March 26, 2013 by Charles Bingham

• Sitka Community Food Assessment project launches community survey to look at food security and resiliency in Sitka

The Sitka Community Food Assessment work group is encouraging Sitkans to complete a 36-question survey that explores questions about local, wild food, seafood, game and plants (i.e., how do you fish, hunt, gather and/or grow). It also explores issues of food security, as well as where folks shop and how much food they store.

The data collected will augment data coming from our secondary data collection efforts, which focuses on sport and subsistence harvest data for fish and game, as well as data on food assistance programs, food producers and food costs. It also will include focus group data that we will be gathering over the next 4-6 weeks.

Collectively, the work group hopes to present the findings at a Sitka Food Summit that will take place in November 2013. Then the group will begin strategic planning to address our issues and improve food access for all Sitkans.

A link to the survey can be found on the Sitka Community Food Assessment page on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/SitkaCommunityFoodAssessment), or by going directly to the survey at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/MQTF22Q.

Paper copies of the survey are available at the Kettleson Memorial Library. The survey is open through the end of April. For more information, email sitkafoodassessment@gmail.com. This is one of three community wellness projects voted on for this year by Sitka residents attending the 2012 Sitka Health Summit.

• Sitka Community Food Assessment one-page fact sheet

• Sitka Community Food Assessment food security definitions

March 1, 2013 by Charles Bingham

• Sitka Local Foods Network seeks manager and co-manager for 2013 Sitka Farmers Markets

The Sitka Local Foods Network is looking for a manager and co-manager to coordinate the 2013 Sitka Farmers Markets this summer. These are contract positions, and the manager and co-manager (who reports to the manager) receive small stipends for their work organizing the six scheduled farmers markets this summer.

This is the sixth year of operation for the Sitka Farmers Market, which features six markets from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. every other Saturday from July through September at the Alaska Native Brotherhood Founders Hall (this year’s dates are July 6, 20, Aug. 3, 17, 31, and Sept. 14). 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 747-2761 or 738-2761, or e-mail the Sitka Local Foods Network Board of Directors at sitkalocalfoodsnetwork@gmail.com. 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 (2013)

March 1, 2013 by Charles Bingham

• Sitka Local Foods Network recruiting two new board members and other volunteers

The 2011-12 Sitka Local Foods Network Board of Directors at its winter board retreat on Dec. 3, 2011. From left are Lisa Sadleir-Hart, Doug Osborne, Maybelle Filler, Cathy Lieser, Robin Grewe, Linda Wilson and Kerry MacLane. Not pictured is Tom Crane.

Are you concerned about increasing access to local food for all Sitka residents? Are you concerned about rising food prices in Sitka, or do you want to advocate for more community gardens in Sitka?

Then consider joining the board of directors for the Sitka Local Foods Network for the 2012-13 fiscal year. Two board members are needed as soon as possible.

Board members help direct the Sitka Local Foods Network, a non-profit that promotes the harvest and use of local food in Sitka. In addition to setting the focus of the group, board members also help on a wide variety of projects such as the Sitka Farmers Market, St. Peter’s Fellowship Farm, Blatchley Community Garden, Let’s Grow Sitka, the Sick-A-Waste compost project, the Sitka Community Food Assessment project, Sitka Fish-To-Schools, other school education projects and more.

To apply for a spot on the board, please fill out the attached application and submit it to sitkalocalfoodsnetwork@gmail.org. For more information, contact Lisa Sadleir-Hart at 747-5985.

We also are looking to increase our pool of volunteers who will help out during the various projects hosted by the network each year (no formal application needed, just send us your name/contact info and what types of projects you enjoy).

The next Sitka Local Foods Network board meeting is at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, March 5, at the Sitka Unitarian Universalists Fellowship Hall (408 Marine St.). The board meets from 6:30-8 p.m. on the first Tuesday of each month, except during the summer when board members are busy working with the Sitka Farmers Market and St. Peter’s Fellowship Farm communal garden.

• Sitka Local Foods Network board of directors application

February 17, 2013 by Charles Bingham

• Sitka Conservation Society, other groups to host Sitka Food Film Festival on Feb. 22-24

The Sitka Conservation Society and several other partners will host the Sitka Food Film Festival on Friday through Sunday, Feb. 22-24, at Harrigan Centennial Hall and the Larkspur Cafe. The films are free, but donations will be accepted to help cover costs.

