garden

by

• Alaska Center for the Environment launches local food campaign

AlaskaCenterForTheEnvironmentLogo

The Alaska Center for the Environment is launching a new campaign to teach Alaskans about the importance of local food. This campaign is just getting going, and there’s a lot of work needed to flesh out all of the elements. But it’s good to see someone looking a local food security issues on a statewide level.

Click here to read the main information page about the campaign, which includes facts such as Alaskans spent $2.6 billion on food each year and in 2007 only 0.13 percent of that money went to agricultural products grown in Alaska. Click here to read the campaign’s Frequently Asked Questions page. Click here to read about a proposed “Alaska Food, Farms and Jobs Act” that is based on legislation out of Illinois that ACE hopes to find an Alaska legislator willing to introduce.

Finally, click here to read about the Alaska Local Food Film Festival that takes place Oct. 2-8 at the Bear Tooth Theatrepub and Grill in Anchorage. Each day during the festival the Bear Tooth will show a local food-related movie at 5:30 p.m. The films include “Food, Inc.,” “The Garden,” “Eating Alaska,” “Fresh” and “The End of the Line.” Sitka filmmaker Ellen Frankenstein will lead a discussion after her film, “Eating Alaska,” is shown on Sunday, Oct. 4.

AlaskaLocalFoodFilmFestivalPoster

by

• Capital City Weekly features Sitka Farmers Market’s Table of the Day Award and other news about local foods

Screenshot of Capital City Weekly feature on Sitka Farmers Market Table of the Day Award winners

Screenshot of Capital City Weekly feature on Sitka Farmers Market Table of the Day Award winners

Click here to see a photo in this week’s Capital City Weekly highlighting Evening Star Grutter and Fabian Grutter of Eve’s Farm, who won the Table of the Day Award during the fourth Sitka Farmers Market of the summer on Aug. 29. Don’t forget the fifth and final Sitka Farmers Market of the summer takes place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. this Saturday, Sept. 12, at Alaska Native Brotherhood Hall (235 Katlian St.). We look forward to seeing you there.

There also have been several other local foods stories in the news in Alaska in recent days.

Click here to read a Capital City Weekly article about the Autumn Festival on Saturday, Sept. 19, in Juneau. The Autumn Festival features some local food booths, in addition to the usual arts and crafts and the beer garden (part of the Autumn Pour homebrew competition) that make up the bulk of the show at the Juneau Arts and Culture Center.

Click here to listen to a newscast from KHNS-FM public radio in Haines that features a story about local efforts in Haines and Skagway to promote local foods during the Alaska Grown Eat Local Challenge on Aug. 23-29 (link opens an online MP3 audio file, story starts about halfway through the newscast). The story mentions that the last Haines Farmers Market of the season takes place from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 12 (click here for info).

Click here for an Anchorage Daily News article on what crops to expect at this weekend’s farmers markets in the Anchorage and Mat-Su valleys.

Click here to read an article from The Redoubt Reporter (an online news site from the Kenai Peninsula) about the annual honey extraction event hosted by the Eat Me Raw Honey Company in Kasilof (a community near Kenai and Soldotna). During this event, they clean honey out of the hives and processing it.

Click here to read an article from The Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman about Wasilla dentist Steve Hubacek and his two record-breaking cabbages at the Alaska State Fair in Palmer.

by

• Local food news from Juneau: Virus infects Tlingít potato crop; Glory Hole to get community garden

(Photo courtesy of Klas Stolpe/Juneau Empire) Bill Ehlers, assistant gardener at the Jensen-Olson Arboretum in Juneau, holds a Tlingít potato next to some borage plant flowers.

(Photo courtesy of Klas Stolpe/Juneau Empire) Bill Ehlers, assistant gardener at the Jensen-Olson Arboretum in Juneau, holds a Tlingít potato next to some borage plant flowers.

Click here to read an article in Tuesday’s Juneau Empire about a virus that has infected the crop of Tlingít potatoes at Juneau’s Jensen-Olson Arboretum. According to the article, the potatoes still are safe to eat, despite the virus. But the virus means they won’t be used as seed potatoes for other community gardens in Southeast Alaska, as previously planned. Officials from the University of Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service office in Juneau are doing what they can to remove the virus so they can guarantee clean seed, but it might take a few years.

