April 7, 2014 by Charles Bingham

• Gordon Wrobel to give presentation on building local food systems in Elfin Cove

Gordon Wrobel will give a presentation at 1 p.m. on Saturday, April 12, in Room 106 (note room change from original post) at the University of Alaska Southeast Sitka Campus about gardening in Southeast Alaska, in particular in Elfin Cove where he is completing a three-year USDA project to improve local food systems.

Gordy will provide an overview of his project, including the challenges and opportunities (such as available land, soils, pests/diseases, climate/temperature, markets, and crop/seed selection). His project objectives and results included creating access to fresh produce in the rural Southeast Alaska community of Elfin Cove, evaluating the economic viability of a floating island garden, evaluating the strategies of a floating island, container, hoop garden and greenhouse, creating a composting program for the community of Elfin Cove, and evaluating the potential for a sustainable produce business in Elfin Cove. There will be a short question-and-answer session after his presentation.

For more information, contact Sitka Local Foods Network board members Michelle Putz at 747-2708 or Charles Bingham at 738-8875.

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March 25, 2014 by Charles Bingham

• Alaskans Own community-supported fisheries program announces 2014 season subscription prices

Sitka-based Alaskans Own seafood recently announced its subscription prices for its 2014 community-supported fisheries (CSF) program in Sitka, Juneau, and Anchorage. The prices appear to have gone down a tiny bit since the 2013 season.

Alaskans Own was the first CSF program in the state, modeling its program after the successful community-supported agriculture (CSA) programs that let customers deal directly with harvesters so they can buy subscription shares to the year’s crop/catch. In addition to the CSF program, Alaskans Own usually has a table at the Sitka Farmers Markets during the summer.

This is the fifth year of the Alaskans Own CSF program, and there are four-month and six-month subscriptions available. The six-month subscriptions allow people to keep receiving freshly caught seafood through October instead of August, when the traditional four-month subscriptions end. Half-subscriptions also are available. Subscriptions include a mix of locally caught black cod (sablefish), halibut, king salmon, coho salmon, lingcod and miscellaneous rockfish, depending on the commercial fishing season and prices.

The Alaskans Own program is associated with the Alaska Sustainable Fisheries Trust. The Alaska Sustainable Fisheries Trust’s mission is to strengthen Alaskan fishing communities and marine resources through scientific research, education, and economic opportunity.

Here is Alaskans Own CSF program information for 2014 provided in a recent email sent to the program’s past subscribers and other interested folk:

Hello, Sitka!

It’s that time of year again. The days are getting longer, the herring are back, and Alaskans Own CSF is gearing up for our 2014 season.

This summer looks to be another season filled with even better quality seafood than before. We’d love to have you join us and get access to the great local seafood the Sitka has to offer.

It is difficult to tell, at this point, how prices will trend through the season. Please be assured that we will always bring you the very best value, highest quality seafood that we can, meeting or exceeding the total number of pounds for the plan that you choose. We will make adjustments in specific items to preserve this value. Our small staff gratefully receives assistance from a number of volunteers to help keep costs down. Any and all ‘profits’ go to support the scientific work of the Fishery Conservation Networks.

Six months, Full share: $760 (60 pounds, ~ 10 lb. /month)

Six months, Half share: $400 (30 pounds, ~ 5 lb./month)s

Four months, Full share: $520 (40 pounds, ~ 10 lb./month)

Four months, Half share: $280 (20 pounds, ~ 5 lb./month)

To renew your subscription with Alaskans Own, please send me an email, or give me a call on the Alaskans Own phone 907-738-2275(*). Subscriptions can be paid for using cash, check or credit card. You can learn more about what we offer and the work we do on our website: www.alaskansown.com.

Thank you for all your support. I hope you’ll join Alaskans Own again this season to enjoy the best seafood from the finest fishermen in Southeast Alaska.

Cheers,
Erin Fulton, Programs Coordinator, Alaska Sustainable Fisheries Trust

* With the Sitka Sound Science Center under construction, we won’t be in our normal office space — email and the new AO phone will be the best way to reach us, and to schedule an ‘in person’ meeting.

