopping locally and is a big supporter of a variety of Sitka nonprofit organizations.

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Scenes from the third Sitka Farmers Market of the 2017 summer

Table of the Day: Sitka Local Foods Network Bulldog On Baranof intern Al Simon, left, presents the Table of the Day award to Kaleb Aldred and Andrea Fraga of Middle Island Gardens during the third Sitka Farmers Market of the 2017 summer, held Saturday, July 29, at the Alaska Native Brotherhood Founders Hall. Kaleb and Andrea sold garlic, snap peas, garlic scapes, onions and other veggies. They received a Sitka Local Foods Network tote bag loaded with a few special items, including some whole-grain barley from Alaska Flour Company.

We had a mixture of sun, clouds and rain when we held our third Sitka Farmers Market of the 2017 summer season on Saturday, July 29, at the Alaska Native Brotherhood Founders Hall (235 Katlian Street).

While our cold weather this spring means we don’t have as much produce as we like, we still had several local produce vendors at the market (did you see the size of those zucchinis at the Sitka Local Foods Network farm stand?). We also had about three dozen vendors at the market (between those inside ANB Founders Hall and those outside in the Baranof Island Housing Authority parking lot) so there was a nice variety of items being sold. Vendors sold harvested foods (such as chaga tea and traditional medicinal tinctures), homemade baked goods, banana-Nutella crepes, hot seafood dishes, fresh smoothies, reindeer hot dogs, blackcod tips, arts and crafts, and home-baked bread. We also had an expanded selection of Alaska Grown products at the Sitka Local Foods Network farm stand.

The next Sitka Farmers Market takes place from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 12, at the ANB Founders Hall. There also are markets scheduled for Aug. 19, Sept. 2, and Sept. 9. To learn how to be a vendor at the market, contact market manager Nina Vizcarrondo at (907) 738-9301 (new number) or assistant manager Charles Bingham (907) 623-7660, or email us at sitkafarmersmarket@gmail.com. We also have a new kids vendor program at the market for young entrepreneurs age 12 or younger. Don’t forget to like our new Sitka Farmers Market page on Facebook.

A slideshow of scenes from the third Sitka Farmers Market is posted below.

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Scenes from the Sitka Kitch’s Preserving the Harvest class on making jams and jellies

Students learned about jams, jellies, fruit butters, marmalades, preserves and conserves during the Jam Session: Preserving Jams and Jellies class on Monday, July 24, at the Sitka Kitch community rental commercial kitchen. This was the fourth of six scheduled classes in the Preserving the Harvest food preservation class series offered this summer.

The class was taught by Lisa Sadleir-Hart, a Sitka dietitian and health educator who has taught several cooking and food preservation classes for the Sitka Kitch. In this class, students learned how to make strawberry-kiwi jam, a blueberry conserve (with lemon, orange and raisins), a rhubarb-strawberry conserve (with cranberries or raisins and walnuts), and plum jam.

This was the fourth class in the Preserving the Harvest food preservation class series, which is sponsored by the SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium (SEARHC). The other classes in the series are (underlined titles take you to the class registration page):

  • Ring Around the Rose Hip: Rose Hip Relish and More — 6-8:30 p.m., Monday, Sept. 18, taught by Lisa Sadleir-Hart, $27.50 registration fee
  • Venison Jerky — 6-8:30 p.m., Monday, Oct. 30 (this date and class topic may change), taught by Lisa Sadleir-Hart and Jasmine Shaw, $27.50 registration fee

The Sitka Kitch programming team is working on other classes to be offered later this summer and next fall. We also might reschedule the Clear the Freezer, Fill the Pantry community canning session for later this summer, but on a Saturday instead of during the week. Watch the Sitka Kitch page on Facebook or our online registration page to see when these and any future classes are scheduled.

When registering, students should prepay for the class through the Sitka Kitch online registration site, http://sitkakitch.eventsmart.com, using PayPal or credit/debit card. If you need other payment arrangements, contact Chandler or Clarice of Sitka Conservation Society at 747-7509 to arrange a time when you can pay with cash or check. To qualify for a partial refund, please notify us at least three days in advance if you need to cancel. The registration deadline is three days before each class so our instructors have time to purchase materials. Please email sitkakitch@sitkawild.org with any questions.

