January 14, 2015 by Charles Bingham

• Sitka Local Foods Network seeks a coordinator for our garden mentoring education program

The Sitka Local Foods Network is looking to contract with a Sitka resident to coordinate our garden mentoring education program.

This contract run from spring through fall 2015, and the coordinator will be in charge of developing curricula, teaching classes, obtaining supplies, and providing evaluation of the program. A full list of job duties and expectations can be found in the linked document at the bottom of this article.

Applicants should have at least 3-5 years of varied vegetable gardening experience, preferably in Southeast Alaska. They also should have 3-5 years of project coordination experience, as well as demonstrated communication, organizational, and teaching/mentoring skills.

The garden mentoring project began in 2014 when two families of first-time gardeners were chosen to receive help planning and building a simple garden to grow four relatively easy plants for Sitka (kale, rhubarb, potatoes, lettuce). In 2015 the program is expanding to provide mentoring service to four new first-time gardening families, plus the two families from 2014 will receive a second year of mentoring as they learn a few more difficult to grow plants (such as carrots). There are six classes with each family, and they usually are open to the public.

Applicants should submit a letter of interest and resume by Wednesday, Jan. 28, to sitkalocalfoodsnetwork@gmail.com. Please put “Garden Mentor Coordinator” in your email subject line. The contract pays $1,500 in three installments of $500 each over the summer. Questions about the contract can be directed to sitkalocalfoodsnetwork@gmail.com.

• SLFN garden mentoring coordinator contract information

October 2, 2014 by Charles Bingham

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

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.

September 23, 2014 by Charles Bingham

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

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.

September 17, 2014 by Charles Bingham

• Sitka Local Foods Network education committee seeks new families for garden mentor program

For a second year (2014-15), the Sitka Local Foods Network (SLFN) education committee wants to help families in Sitka learn how easy it can be to grow some of their own food. We are looking for up to four families who would like to learn about and try vegetable gardening in their own backyard through our Family Garden Mentor project.

Through a series of six workshops to be held at the families’ homes, Sitka Local Foods Network education committee volunteers will help the families:

Choose a location for a vegetable bed (learning about sun, drainage, etc.),
Build (or find) a planter/container or raised bed, and acquire soil and soil amendments,
Learn about soil and prepare the soil for planting,
Plant 2-4 easy-to-grow plants — specifically potatoes, lettuce, kale, and maybe a perennial edible such as rhubarb or fruit bushes,
Learn to take care of their plants over the summer — teaching how to care for and pick the vegetables (without killing the plant),
Harvest potatoes, and
Cook a meal using the vegetables they have grown.

The Sitka Local Foods Network will provide all materials — soil, lumber, seeds, etc. — free to the participating families. Families will be expected to provide the labor, enthusiasm for gardening, and healthy appetites to eat the vegetables they grow.

The requirement to own your property or home has been dropped for 2015. Interested families must meet only three requirements:

They must be first-time vegetable gardeners (this project is meant to help people who are just starting to garden),
They must want to try vegetable gardening and be committed to participating throughout the summer, and
They must agree to let others come and attend classes at their property.

Other criteria, such as availability and interest in a second year of mentoring, will also be used to help select the final four families. Families that are not selected will be placed on a waiting list in the hope of future continuation and expansion of this project.

The Sitka Local Foods Network has expanded the program this year to include more families and to include at least two households living in rental housing that will garden in portable containers or planters appropriately sized for their space (in case moving is necessary). We also will offer a second year of mentoring to previous participants, so families can expand their knowledge and try growing more “difficult” vegetables such as carrots and green onions.

Workshops may start as early as this fall or winter with selecting the site, ramp up in the spring of 2015 and run through September’s late harvest. First-year classes will focus on the easiest-to-grow vegetables (and fruit) in Sitka — potatoes, lettuce, kale, and rhubarb.

Families interested in participating should contact Michelle Putz at 747-2708, and provide a name, address, and contact phone number. Please contact Michelle by Monday, Oct. 6, if you hope to participate in the 2014-15 family garden mentor project.

September 6, 2014 by Charles Bingham

• Meet your vendors: Linda Wilson of Seaview Garden and Jewelry Arte

(This is part of a new series of “Meet your vendors” articles, where Sitka Local Foods Network Intern McLane Ritzel is writing features about our regular Sitka Farmers Market vendors.)

Taking a stroll through this summer’s Sitka Farmers Markets, several perfectly baked rhubarb pies may have caught your eye. Outside in the tent next to the Sitka Local Foods Network produce tent, stood the talented gardener and craftswoman Linda Wilson, a Sitka local for the past three decades who owns Seaview Garden and Jewelry Arte.

Wilson’s father was in the USDA Forest Service. Wilson was raised in California until the age of 6, when her family moved to Ketchikan. A few years later, her father moved the family to Sitka and then to Juneau for his work. Wilson attended high school in Juneau, but yearned to be back in Sitka where they had bought a house in 1975 out on Halibut Point Road. The family returned to Sitka after Wilson’s father retired from the USDA Forest Service in 1982. Wilson lost both her mother and her brother to illnesses, and has been taking care of her father in Sitka since his retirement.