March 16, 2014 by Charles Bingham

• Kayaaní Commission accepting letters of interest for commissioners.

Sitka Tribe of Alaska‘s Kayaaní Commission is accepting letters of interest to fill two open commissioner seats — a three-year term tribal citizen seat, and a one-year term general membership seat.

The Kayaaní Commission works to preserve and protect plants and the traditional ways they are used. It is a commission of knowledgeable tribal citizens, elders and knowledgeable Sitka residents who care for the preservation of traditional ways, protection of native species and their uses. The commission then shares that knowledge so it is not lost. A few years ago, the Kayaaní Commission published The Kayaaní Commission Ethnobotany Field Guide to Selective Plants in Sitka, Alaska, which details some of the food and medicinal uses of a variety of local plants.

For the open commission seats, the term “tribal citizen” shall mean any individual enrolled at the Sitka Tribe of Alaska, and the term “general membership” of the Kayaani Commission shall mean all tribal citizens and residents of Sitka who have resided here for at least six months. Deadline is close of business on Friday, March 28.

Please mail or hand deliver letters of interest to the STA’s Resource Protection Department, 456 Katlian Street, Sitka, AK 99835, Attention: Heather Riggs, or email letters to heather.riggs@sitkatribe-nsn.gov. For more information, please contact Heather @ 747-7167.

March 11, 2014 by Charles Bingham

• Sitka Local Foods Network extends application deadline for 2014 Sitka Farmers Market manager and assistant manager

The Sitka Local Foods Network has extended the application deadline as it seeks a manager and assistant manager to coordinate the 2014 Sitka Farmers Markets this summer. These are contract positions, and the manager and assistant manager (who reports to the manager) receive small compensation depending on experience for their work organizing the six scheduled farmers markets this summer. The new application deadline for both positions is 5 p.m. on Tuesday, March 18.

This is the seventh year of operation for the Sitka Farmers Market, which features six markets from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. every other Saturday from June through September at the Alaska Native Brotherhood Founders Hall (this year’s tentative dates are June 28, July 12, 26, Aug. 9, 23, and Sept. 6). The farmers markets feature booths from local farmers/gardeners, local fishermen, and artisans and craftspeople. These events are great Sitka gathering places, and we promote local foods and other local goods at them.

A detailed description of the market manager duties can be found at the link below. For more information or to submit applications, contact Maybelle Filler at 738-1982 or mocampo25@hotmail.com, or you can email the Sitka Local Foods Network Board of Directors at sitkalocalfoodsnetwork@gmail.com. Applications (a cover letter, resume, and contact information for three recommendations) are due by 5 p.m. on Tuesday, March 18. The market manager of the Sitka Farmers Market reports to the Sitka Local Foods Network Board of Directors.

• Description of duties for market manager of the Sitka Farmers Market Manager (2014)

March 5, 2014 by Charles Bingham

• Support the Sitka Local Foods Network and possibly double your dividend

Many Alaskans donate to their favorite nonprofit groups, including the Sitka Local Foods Network, through the Pick.Click.Give. program that’s part of the Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend application. Now 10 lucky Alaskans who donate through Pick.Click.Give. program have a chance to win through the Double Your Dividend Sweepstakes, announced on Tuesday, March 4.

Here’s how the Double Your Dividend Sweepstakes works. Those Alaskans who choose to make a Pick.Click.Give. donation to one of the more than 500 qualifying 501(c)(3) Alaska nonprofit organizations (22 from Sitka, including the Sitka Local Foods Network) when they file their PFD application will be entered into the sweepstakes. All non-anonymous donations made before the PFD application due date of March 31 will count for the sweepstakes. On Sept. 15, the names of 10 lucky Alaskans will be drawn and the winners will be announced on Oct. 1. The complete rules can be found here, http://www.pickclickgive.org/index.cfm/double-your-dividend/.

One of the reasons for the sweepstakes is a technical glitch in January that prevented a lot of Alaskans from being able to make Pick.Click.Give. donations when they filed their PFD applications. The sweepstakes is an incentive to get those Alaskans who didn’t make Pick.Click.Give. donations to go back into their PFD applications and add some. The 2014 PFDs should be much bigger than the PFDs from the last couple of years, which makes this a great time to share the wealth with nonprofit organizations in your communities.