In addition to the dozen films, the festival will feature an appearance by Tlingít chef Robert Kinneen about the Store Outside Your Door (a project with the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium (ANTHC) promoting healthy traditional foods). There also will be a roundtable discussion about Sitka’s food resiliency (food security).

The festival opens with a feature film TBA at 8:30 p.m. on Friday night at the Larkspur Cafe.

On Saturday at Harrigan Centennial Hall, the schedule includes Ratatouille (a family friendly movie) at 10 a.m., Ingredients at 12:30 p.m., End of the Line at 2:30 p.m., Two Angry Moms at 3:45 p.m., followed by a roundtable discussion about Sitka’s food resiliency from 5:30-6:30 p.m. Saturday’s schedule concludes with another feature film TBA at 8:30 p.m. at the Larkspur Cafe.

Sunday’s schedule at Harrigan Centennial Hall opens with A Feast At Midnight (a family friendly movie) at 10 a.m., Food Fight at 12:30 p.m., Bitter Seeds at 2:30 p.m., and Food Stamped at 4 p.m. Robert Kinneen is the keynote speaker at 6 p.m., discussing the Store Outside Your Door and showing film shorts from the project. The festival concludes at 7 p.m. with The Economics of Happiness.

Besides the Sitka Conservation Society, the film festival is sponsored by the Alaska Sustainable Fisheries Trust, SEARHC, Sitka Food Co-op, ArtChange Inc., Sitka Film Society, Alaska Pure Sea Salt Co., and the Larkspur Cafe. On Tuesday, Feb. 19, Tracy Gagnon with the Sitka Conservation Society and Andrianna Natsoulas with the Alaska Sustainable Fisheries Trust were interviewed on KCAW-Raven Radio’s Morning Edition program about the film festival, and you can click here to listen to the interview.

February 13, 2013 by Charles Bingham

• Sitka residents say ‘No’ to genetically modified salmon during Feb. 9 rally

Size comparison of an AquAdvantage® Salmon (background) vs. a non-transgenic Atlantic salmon sibling (foreground) of the same age. (CREDIT AquaBounty)

Between 100 and 150 Sitka residents braved the wind and rain on Saturday, Feb. 9, at the Crescent Harbor Shelter to protest the possible U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of genetically modified salmon (aka, GMO or GE salmon, or Frankenfish).

The rally (click here to listen to rally coverage from KCAW-Raven Radio) was in protest of a genetically engineered salmon from the Massachusetts company AquaBounty Technologies, called the AquAdvantage® Salmon. The GMO salmon starts with an Atlantic salmon commonly used in fish farms, but adds genes from a Pacific king (chinook) salmon to promote growth and genes from an eel-like fish called an ocean pout that grows all year round instead of seasonally. According to AquaBounty, all of the commercialized fish will be female and sterile, and the fish are designed to be raised in fresh-water pens or tanks on land instead of the usual salt-water pens where most farmed Atlantic salmon are raised. AquaBounty promotes the fish as a faster-growing farmed salmon that takes half the time to reach maturity and be sent to market. To learn more about GMO salmon, read our post from 2010.

Paul Rioux — the Sitka resident who organized the rally with the help of local fishing groups, the Sitka Conservation Society, and others — said fishermen are concerned about what happens if these GMO salmon escape from pens. He noted that while AquaBounty said the fish will be sterile, other scientists said as many as 5 percent could be fertile, and that’s enough so that the GMO salmon as an invasive species could replace wild Pacific salmon within 40 salmon generations. David Wilcox, a 14-year-old Sitka resident who plans to run across the country to protest GMO foods, spoke for the other residents who said they were concerned with genetically engineered fish in general, and they worried this fish might go to market without being labeled as GMO salmon. (Click here to listen to Rioux, Wilcox and Ray Friedlander of the Sitka Conservation Society discuss why they held the rally during a Feb. 8 Morning Edition interview on KCAW-Raven Radio.)