A slideshow of scenes from the jams and jellies class follows below.

• Link to UAF Cooperative Extension Service publication Jams and Jellies

• Link to UAF Cooperative Extension Service publication Alaska Blueberries

• Link to UAF Cooperative Extension Service publication Wild Strawberries

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Date set for Sitka Kitch’s Preserving the Harvest class Ring Around The Rose Hip

Lisa Sadleir-Hart, MPH, RDN, will offer the fifth class in the Preserving the Harvest class series, Ring Around The Rose Hip, from 6-8:30 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 18, at Sitka Kitch. Students will learn how to harvest rose hips, prepare rose hip puree for long term storage and prepare recipes using the puree.

Cost is $27.50 and, thanks to a donation from the SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium (SEARHC), the food and supply fee will be minimal. Registration is capped at 10 students, so sign up early to secure your space in this fifth food preservation class of the season.

Register online here, https://sitkakitch.eventsmart.com/events/pth-ring-around-the-rosehip/, using a debit or credit card or PayPal account. A cash or check payment can be arranged by calling Chandler or Clarice of Sitka Conservation Society at 747-7509. Email sitkakitch@sitkawild.org with any questions.

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How to use WIC coupons, Alaska Quest SNAP cards or credit/debit cards at the Sitka Farmers Market

Have you ever come up a bit short of cash while shopping at the Sitka Farmers Market? Well, there are other methods to use.

The Sitka Farmers Market was the first market in Southeast Alaska to accept the Alaska Quest EBT (electronic benefits transfer) cards for people on SNAP (formerly called food stamps). We also accept WIC farmers market coupons. In both cases, we match up to the first $20 for produce (on WIC) or produce and other SNAP-eligible foods (on Quest).

While many of our vendors have attachments on their cellphones that allow them to run credit or debit card transactions, sometimes it’s hard to get an Internet signal in the Alaska Native Brotherhood Founders Hall. We sell tokens (wooden nickels) at our Sitka Local Foods Network swag booth, next to our farm stand outside, that people can use like cash with vendors at the market.

Here is a short primer on how to use each type of transaction:

WIC Farmers Market Coupons

WIC Farmers Market Coupons may only be used at the Sitka Local Foods Network farm stand, found outside in the parking lot.

Present your coupons, and we will match the value up to $20 for produce (so $20 in WIC coupons gives you $40 in value). Our WIC matching program is for produce only and does not include our Alaska Grown products, due to WIC restrictions

Alaska Quest Cards (SNAP Electronic Benefits Transfer)

Bring your Alaska Quest card to the Sitka Local Foods Network swag booth, found outside in the parking lot next to the SLFN farm stand booth.

We swipe your card and give you wooden nickels (tokens) for the value you think you will spend on produce, Alaska Grown products, bread, jams or jellies, or other food that is not meant to be eaten at the market. You can use your wooden nickels at the SLFN farm stand booth, and with certain vendors that have signed agreements to accept SNAP wooden nickels (ask us which vendors have signed agreements when you swipe your card). We will match up to $20 in wooden nickels for produce at the SLFN farm stand.

No cash change will be given for people using SNAP wooden nickels (available in $1 and $5 increments). If you have leftover wooden nickels at the end of the market, take them back to the SLFN swag booth and we will credit them back to your SNAP account. This credit must be done at the same market.

Credit/Debit Cards

While some of our vendors can run credit/debit cards at their booths, there are many that can’t. If you are low in cash and want to run your credit/debit card to buy something at the market, stop by the Sitka Local Foods Network swag booth and we will run your credit/debit card and give you wooden nickels in $5 or $10 increments.

You can then spend your credit/debit card wooden nickels like cash with many of the vendors at the market (most booths will have a sign saying they accept credit/debit card wooden nickels). Credit/debit card tokens may be used for food and non-food items, and customers may receive cash as change.