In Sitka, Wilson fell into gardening, because outside of the house is where she felt she had the most control and freedom. Inside the house was dad’s territory. She ripped out her salmonberry bushes in 2004, and learned how to grow broccoli when she met Florence Welsh. Today, she grows carrots, snap peas, greens including kale, collard, and lettuce, and rhubarb. She loves composting and mostly uses coffee grounds and spent grains. At the Sitka Farmers Markets, she sold collard greens and delicious pies. Strawberry-rhubarb is her favorite.

This year, she has been growing zucchini and tomato plants inside her newly established high tunnel via a NRCS grant. She thanks those in the community who helped her put up the high tunnel, and particularly market vendor Kerry MacLane’s instrumental assistance. Even though she has retired from the Sitka Local Foods Network board of directors, Linda was one of the original board members. She also was one of the first managers of the Sitka Farmers Market, and she organized the first Let’s Grow, Sitka! education event.

Wilson loves making homemade pizza from scratch with homegrown tomatoes, onions, sliced zucchini, nasturtiums, broccoli, garlic, and basil. She says, “I grow tomatoes because it’s a challenge, and I’m gonna get it.” She also makes a mean pesto with carrot top greens. When she produces an overabundance of produce, she donates to the Salvation Army.

She loves to go mushroom foraging, and also picks berries to make a variety of jams. Her favorite is blueberry-huckleberry jam.

From 1985 until 2007, Wilson managed one of the local gift shops in town, where they sold authentic Russian imports. From 2003 to 2006, she also worked on a cruise ship in the Baltic Sea where she lectured on Russian arts and crafts, knowledge she had gained while managing the gift shop. Today, she works part-time with the Sitka Economic Development Association (SEDA), takes care of her father, and makes beautiful sculpted wire jewelry with gemstones.

Every February, Wilson makes a two-week trip down to one of the biggest jewelry shows in the world. She has attended the show 12 out of the past 13 years. Her favorite stones are fossils: coral, ammonites, and sand dollars, because, she says, “They used to be living.” She has a rock shop in her house where she houses her jewelry making studio with beautiful stones and lapidary equipment including a slab saw, trim saw, grinder, and rock tumbler, throughout. “Nature makes amazing things.”

When she is not out in the garden, tending to her father, or making jewelry, Wilson loves “petting kitty bellies.” They have two cats, Spike and Sandy, at home, though many more are buried out back. “Serving as compost,” Wilson jokes.

If you don’t see her at the Sitka Farmers Market, make sure to check out Linda Wilson’s beautiful jewelry at the Island Artists Gallery, an artists cooperative on Lincoln Street. Her jewelry makes great gifts for yourself, family members, and friends.

June 14, 2014 by Charles Bingham

• Sitka Local Foods Network education committee to host fourth classes in new garden mentor program

Harvesting vegetables will be the theme of the fourth round of classes in the Sitka Local Foods Network’s new garden mentoring program.

This year, the SLFN education committee chose two families from a list of first-time gardeners to mentor for the summer. The two families agreed to allow other first-time gardeners to attend the six proposed classes at their homes, in exchange for help building their gardens from more experienced Sitka gardeners.

These free classes are open to all first-time gardeners in Sitka. The classes will be similar at each location, so people wanting to participate only need to sign up for one class. New classes will be added as the spring/summer progress, so keep watching for more. New participants are welcome, and a review of previous classes will be available.

The first class was on garden preparation, the second class was on planting, and the third class was on garden maintenance. The fourth round of classes will focus on early season harvest. Gardeners will learn about harvesting plants in a way that ensures the continued health of the plants and a long-term harvest throughout the summer. Uses and recipes for harvested plants will also be discussed.

The two vegetable harvest classes will be:

Friday, June 20, 4:30 p.m. at Anna Bradley’s house, 4764 Halibut Point Road.
Monday, July 7, 7 p.m. at Tami O’Neill’s house, 2309 Merganser Drive.

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

May 16, 2014 by Charles Bingham

• Sitka Local Foods Network education committee to host third classes in new garden mentor program

Garden maintenance will be the theme of the third round of classes in the Sitka Local Foods Network’s new garden mentoring program.

The first class was on garden preparation, and the second class was on planting. During the third round of classes on garden maintenance we will review choosing easy vegetables to plant and how to plant them, and then discuss and do garden maintenance (weeding, thinning, spacing plants/transplanting, inspecting for good and bad bugs, disease, slugs, deeper watering, hilling/propping up potatoes, etc.). If new people attend, we will review garden preparation, too.

The two garden maintenance classes will be:

Sunday, May 25, 4 p.m. at Tami O’Neill’s house, 2309 Merganser Drive.
Friday, June 6, 4:30 p.m. at Anna Bradley’s house, 4764 Halibut Point Road.