Click here to read an article from Monday’s Juneau Empire about plans to build a community garden at the Glory Hole homeless shelter and soup kitchen in downtown Juneau. The community garden is expected to provide fresh vegetables and fruit for the soup kitchen, as well as giving Glory Hole patrons a project they can work on at the shelter. Plans are to put garden beds on the roof and terraced garden beds on the hill behind the Glory Hole’s back door.

by

• Another record cabbage at the Alaska State Fair

Screenshot of the Anchorage Daily News article on Steve Hubacek's giant cabbage

Screenshot of the Anchorage Daily News article on Steve Hubacek's giant cabbage

Click here to read about a record-breaking 127-pound cabbage, called “The Beast,” Wasilla’s Steve Hubacek weighed in on Friday at the Alaska State Fair in Palmer. Click here to read the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner’s version of the story, which includes some other big veggie records set at the fair.

This record-breaking cabbage, which qualifies for both the state record and a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records, was weighed in just two days after Hubacek broke a 20-year-old record with a 125.9-pound cabbage. I hope he enjoys cole slaw and sauerkraut. Click here to see a list of Guinness Book of World Record-setting veggies at the Alaska State Fair since 1993 (opens PDF file).

Screenshot of the giant cabbage story in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner

Screenshot of the giant cabbage story in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner

by

• Evening Star Grutter wins Table of the Day Award from fourth Sitka Farmers Market

Fabian Grutter, left, and Evening Star Grutter, right, of Eve's Farm receive the Table of the Day Award from Linda Wilson during the fourth Sitka Farmers Market of the season on Aug. 29.

Fabian Grutter, left, and Evening Star Grutter, right, of Eve's Farm receive the Table of the Day Award from Linda Wilson during the fourth Sitka Farmers Market of the season on Aug. 29.

Evening Star Grutter and Fabian Grutter of Eve’s Farm won the “Table of the Day Award” for the fourth Sitka Farmers Market of the season on Aug. 29.

The Sitka Local Foods Network selected the table — which featured a variety of fresh produce and homemade jams and jellies — to receive the $25 cash prize, an Alaska Farmers Market Association tote bag and a certificate of appreciation. A similar prize package is awarded to a deserving vendor at each of the five Sitka Farmers Markets this summer.

The fifth and final market of the season takes place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 12, at Alaska Native Brotherhood Hall. Keep your eye on this site for more information.

Also, a new photo gallery from the fourth Sitka Farmers Market on Aug. 29 has been posted on Shutterfly (an online photo-sharing site). Click this link to check out the photos.

Evening Star Grutter and a rack of her homemade jams and jellies

Evening Star Grutter and a rack of her homemade jams and jellies

Lexi Fish cooks up a crepe

Lexi Fish cooks up a crepe

by

• SEARHC, Cooperative Extension hosts free garden workshop on Sept. 9

Master gardener Bob Gorman shows off seed starts in wet paper towels during a March garden workshop

Master gardener Bob Gorman shows off seed starts in wet paper towels during a March garden workshop

Do you want to grow some of your own food this summer, so you can have more fresh food choices and eat healthier dinners? Then the fourth and final installment in a continuing series of garden workshops is for you.

The SEARHC Diabetes and Health Promotion programs have teamed up with master gardener Bob Gorman of the Sitka office of the University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service to offer a series of four free garden workshops during the summer of 2009. The last workshop of the series takes place from 1:30 to 3 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 9.

The class will be hosted at the SEARHC Community Health Services Building third-floor conference room in Sitka (1212 Seward Dr.). But participants in other communities will join by video or audioconference from the SEARHC Juneau Administration Building Conference Room, the SEARHC Jessie Norma Jim Health Center in Angoon, the Haines Borough Library, the SEARHC Kake Health Center and the SEARHC Alicia Roberts Medical Center in Klawock.

“Even though summer is winding down, people still have a lot they can do in this year’s growing season,” said Maybelle Filler, SEARHC Diabetes Grant Coordinator. “Southeast Alaska is unique in its growing conditions, and it’s great that the SEARHC Diabetes and Health Promotion programs can partner with the Sitka office of the University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service to provide information on growing things in our area.”

The first three workshops in the four-workshop series were March 11, May 6 and July 8. The topics for the remaining workshop are:

* Sept. 9 — Late-winter plantings; trees and shrubs; house plants and indoor gardening; and winterizing your garden.