This is the first year the Sitka Local Foods Network is participating in the Pick.Click.Give. program, which allows people to donate in $25 increments to their favorite statewide and local nonprofit organizations. When you choose to donate part of your PFD to the Sitka Local Foods Network, you support the Sitka Farmers Market, St. Peter’s Fellowship Farm, Blatchley Community Gardens, education programs about growing and preserving food, the sustainable use of traditional foods, the Sitka Community Food Assessment, the Sitka Food Summit, and a variety of other projects designed to increase access to healthy local foods in Sitka.

The Pick.Click.Give. program only is available to people who file their PFD applications online, and not to those who file by mail. Even though you can’t file a new PFD application after March 31, you can go into your application and update your Pick.Click.Give. donations through Aug. 31 (but you won’t be entered into the sweepstakes unless you’d made a donation before March 31).

If you aren’t from Alaska or aren’t eligible for a 2014 PFD, you still can donate to the Sitka Local Foods Network. To donate, send your check to the Sitka Local Foods Network, 408 Marine St., Suite D, Sitka, Alaska, 99835. Our EIN is 26-4629930. Please let us know if you need a receipt for tax purposes. For more information about donating, you can send an email to sitkalocalfoodsnetwork@gmail.com.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rF3av66fXE8

March 1, 2014 by Charles Bingham

• Southeast Conference and partners release regional food system assessment

The Southeast Conference and its partners recently released the “Southeast Alaska Food System Assessment: A pilot project to identify actions to promote self-sustaining communities and a resilient food system.”

The 32-page document is the result of a four-month research project supported by the Tongass People and Place Program (coordinated by the Southeast Alaska Watershed Coalition), Southeast Conference, Sheinberg Associates, and the University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service. The report examines local food systems throughout the region to see what challenges exist and how they can be solved so Southeast Alaska communities are more food secure and sustainable.

The report looks at what foods are being grown in several communities and who’s growing them. It also weighs the strengths and weaknesses of the different food systems in the region, with a special wild food focus group hosted by the Organized Village of Kake. For more information, check out the report link below.

• Southeast Alaska Food System Assessment

February 28, 2014 by Charles Bingham

• Sitka Local Foods Network building a pool of volunteers who can teach gardening

Are you an experienced Sitka gardener willing to share some of your knowledge? The Sitka Local Foods Network needs you. The Sitka Local Foods Network is building a pool of volunteers who can teach gardening to local residents who might be new to growing local food.

We’re looking for people who can teach all aspects of gardening, such as how to build a raised garden bed, how to amend soil, how to choose seeds and plant starts for our climate, how to manage your garden once it’s planted, and more. To learn more about our education plans and our efforts to build a pool of teaching volunteers, please join us for a Sitka Local Foods Network education committee meeting from 5:30-7 p.m. on Monday, March 3, at Harrigan Centennial Hall.

While we encourage people who have completed the Master Gardener program to apply, you don’t have to be a Master Gardener for our list of teaching volunteers. Just send us a a note expressing your interest in teaching or helping with a class, what types of classes you’re comfortable teaching, and the best dates and times for teaching that class. Please list your prior experience with these skills (such as I’ve been growing my own garden in Sitka for 12 years).

In addition to skilled gardeners willing to teach basic gardening, we’re also looking for people who can teach Sitka residents how to gather seaweed and other beach greens, how to go berry picking, how to preserve and can food, how to field dress a deer, how to cook with some of the lesser-known veggies that grow in Sitka, and other local food skills. Also, please let us know if you can teach specialized classes, such as permaculture, hydroponics, square-foot gardening, container gardening, how to raise chickens, etc.

This spring our local University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service agent is retiring, so we’re trying to build a pool of volunteers who can provide gardening education until the UAF Cooperative Extension Service can hire a replacement. We might be without a Sitka agent for a period of time, and when they hire a new agent they may rewrite the job description.

To join our pool of teaching volunteers, send your information to charleswbingham3@gmail.com. Please put SLFN Education in the subject line of your email. Please send us a note if you’re willing to teach at a later date and not just this spring or summer. We thank you for your support.