The FDA, which has been looking at GMO salmon for more than a decade (AquaBounty started work on the fish in 1989), announced in December it planned to approve the genetically engineered fish, just in time for the holidays. At the same time, the FDA finally released environmental impact research papers it was supposed to have released in May. The FDA announcement also started a 60-day public comment period that was supposed to end on Feb. 25. On Feb. 13, the FDA extended the comment period until April 26. Sitka residents are encouraged to go to Regulations.gov and search for “GE salmon” (not “GMO”) to comment on the regulations before the April 26 deadline.

Alaska’s Congressional delegation agrees on few items, but Sen. Mark Begich, Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Rep. Don Young have been united for a couple of years in their efforts to stop Frankenfish. Sen. Begich this week introduced two bills banning GMO salmon. Last May, Sen. Murkowski introduced an amendment (that failed 50-46) requiring more study of GMO salmon by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA). In the House, Rep. Young has been one of the most vocal opponents of Frankenfish and in February he introduced a bill requiring GMO salmon be labeled. In the Alaska House of Representatives, Rep. Geran Tarr (D-Anchorage) and Rep. Scott Kawasaki (D-Fairbanks) introduced an anti-Frankenfish bill that passed out of the House Fisheries Committee this week.

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January 25, 2013 by Charles Bingham

• Sitka Local Foods Network seeks manager and co-manager for 2013 Sitka Farmers Markets

This is the sixth year of operation for the Sitka Farmers Market, which features six markets from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. every other Saturday from July through September at the Alaska Native Brotherhood Hall (this year’s dates are TBA pending the release of the Chelan Produce Co. schedule for when its van is in Sitka, the Sitka Farmers Market alternates weekends with Chelan during the summer). 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.

• Description of duties for market manager of the Sitka Farmers Market Manager (2013)

January 21, 2013 by Charles Bingham

• Sitka Health Summit presents seed money check to Community Food Assessment for a Food Resilient Sitka project

FOOD ASSESSMENT DOUGH: From left, Sitka Health Summit Steering Committee members Ellen Daly, Elisabeth Crane and Penny Lehmann present a check for project seed money to representatives from the Community Food Assessment for a Food Resilient Sitka community wellness project, Renae Mathson (fourth from left), Sabrina Cimerol, Garrett Bauer and Courtney Bobsin.

Representatives from the Sitka Health Summit recently presented a check for seed money to the Community Food Assessment for a Food Resilient Sitka project. The project is one of three community wellness projects that came out of the 2012 Sitka Health Summit in October, and the food assessment will help Sitka improve its food security.

The food assessment will take various forms, from polling local grocery stores and shipping companies to try and gauge how much food comes into the community to developing a survey for community members and families about how much food they consume. The project will look at the food needs in our community, as well as what’s available. It also will include a survey about how much fish and game is used in Sitka, as well as how many people gather seaweed and berries or raise food in gardens.

The community food assessment recognizes that everybody in Sitka has access to affordable, quality food from stable food systems. The group meets on the second Wednesday each month, and the next meeting is from 5:30-7 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 13, at the Sitka Sound Science Center.

For more information, contact Renae Mathson at 966-8797 or renae.mathson@searhc.org, or contact Andrianna Natsoulas at 747-3477 or anatsoulas@thealaskatrust.org. Sitka residents can ask to join the Google Groups e-mail list for the project to keep up to date with what’s happening.

January 20, 2013 by Charles Bingham

• Sitka Local Foods Network recruiting two new board members and other volunteers

Are you concerned about increasing access to local food for all Sitka residents? Are you concerned about rising food prices in Sitka, or do you want to advocate for more community gardens in Sitka?

Then consider joining the board of directors for the Sitka Local Foods Network for the 2012-13 fiscal year. Two board members are needed — one to start immediately and the other to start in March when one of the current board members moves out of town.

To apply for a spot on the board, please fill out the attached application and submit it to sitkalocalfoodsnetwork@gmail.org. For more information, contact Lisa Sadleir-Hart at 747-5985.

The next Sitka Local Foods Network board meeting is at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 5, at the Sitka Unitarian Universalists Fellowship Hall (408 Marine St.). The board meets from 6:30-8 p.m. on the first Tuesday of each month, except during the summer when board members are busy working with the Sitka Farmers Market and St. Peter’s Fellowship Farm communal garden.

