food

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• ‘Getting Real About Food and the Future’ film explains the importance of local food

Why is it so important to promote local foods and local foods systems? This 30-minute video by Christopher B. Bedford explains some of the reasons why local food is so important.

According to the brief synopsis, “The growing oil, water, and climate crises threaten food security in all communities. This new film by Chris Bedford looks at the deeper issues of food security and community survival in this new age of global chaos and scarcity. ‘Getting Real About Food and the Future’ features the wisdom of John McKnight, Bill McDonough, Lester Brown, Bob Costanza, and David Korten in a 30 minute film designed for use in classrooms, meetings, and conferences.”

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• James David Sneed to present food self-sufficiency talks and demonstrations

Why is salty seaweed good for tomatoes, potatoes and broccoli? Is raising small livestock in Southeast Alaska feasible? What seeds can we save here?

James David Sneed, from Price of Wales Island, has been experimenting with food self-sufficiency in Southeast Alaska for 30 years. He also has presented on this topic in Washington state.

James David will give a talk on food self-sufficiency from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturday, June 11, at Harrigan Centennial Hall.

James David also will present a hands-on workshop from 10 a.m. to noon the following Saturday, June 18, at Judy Johnstone’s Sprucecott Gardens (306 Peterson Ave – up the hill from McDonalds). This workshop will feature hand tool use and care, garden layouts, bioregional aspects of gardening and nutritional gardening.

Each workshop costs $10, or $15 for both. Low income and WIC enrollees are free. Tickets available at Old Harbor Books, from Sitka Local Foods Network board members and at the door. Funds raised benefit the Sitka Local Foods Network.

For more information, call Kerry MacLane at 752-0654.

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• June work parties set for St. Peter’s Fellowship Farm

St. Peter's Fellowship Farm sign

St. Peter's Fellowship Farm sign

The Sitka Local Foods Network will host work parties from 2-4 p.m. each Saturday in June at St. Peter’s Fellowship Farm.

St. Peter’s Fellowship Farm provides vegetables, herbs and fruit for the Sitka Farmers Markets, which start in July (from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on July 16, 30, Aug. 13, 27 and Sept. 10 at ANB Hall). It is located behind St. Peter’s By The Sea Episcopal Church on Lincoln Street.

In addition to helping get the communal garden ready to grow veggies this summer, volunteers can meet Laura Schmidt, who is the lead gardener for St. Peter’s Fellowship Farm this year and will coordinate most of the summer’s work parties. Laura said the work parties will be kid-friendly and there will be several activities to keep the kids busy.

To learn more about the work parties, please contact Laura Schmidt at 738-7009.

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• Vendors need to start registering for booth space at this year’s Sitka Farmers Markets

The 2011 Sitka Farmers Markets won’t start until July 16, but vendors need to start registering now to ensure they have booth space when the markets take place this summer. This year’s Sitka Farmers Markets take place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on five alternate Saturdays — July 16 and 30, Aug. 13 and 27, and Sept. 10 — at the Alaska Native Brotherhood Hall, 235 Katlian St.

We really, really, need more locally grown produce vendors, home bakers, fish mongers, 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 Local Foods Network for resale at the network’s Sitka Farmers Market booth. Proceeds from the produce sold at the network’s booth goes toward Sitka Local Foods Network projects.

This year we had to raise the vendor fee to $2.50 a foot for table space or $2.00 per foot for vendors with their own outside tents to cover costs of renting the ANB Hall and kitchen, hiring musicians and other expenses. Now that construction is finishing on the Baranof Island Housing Authority office next door to ANB Hall, we expect to be able to have some booths outdoors in the parking lot again like we did two years ago. There is an option to get your vendor space free if you help out with set-up and clean-up. Space is limited so the earlier you register for booth space, the more likely we will be able to find a spot for you.

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.

• 2011 Sitka Farmers Market schedule flier (feel free to print out and post around town)

• 2011 Sitka Farmers Market vendor rules

• 2011 Sitka Farmers Market vendor registration form

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• Second Annual Sitka Seafood Festival celebrates our local bounty from the sea

The second annual Sitka Seafood Festival takes place on Friday and Saturday, May 20-21, at Harrigan Centennial Hall and Crescent Harbor.

The festival opens at 6 p.m. on Friday with the opening banquet dinner at Harrigan Centennial Hall. This event features a formal  atmosphere  with  various  local  chefs  collaborating,  each showcasing  a  separate  course. It also  introduces  our  guest  chefs —  Louisa  Chu,  chef  and writer  from  Chicago,  and  our  returning  guest  chef  Robert Kinneen  from  Anchorage.  There will be a live  music  performance  by  Ray  Troll  and  the  Rat  Fish  Wranglers  during  dinner,  as  well as  a  silent  auction  and  other entertainment. Tickets  are available  at  Old  Harbor  Books  for  $50.

