food

by

• Sitka Local Foods Network one of five Alaska organizations in the Food Tank and James Beard Foundation’s 2014 Good Food Org Guide

good_food_org_guide_james_beard_foundation_food_tank

The Sitka Local Foods Network is one of five Alaska food organizations included in the Food Tank and James Beard Foundation‘s 2014 Good Food Org Guide, released on Oct. 26.

According to the Food Tank website, ‘This definitive guide highlights nonprofit organizations that are doing exemplary work in the United States in the areas of food and agriculture, nutrition and health, hunger and obesity, and food justice. Only nonprofit, scholarly, and municipal initiatives have been selected in order to spotlight efforts that are focused on community building and engagement, advocacy, and service.”

The guide is meant to be a definitive resource that highlights the exemplary work non-profit organizations in the United States are doing on food and agriculture, nutrition and health, hunger and obesity, and food justice.

In addition to the Sitka Local Foods Network, the other Alaska groups included in the guide are the Alaska Food Coalition, the Alaska Food Policy Council, the Kenai Peninsula Food Bank, and Kids’ Kitchen, Inc. You can download a copy of the 2014 Food Org Guide by clicking the link below.

• Food Tank and James Beard Foundation’s 2014 Good Food Org Guide

by

• Sitka Local Foods Network to host Harvest Fest Fundraiser on Thursday, Oct. 23

SLFNHarvestFestFundraiser2014Turnips2LowRez

Help celebrate Food Day by joining the Sitka Local Foods Network as it hosts its inaugural Harvest Fest Fundraiser from 6:30-8:30 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 23, at the Del Shirley Room upstairs in Allen Hall on the Sheldon Jackson Campus.

This event will feature a silent auction for a variety of local food- and garden-related items and services, including:

  • An apple tree and planting/pruning service,
  • Canning lessons,
  • 4-6 hours of work in your garden,
  • Flats of “Finn Island Farm” vegetable starts for 2015,
  • Customized local foods packages,
  • Chef services,
  • Wine-making supplies/materials/lesson,
  • Edible landscaping consultation,
  • Home-made desserts and other homegrown goodies,
  • Compost,
  • Alaska gardening books, and
  • A tour of and overnight stay at Finn Island Farm for 1-2 people, includes transportation, gourmet dinner and breakfast.

In addition, the Lexicon of Sustainability photos will be on display, we will give a short update on the state of local food in Sitka, there will be live music, light refreshments featuring local food will be served, and we will pour locally brewed beer (for those age 21 and older) and root beer from Baranof Island Brewing Company. This is a family oriented event, and there is a suggested donation of $5.

“The Sitka Local Foods Network board is excited to share the Lexicon of Sustainability photos again with the Sitka community in the context with our Harvest Fest Fundraiser,” said Lisa Sadleir-Hart, president of the Sitka Local Foods Network board of directors. “We’ve received a delicious array of donations from board members and friends for food-focused items and services for a silent auction, plus we will serve light refreshments focused on locally grown foods and hear about the state of Sitka’s foodscape. It’ll be a festive, informative event.”

The Sitka Local Foods Network is a nonprofit organization that promotes and encourages the use of locally grown, harvested and produced foods in Sitka and Southeast Alaska. Money raised at this fundraiser will support the Sitka Farmers Market, community gardens, a community greenhouse, sustainable uses of traditional subsistence foods and education for Sitka gardeners.

For more information, contact the Sitka Local Foods Network at sitkalocalfoodsnetwork@gmail.org.

by

• Sitka Local Foods Network to host another free late-harvest/winter-garden-preparation class

 

IMG_0751

Late harvests and preparing your vegetable garden for winter is the subject of the fifth class in the 2014 Sitka Local Foods Network education committee’s garden mentoring program.

The public is invited to join one of our current garden-mentoring families to learn about harvesting and storing potatoes, harvesting lettuce and kale into fall and winter, and preparing vegetable gardens for winter (and spring).

This free class will be held at 4:30 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 6, at Tami O’Neill’s house, 2309 Merganser Dr. The class is open to all first-time gardeners in Sitka.

Families that might be interested in participating in the garden mentor program are encouraged to come and learn about 2015 garden mentoring opportunities.

For more information, contact Michelle Putz at 747-2708 ormichelleputzfood@yahoo.com.

by

• Sitka Local Foods Network board thanks everyone for their Pick.Click.Give. donations

Lovalaska FB Square PhotoGrid Tag (1)

Today (Thursday, Oct. 2) Alaskans began receiving their Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend checks, which are $1,884 this year. Recently, many Alaskans have chosen to share that wealth with state and local nonprofits through the Pick.Click.Give. program.