• Sitka Local Foods Network board of directors application

January 15, 2013 by Charles Bingham

• Sitka Food Co-op hosts 2013 membership drive in January

The Sitka Food Co-op is hosting a 2013 membership drive in January. The group, which helps Sitka residents pool their resources to order organic and bulk food not readily available in Sitka, has a new website, http://sitkafoodcoop.org/ (note, no www at the start of the link) where people can learn more about the co-operative, which also supports buying local and regionally produced foods.

By joining the co-op, Sitka residents can buy at discounted rates. Non-members also can order, but pay a higher rate. Click here to learn more about how the co-op orders food and what the costs are.

The co-op typically sends in an order to United Natural Foods Inc. (UNFI) on the second Sunday of each month (there will be no February order, so the next order is due by March 10, order page requires free log-in/password), and the food arrives a week later and is distributed at Grace Harbor Church the next Monday (from 4-6 p.m. on March 18 for the next order). The group also orders from Blue Valley Meats (next order deadline is March 10).

Co-op memberships are available for individuals, families and businesses in Sitka. The fee is $20 for one calendar year (all memberships expire on Dec. 31, regardless of when in the year they are purchased). Members also can vote for the board of directors and attend board meetings.

For more information, send an e-mail to sitkafoodcoop@gmail.com.

December 8, 2012 by Charles Bingham

• Lori Adams discusses ‘The End’ in her last Daily Sitka Sentinel garden column

(Lori Adams, who owns Down-To-Earth U-Pick Garden and is a frequent vendor at the Sitka Farmers Market, will be wrote a regular garden column in the Daily Sitka Sentinel this summer and fall. The Sentinel is allowing us to reprint the columns on this site after they first appear in the newspaper. This column appeared on Page 4 of the Wednesday, Dec. 5, 2012, edition of the Daily Sitka Sentinel.)

GARDENING IN SITKA

By Lori Adams

THE END

The ground is frozen now, but at times throughout the winter and spring things will thaw out. So there is still time to tinker in the garden before planting time. Once it thaws you can gather and apply seaweed, pull weeds, remove rocks and salmonberry bushes, sterilize your greenhouse or sun room, etc. It can be hard to make yourself get out there, but once you do it’s not so bad.

Those delightful seed catalogs should start showing up in the mail pretty soon, so now is a good time to plan for next year. Try to connect with a gardening friend some time before spring arrives and have them help you come up with a realistic plan and suggestions for reliable seed varieties to invest in. I try to get together with my gardening friends at least once a year and it is SO helpful. Networking is important.

I think I pretty much covered the basics with the “Gardening In Sitka” column, so the time has come to put away my pen. You now have enough information to get started growing a successful vegetable garden.

Quite a few people have suggested that I compile all of the printed columns into a book and I think it is a good idea, so I’m in the planning stages of that project right now. My goal is to have the books ready to purchase by March 2013 in time for the annual “Let’s Grow Sitka” event. They will be edited and revised, with room for your own notes, and a yearly planner calendar will be included.

The “Let’s Grow Sitka” event, usually held on a Sunday in mid-March, is a fantastic resource for new and old gardeners. There are informational booths, presentations and demonstrations, things to purchase and experienced gardeners are available to give you answers to any questions you might have. It’s a MUST-ATTEND event for anyone interested in gardening in Sitka.

Another great resource you should check out is the Sitka Local Foods Network’s website at http://www.sitkalocalfoodsnetwork.org. It has notices for upcoming gardening events and many, many links to other informative websites.

Thank you for all of the positive feedback you’ve given me on the column. You made it so rewarding. And to be truthful, I learned so much by doing it. I had to research the “why” and “how” to get my tips into readable form and ended up learning more myself.

Feel free to give me a call if you have questions and be sure to come out to the Down-To-Earth U-Pick Garden next summer to get a tour. Happy gardening and be sure to BUY LOCAL!

Brought to you by Down-To-Earth U-Pick Garden

2103 Sawmill Creek Road

Open June-August / Monday to Saturday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

747-6108 or 738-2241

http://downtoearthupick.blogspot.com/