The fun continues on Saturday, with a full schedule of events at Harrigan Centennial  Hall,  Crescent  Harbor  Shelter  and  back  parking  area. Events include:

  • 11 AM: Maritime-themed  parade
  • Vendor  booths  including  food,  educational  and  entertainment  booths,  kids  games  and prizes,  knot  tying  classes,  beer  garden,  live  music  by  many  local  bands,  or  anyone interested  in  showcasing  seafood/maritime-related  items  (for more  info,  contact Christi Wuerker at 738-9047)
  • Kids  and  adult  art  workshop  with  Ray  Troll  (limited  number of openings,  to  sign  up,  call  Alicia Olson at 928-607-4845)
  • GingerLee, Aerial  silk  dancer  performances by Jenn Perry
  • USCG  Aids  to  Navigation  Team  vessel  tours
  • Local  New Archangel Russian  dance  and  Naa  Kahídi  Tlingít dance  performances
  • US Coast  Guard  helicopter  rescue  demonstration
  • Cooking  demonstration  by  guest  chef  Louisa  Chu
  • Fish-filleting  demos  on  the  hour,  every  hour  starting  at  noon,  as  well  as  rockfish  identifying contests
  • Fish-head-tossing  contest,  tote  races,  crab  races  and  fish-head-bobbing  contests
  • 5-6PM:  Fish  Poetry  at  Kettleson  Memorial Library (More  info:  Jeff  Budd at  the  Greater  Sitka  Arts  Council)
  • 8-11PM:  Live  music  and  dance  with  Ray  Troll  and  the  Ratfish  Wranglers  opening  and  the headliner  band  Wicked  Tinkers  (Tickets  $20  at  Old  Harbor  Books:  more  info  available through  Sitka  Folk)

To learn more, go to  http://www.sitkaseafoodfestival.org/,  or  contact  Alicia  Olson at  928- 607-4845 or by e-mail  at sitkaseafoodfestival@gmail.com.

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• Time changes for Saturday’s planting party at St. Peter’s Fellowship Farm

St. Peter's Fellowship Farm sign

St. Peter's Fellowship Farm sign

The time has changed to 1-3 p.m. for the planting party on Saturday, May 14, at St. Peter’s Fellowship Farm. The times also have changed for the next two planting parties, from 2-4 p.m. on Saturday, May 21 and 28.

St. Peter’s Fellowship Farm provides vegetables, herbs and fruit for the Sitka Farmers Markets, which start in July (from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on July 16, 30, Aug. 13, 27 and Sept. 10 at ANB Hall). It is located behind St. Peter’s By The Sea Episcopal Church on Lincoln Street.

In addition to helping get the communal garden ready to grow veggies this summer, volunteers can meet Laura Schmidt, who is the lead gardener for St. Peter’s Fellowship Farm this year and will coordinate most of the work parties and May planting parties. Laura said the work and planting parties will be kid-friendly and there will be several activities to keep the kids busy.

People who picked up seed starter kits at Let’s Grow Sitka in March should check the date they are scheduled to bring their started seeds in for planting. If you can’t bring them in on that date, please contact Laura Schmidt (623-7003) or Lisa Sadleir-Hart (747-5985) to make arrangements for someone else to bring them in on the scheduled date.

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• St. Peter’s Fellowship Farm work party scheduled for Wednesday, May 4

St. Peter's Fellowship Farm sign

St. Peter's Fellowship Farm sign

Volunteers are need to help out at a special work party from 5:15-6:45 p.m. on Wednesday, May 4, at St. Peter’s Fellowship Farm. This work party will be to build a couple of new raised garden beds and to do other preparation work before a series of planting parties scheduled for May.

From 1-4 p.m. on each Saturday in May (May 7, 14, 21 and 28), volunteers are needed for planting parties at St. Peter’s Fellowship Farm, which is a communal garden located behind St. Peter’s By The Sea Episcopal Church on Lincoln Street. St. Peter’s Fellowship Farm provides vegetables, herbs and fruit for the Sitka Farmers Markets, which start in July (from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on July 16, 30, Aug. 13, 27 and Sept. 10 at ANB Hall).

In addition to helping get the communal garden ready to grow veggies this summer, volunteers can meet Laura Schmidt, who is the lead gardener for St. Peter’s Fellowship Farm this year and will coordinate most of the work parties and May planting parties. Laura said the work and planting parties will be kid-friendly and there will be several activities to keep the kids busy.