Your Sitka Local Foods Network joined the Pick.Click.Give. program this year, and we’d like to thank the 56 donors who pledged $2,900 to help us promote and encourage the use of locally grown, harvested and produced foods in Sitka and Southeast Alaska. We thank you for supporting the Sitka Farmers Market, community gardens, a community greenhouse, sustainable uses of traditional subsistence foods and education for Sitka gardeners. You can learn more about your Sitka Local Foods Network at http://www.sitkalocalfoodsnetwork.org/.

You also can support us by attending the Sitka Local Foods Network Harvest Fest fundraiser from 6:30-8:30 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 23, at the Del Shirley Room upstairs in Allen Hall on the Sheldon Jackson Campus. This event will feature a silent auction for a variety of food- and garden-related items and services. In addition, the Lexicon of Sustainability photos will be on display, we will give a short update on the state of local food in Sitka, there will be live music, light refreshments featuring local food will be served, and we will pour locally brewed beer (for those age 21 and older) and root beer from Baranof Island Brewing Company. This is a family oriented event, and there is a suggested donation of $5.

Again, we thank you for your support,

 

The Sitka Local Foods Network board of directors

President Lisa Sadleir-Hart, Vice President Michelle Putz, Secretary Beth Kindig, Treasurer Maybelle Filler, Webmaster Charles Bingham, Milt Fusselman, Matthew Jackson (and two vacant seats)

by

• UAF Cooperative Extension Service to give presentation on preparing food in an emergency

OWL Happy Health Hour Sept. 29

Thursday’s 6.2-magnitude earthquake just north of Anchorage was a good reminder about the need to be prepared, especially in Alaska when we’re so isolated from the rest of the country. In honor of September being National Preparedness Month, the University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service‘s Happy Health Hour talk this month will be about how to prepare food during a power failure.

The talk takes place from 5:30-6:30 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 29 (Happy Health Hour talks are the fourth Monday of every month) and is available at libraries statewide on the OWL Network. In Sitka, these talks are accessed at Kettleson Memorial Library, which right now is temporarily located in the old Stratton Library building on the Sheldon Jackson Campus.

UAF Cooperative Extension Service agent Linda Tannehill of Kenai will explain what to consider when storing food for emergencies and what food preparation options are available during a power failure. During a power failure, cooking and eating habits must change to fit the situation. We’ll cover what to consider when storing food for emergencies and what food preparation options are available during a power failure.

During an emergency — such as an earthquake, tsunami, or winter weather — the power can go out for hours, if not days or weeks. We also might lose our transportation infrastructure, meaning it could take some time to get a barge or airplane to town with emergency supplies. Individuals, families, and businesses should have spare food, medicine, portable stove and fuel, extra blankets, etc., to weather the emergency. Click this link to learn how to pack a home emergency kit. More emergency preparedness resources are available on the UAF Cooperative Extension Service website.

To learn more about the Happy Health Hour and this presentation, contact the UAF Cooperative Extension Service at 1-877-520-5211 or go to http://www.uaf.edu/ces/. You also can call Jasmine Shaw at the UAF Cooperative Extension Service Sitka District Office at 747-9440 for more information.

by

• Sitka Local Foods Network to host a free late-harvest/winter-garden-preparation class

IMG_0022

Late harvests and preparing your vegetable garden for winter is the subject of the fifth class in the 2014 Sitka Local Foods Network education committee’s garden mentoring program.

The public is invited to join our current garden-mentoring families to learn about harvesting and storing potatoes, harvesting lettuce and kale into fall and winter, and preparing vegetable gardens for winter (and spring).

This free class will be held at 4 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 27, at Anna Bradley’s house, 4764 Halibut Point Road. The class is open to all first-time gardeners in Sitka.

Families that might be interested in participating in the garden mentor program are encouraged to come and learn about 2015 garden mentoring opportunities.

For more information, contact Michelle Putz at 747-2708 or michelleputzfood@yahoo.com.

by

• Sitka Adventist School students harvest bumper crop from their school garden

image6

Students at Sitka Adventist School recently harvested a bumper crop of veggies they grew over the summer in their new school garden. Sitka Adventist School is a small private school for grades 1-8 located at 1613 Halibut Point Road (lower level).

“Our garden is relatively new. We built and planted it in spring of 2014,” Principal/Teacher Kallie McCutcheon said. “The students helped mix dirt, shovel dirt and sand, plant seeds and seedlings, water (on the rare occasion that it wasn’t supplied from the heavens), check plants, weed, and of course, pick our wonderful produce. We picked beets, carrots, potatoes and cabbage. I decided to plant the garden to teach the kids a skill and that they CAN grow plants!”