For more information about this series of free workshops, contact SEARHC Diabetes Grant Coordinator Maybelle Filler at 966-8739 or maybelle.filler@searhc.org. People who aren’t able to attend at one of the listed video or audioconferencing sites, should contact Maybelle for other options. Maybelle also has extra copies of the handouts for those who miss any of the garden workshops.

by

• Alaska Grown’s Eat Local Challenge is this week

Flier for the Alaska Grown "Eat Local Challenge"

The Alaska Public Radio Network had a story on the Alaska News Nightly show Thursday night about the “Eat Local Challenge,” which takes place Aug. 23-29. Click here to listen to the story, which discusses what’s available around the state and how residents can encourage their local stores and restaurants to carry more Alaska Grown produce. For more information on the Eat Local Challenge, click here to see our post introducing the event last week.

By the way, a good time to buy local food this week is the fourth Sitka Farmers Market of the summer, which takes place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 29, at Alaska Native Brotherhood Hall (235 Katlian St.). We’ll see you there.

by

• To extend the lives of berries, give them a hot bath

Picking blueberries in Sitka

Picking blueberries in Sitka

It happens to all berry fans. You pick a bunch of berries, or buy some in the store, and within a day or two you have mold growing on them. Yuck.

Earlier this week, the New York Times ran an article (free registration required to open link) about how to solve this problem. Give the berries a warm to hot bath of about 125 to 140 degrees (depending on the thickness of the berries skin). This process is called “thermotherapy,” and it seems to do the trick.

by

• Sitka Farmers Market on the Farm-To-Consumer Legal Defense Fund, Corvallis (Ore.) Gazette-Times sites

Screenshot from the Farm-To-Consumer Legal Defense Fund site with the Sitka Farmers Market story

Screenshot from the Farm-To-Consumer Legal Defense Fund site with the Sitka Farmers Market story

The Daily Sitka Sentinel article from mid-July previewing this year’s series of Sitka Farmers Market events continues to make the rounds of publications in the Lower 48. Click here to see the article posted on the Farm-To-Consumer Legal Defense Fund site.

The article also made its way to the Gazette-Times of Corvallis, Ore. (click here to see the article).

Screenshot of the Sitka Farmers Market article in the Gazette-Times of Corvallis, Ore.

Screenshot of the Sitka Farmers Market article in the Gazette-Times of Corvallis, Ore.

by

• Juneau Empire spotlights harvest of Tlingít potatoes

(Photo courtesy of Klas Stolpe/Juneau Empire) Bill Ehlers, assistant gardener at the Jensen-Olson Arboretum in Juneau, holds a Tlingít potato next to some borage plant flowers.

(Photo courtesy of Klas Stolpe/Juneau Empire) Bill Ehlers, assistant gardener at the Jensen-Olson Arboretum in Juneau, holds a Tlingít potato next to some borage plant flowers.

The Juneau Empire on Monday (click here) ran a nice photo package of a sustainable harvest camp at the Jensen-Olson Arboretum in Juneau that was hosted by the 4-H program run by UAF Cooperative Extension Service and the Alaska Department of Fish & Game. The photos feature several children harvesting “Maria’s Potatoes,” a type of Tlingít potato grown from seed potatoes that originally came from deceased Tlingít elder Maria Miller’s garden in Klukwan. These fingerling potatoes do well in Southeast Alaska’s rainy climate and have been around for hundreds of years. The story link above has a link to an audio slideshow by Juneau Empire photographer Michael Penn. The slideshow is worth watching.

By the way, click here to read more about the Tlingít potato posted on the Sitka Local Foods Network site about three weeks ago. Elizabeth Kunibe did want to clarify that in the link to the Chilkat Valley News story she is misquoted so it appears that she “discovered” the Ozette potato (another Native American variety). She said she is not the discoverer.

Kunibe also said the Tlingít potatoes can be sold, but for food only and not for seed. Some of them contain potato viruses, transmitted by vectors, that can affect the soil and other varieties of potatoes. She said when people buy seed potatoes, they need to make sure they have “clean seed” or “virus-free seed” before they plant. She said potato viruses do not affect humans who eat the potatoes, but we need to use clean seed to keep the viruses from destroying crops (like what happened in the Irish potato famine). She said the UAF Cooperative Extension Service, which has offices in Sitka and Juneau, may have more information on how to find virus-free seed potatoes.

Kunibe, who made a presentation on Tlingít potatoes and traditional gardening in Sitka last year, is hoping to schedule another trip to Sitka for a future presentation. Kunibe also wanted share this link from the USDA Agricultural Research Service about newly discovered nutritional benefits of potatoes, especially in regards to phytochemicals and cancer prevention.