People who picked up seed starter kits at Let’s Grow Sitka in March should check the date they are scheduled to bring their started seeds in for planting. If you can’t bring them in on that date, please contact Laura Schmidt (623-7003) or Lisa Sadleir-Hart (747-5985) to make arrangements for someone else to bring them in on the scheduled date.

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• Start now in your fight against slugs and snails

Ah, springtime in Southeast Alaska, when the weather is moist and chilly. If it’s springtime in Southeast, it means it’s time for garden slugs, the bane of every Southeast gardener.

Now is the time to fight slugs, even if you haven’t planted yet as you wait for final frost in May. Slugs get into gardens in the spring, and this is when they are laying their eggs (and both male and female slugs can lay eggs). If you don’t fight the slugs now, the problem will be worse in the summer when your garden starts growing. Slugs eat the plants in your garden, and if uncontrolled they can do considerable damage to your crops.

Charlie Nardozzi, who writes the Edible Landscaping page on the National Gardening Association’s site, recently posted a good article on how to control slugs and snails. Most of his hints work in Alaska, though some people say the Southeast rain makes beer traps less effective here than in dryer climates.

The University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service has several publications with information on controlling pests such as slugs. One good reference is the Gardening in Southeast Alaska booklet (click link for free download as a PDF file). Another good reference, written by Sitka-based Resource Development Agent Robert Gorman, is the publication “Slugs” (click link for free download as a PDF file).

Fran Durner, who used to write the Talk Dirt To Me blog for the Anchorage Daily News, wrote a post about slug control a couple of years ago that included a picture of slug eggs so people could get them out of their gardens before they hatch. Fran also wrote a post about using dryer lint to deter slugs. Julie Riley of the Anchorage office of the UAF Cooperative Extension Service also wrote an article for the Anchorage Daily News with tips on how to control slugs that gardeners in Southeast might find helpful.

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• Work parties scheduled for St. Peter’s Fellowship Farm

St. Peter's Fellowship Farm sign

St. Peter's Fellowship Farm sign

The Sitka Local Foods Network will host a work party from 9 a.m. to noon on Saturday, April 23, to help prepare the St. Peter’s Fellowship Farm communal garden for planting in May.

St. Peter’s Fellowship Farm provides vegetables, herbs and fruit for the Sitka Farmers Markets, which start on July 16. It is located behind St. Peter’s By The Sea Episcopal Church on Lincoln Street.

During the April 23 work party, volunteers will relocate the compost bins, build new raised garden beds and add amendments to the soil. Tools will be provided. The “farm” welcomes any donations of dirt, sand and seaweed. Volunteers also can meet Laura Schmidt, who is the lead gardener for St. Peter’s Fellowship Farm this year and will coordinate most of the work parties and May planting parties. Laura said the work and planting parties will be kid-friendly and there will be several activities to keep the kids busy.

The tentative schedule for planting parties in May is to meet from 1-4 p.m. on Saturdays, May 7, 14, 21 and 28, to plant a variety of crops. People who picked up seed starter kits at Let’s Grow Sitka in March should check the date they are scheduled to bring their started seeds in for planting. If you can’t bring them in on that date, please contact Laura (623-7003) or Lisa Sadleir-Hart (747-5985) to make arrangements for someone else to bring them in on the scheduled date.

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• Sitka Fruit Tree Initiative to host public fruit tree planting party on April 23

The Sitka Fruit Tree Initiative will host a public fruit tree planting event starting at 9 a.m. on Saturday, April 23, at the Hames Athletic and Wellness Center. The first tree planted will be dedicated in memory of noted Sitka historian Bob DeArmond, who was 99 when he passed away on Nov. 26, 2010.

The plan on April 23, is for volunteers to plant a few fruit trees in front of the Hames Athletic and Wellness Center (tools and snacks will be provided). The volunteers then will move on to plant trees at St. Peter’s Fellowship Farm, a communal garden run by the Sitka Local Foods Network located behind St. Peter’s By The Sea Episcopal Church. Other planting locations on Saturday include the Betty Eliason Child Care Center, KCAW-Raven Radio and either Sealing Cove or Pacific High School. A total of 22 trees will be planted on Saturday.

The Sitka Fruit Tree Initiative hopes to plant 200 apple, crabapple or cherry trees in Sitka before the next Sitka Health Summit on Sept. 30-Oct. 1, 2011. This will be the first public planting of fruit trees since the 2010 Sitka Health Summit, when the project started. Several individuals, families and businesses around Sitka also have ordered fruit trees to plant this year.

For more information about the Sitka Fruit Tree Initiative or the Sitka Local Foods Network, contact Doug Osborne at 747-3752 or Lisa Sadleir-Hart at 747-5985.