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

by

• Baranof Elementary School first-graders harvest their kindergarten plantings at Russian Bishop’s House garden

gardenharvest14ws

BIG HARVEST – Baranof Elementary School first-grader Marley Bayne, 6, holds up a large carrot and a beet next to the Russian Bishop’s House garden Wednesday. The entire first-grade class harvested the vegetables they helped plant in the spring when they were kindergartners. This year’s growing season was especially good for the garden crops, which children are using to make soup in class. Sitka National Historical Park rangers organize the gardening activities with the help of school staff and parent volunteers. (Daily Sitka Sentinel Photo By James Poulson)

by

• Scenes from the sixth and final Sitka Farmers Market of the 2014 summer

Sitka Farmers Market Co-Managers Debe Brincefield, left, and Ellexis Howey, right, present the Table Of The Day Award to Florence Welsh and her daughter Cory Welsh of Welsh Family Forget-Me-Not Gardens at the sixth and final Sitka Farmers Market of the 2014 summer on Saturday, Sept. 5, at the Alaska Native Brotherhood Founders Hall in Sitka. The Welsh family has one of the larger gardens in Sitka, raising a variety of veggies including cabbage, carrots, zuccini, potatoes, greens, and more. Florence received a gift bag with fresh greens, fresh carrots, fresh rhubarb, and a copy of the Alaska Farmers Market Cookbook. This concludes the seventh year of Sitka Farmers Markets, hosted by the Sitka Local Foods Network. While the Sitka Farmers Market is over for the summer, we will host a produce table at the 20th annual Running of the Boots, with registration at 10 a.m., costume judging at 10:30 a.m. and race at 11 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 27, near St. Michael of the Archangel Russian Orthodox Cathedral on Lincoln Street. For more information about the Sitka Farmers Markets and Sitka Local Foods Network, go to http://www.sitkalocalfoodsnetwork.org/, or check out our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/SitkaLocalFoodsNetwork. (PHOTO COURTESY OF SITKA LOCAL FOODS NETWORK)

Sitka Farmers Market Co-Managers Debe Brincefield, left, and Ellexis Howey, right, present the Table Of The Day Award to Florence Welsh and her daughter Cory Welsh of Welsh Family Forget-Me-Not Gardens at the sixth and final Sitka Farmers Market of the 2014 summer on Saturday, Sept. 6, at the Alaska Native Brotherhood Founders Hall in Sitka. The Welsh family has one of the larger gardens in Sitka, raising a variety of veggies including cabbage, carrots, zuccini, potatoes, greens, and more. Florence received a gift bag with fresh greens, fresh carrots, fresh rhubarb, and a copy of the Alaska Farmers Market Cookbook. This concludes the seventh year of Sitka Farmers Markets, hosted by the Sitka Local Foods Network. While the Sitka Farmers Market is over for the summer, we will host a produce table at the 20th annual Running of the Boots, with registration at 10 a.m., costume judging at 10:30 a.m. and race at 11 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 27, near St. Michael of the Archangel Russian Orthodox Cathedral on Lincoln Street. For more information about the Sitka Farmers Markets and Sitka Local Foods Network, go to http://www.sitkalocalfoodsnetwork.org/, or check out our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/SitkaLocalFoodsNetwork. (PHOTO COURTESY OF SITKA LOCAL FOODS NETWORK)

SitkaFarmersMarketSignFlorence Welsh, along with daughter Cory Welsh, of the Welsh Family Forget-Me-Not Gardens won the Table of the Day Award for the sixth and final Sitka Farmers Market of the 2014 summer, held Saturday, Sept. 6, at the Alaska Native Brotherhood Founders Hall.

This easily was the rainiest Sitka Farmers Market in our seven-year history (we had a record 3 1/2 inches of rain in 12 hours that Saturday), but we still had a decent crowd show up for the market.

While the Sitka Farmers Market is done until the 2015 summer, the Sitka Local Foods Network will host a produce table at the 20th annual Running of the Boots on Saturday, Sept. 27 (10 a.m. registration, 10:30ish costume judging, 11 a.m. race), near St. Michael of the Archangel Russian Orthodox Cathedral on Lincoln Street. The Sitka Local Foods Network also has a local produce table on weekends when Chelan Produce is in town. A slideshow with scenes from the sixth Sitka Farmers Market is below.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

by

• Sitka National Historical Park to host garden party Saturday at Russian Bishop’s House

KarenChristnerInPeriodCOstumeAtRussianBishopsHouse

Volunteer gardener Karen Christner, right, in period costume, leads a tour of the Russian Bishop’s House garden in September 2013.

The Sitka National Historical Park will host a garden party starting at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 13, at the Russian Bishop’s House garden.

Volunteer gardener Karen Christner and Ranger Jasa Woods will present a 45-minute program on the history of the Russian Bishop’s House garden and how its tradition is carried on today. During the spring, kindergarten students from Baranof Elementary School plant the garden. In the fall, the students return as first-graders to harvest the produce.

Attendees are invited early for hot tea and Russian tea cakes. Seating and shelter from the rain will be provided. For more information, call the Sitka National Historical Park visitor center at 747-0110.