February 12, 2014 by Charles Bingham

• Sitka Food Hub sub-committees to host meetings on food storage, community kitchen

The two sub-committees from the Sitka Food Hub project of the 2013 Sitka Health Summit will host meetings in the next week. The project has two main focus groups — to increase Sitka’s capacity for emergency food storage, and to create a community commercial kitchen that can be rented to local start-up businesses and residents who need a place to preserve food they’ve harvested.

The emergency food storage group will meet at noon on Friday, Feb. 14, at Harrigan Centennial Hall. This group is looking for ways to help improve and expand community food storage for disaster preparedness. It also will be looking for ways to help educate Sitka residents about how to improve their own family food storage to be better prepared for emergencies.

The community commercial kitchen group will meet at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 17, at Blatchley Middle School, Room 208. This group is trying to gauge the interest of local residents in having a rental commercial kitchen available for use. It also is looking at examples from other communities at how community commercial kitchens helped educate residents on food preservation, incubated local small businesses, and cultivated new opportunities for the community.

The next meeting for both groups combined is at 6:30 p.m on Thursday, March 6, at Harrigan Centennial Hall. Fo more information about the project, contact Marjorie Hennessy at marjorie@sitkawild.org.

February 6, 2014 by Charles Bingham

• Sitka Local Foods Network seeks manager and assistant manager for 2014 Sitka Farmers Markets

The Sitka Local Foods Network is looking for a manager and assistant manager to coordinate the 2014 Sitka Farmers Markets this summer. These are contract positions, and the manager and assistant manager (who reports to the manager) receive small compensation depending on experience for their work organizing the six scheduled farmers markets this summer.

A detailed description of the market manager duties can be found at the link below. For more information or to submit applications, contact Maybelle Filler at 738-1982 or mocampo25@hotmail.com, or you can email the Sitka Local Foods Network Board of Directors at sitkalocalfoodsnetwork@gmail.com. Applications (cover letter, resume, three recommendations) are due by 5 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 28. The market manager of the Sitka Farmers Market reports to the Sitka Local Foods Network Board of Directors.

• Description of duties for market manager of the Sitka Farmers Market Manager (2014)

February 5, 2014 by Charles Bingham

• State fixes glitch to Pick.Click.Give. program with online Alaska PFD application

The state has fixed a recent glitch in the online application that kept Alaskans from making their Pick.Click.Give. donation selections when they filed for their 2014 Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend checks. Applicants now can go back into their PFD applications and select or fix their Pick.Click.Give. donation picks.

In an email to participating Pick.Click.Give. nonprofit organizations (including the Sitka Local Foods Network) program manager Heather Beaty wrote:

If you continue to receive reports of problems in completing the PFD application or making Pick.Click.Give. donations, please contact me (at hbeaty@pickclickgive.org) so we can follow up with the state. The PFD Division will send an email to Alaskans who experienced difficulty with the application process to let them know they can go back and add Pick.Click.Give. donations. Alaskans who had trouble with the PFD website can return to the PFD homepage and use the green “Add or Change Your Pick.Click.Give. Donation” button to make a donation.

This is the first year the Sitka Local Foods Network will participate in the Pick.Click.Give. program, which allows people to donate in $25 increments to their favorite statewide and local 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations when they file their PFD applications from Jan. 1 through March 31. When you choose to donate part of your PFD to the Sitka Local Foods Network, you support the Sitka Farmers Market, St. Peter’s Fellowship Farm, Blatchley Community Gardens, education programs about growing and preserving food, the sustainable use of traditional foods, the Sitka Community Food Assessment, the Sitka Food Summit, and a variety of other projects designed to increase access to healthy local foods in Sitka.

You still can donate to the Sitka Local Foods Network if you aren’t from Alaska or aren’t eligible for a 2014 PFD. To donate, send your check to the Sitka Local Foods Network, 408 Marine St., Suite D, Sitka, Alaska, 99835. Our EIN is 26-4629930. Please let us know if you need a receipt for tax purposes. For more information about donating, you can send an email to sitkalocalfoodsnetwork@gmail.com.