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

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April 14, 2014 by Charles Bingham

• Sitka Local Foods Network education committee to host first classes with new garden mentoring program

The Sitka Local Foods Network education committee has chosen its two families for its new garden mentoring program, and will begin hosting classes for first-time gardeners at the homes of our selected families.

To protect the privacy of the selected families, they will be referred to as Family A and Family B and the locations of their gardens will be given when first-time gardeners call to RSVP for the classes. These free classes are open to all first-time gardeners in Sitka. Family A lives near the end of Halibut Point Road, and Family B lives midway down HPR. The classes will be similar at each location, so people wanting to participate only need to sign up for one class. New classes will be added as the spring/summer progress, so keep watching for more.

Our confirmed classes so far:

Garden preparation class (choosing a location, building planters, soil and soil requirements, etc.), note a free planter box will be given to one participant in each garden-prep class.

Family A, 5 p.m. on Wednesday, April 23
Family B, 4 p.m. on Sunday, April 27

Planting class (easy-to-grow plants, how, where and when to plant, planting)

Family A, 5 p.m. on Friday, May 2
Family B, 4 p.m. on Sunday, May 4

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

March 25, 2014 by Charles Bingham

• Sitka Local Foods Network education committee recruiting families for garden mentor program

The Sitka Local Foods Network education committee wants to help families in Sitka learn how easy it can be to grow some of their own food. We are looking for two families of novice gardeners who want to learn about and try vegetable gardening in their own backyard through our new Family Garden Mentor project.

Through a series of six or seven workshops that will be held at the families’ homes, Sitka Local Foods Network volunteers will help the families:

Choose a location for a vegetable bed (learning about sun, drainage, etc.),
Build a raised bed, and acquire soil and soil amendments,
Learn about soil and prepare the soil for planting
Plant 2-4 easy-to-grow plants – specifically potatoes, lettuce, kale, and maybe a perennial edible like rhubarb or fruit bushes
Learn to take care of their plants over the summer — teaching how to care for and pick the vegetables (without killing the plant),
Harvest potatoes, and
Cook a meal using the vegetables they have grown

The Sitka Local Foods Network will provide all materials — soil, lumber, seeds, etc. — free to the participating families. Families will be expected to provide the labor and enthusiasm for gardening.

Interested families must meet four requirements: 1) they must be first-time vegetable gardeners (this project is meant to help people who are just starting to garden), 2) they must want to try vegetable gardening and be committed to participating throughout the summer, 3) they must own their own property, and 4) they must agree to let others come and attend classes at their property. Other criteria will also be used to help select the final two families. Families that are not selected will be placed on a waiting list in the hope of future continuation and expansion of this project.

Workshops will start in April with selecting the site and run through September’s late harvest. Classes will focus on some of the easiest-to-grow vegetables (and fruit) in Sitka — potatoes, lettuce, kale, and rhubarb.

Families interested in participating should contact Michelle Putz at 747-2708 and provide a name, address, and contact phone number.

May 20, 2013 by Charles Bingham

• Blatchley Middle School students learn about local soils and local foods

(The following is a letter to the editor sent to the Daily Sitka Sentinel from Blatchley Middle School earth science teacher Karen Lucas. The letter ran in the Thursday, May 16, 2013, edition, and Karen provided the Sitka Local Foods Network with a copy to post on our site.)

Dear Editor,

For our soil conservation studies, the seventh grade earth science students at Blatchley Middle School had a local soils expert come to class.

On a very sunny Monday, a couple weeks ago, Kerry MacLane, clad in bib overalls and broad brimmed hat, with his loaded-up wheelbarrow with five types of local soil, mini-greenhouse, plant starts, a very informative visual presentation, a tubular water wall, and a scavenger hunt up his sleeve that included a solar electric panel, solar powered fan, kale plants, newest compost pile, garlic and raspberry canes, wheeled his way down the halls of Blatchley.

After a concise basic powerpoint on local soils, greenhouse productivity, where our food comes from, and how Sitka disposes of waste; and learning that optimum soil for Sitka is one-third native soils, one-third compost and one-third sand; that starfish and herring eggs are good for the garden, too, and the lively discussion therewith; two teams were supplied each with a different scavenger hunt, and the class departed for the Blatchley Community Garden behind the school to identify items on their list.

Students nibbled on chives, kale and rhubarb, and generally exulted in being outdoors on that fine day in spring. Returning to the classroom, discussion ensued about the Farmer’s Markets, community greenhouse project, and the Sitka Local Foods Network, and how students could get involved in local gardening at home or in the community.

Kerry has certainly helped raise the consciousness of Blatchley students, and Sitkans alike, has been, and continues to be, instrumental in helping Sitka to progress toward sustainability in growing our own food, promoting community gardens, spearheading the Sitka Farmers Markets, and local greenhouse project that is underfoot, for all this, and for spending that Monday with us in the indoor and outdoor classroom, the Blatchley Middle School seventh grade earth science students are grateful; so, on their behalf and mine, thank you, Mr. MacLane, for sharing your knowledge with us about local soils, making relevant and useful, the ‘dirt on dirt.’

Karen Lucas
Earth Science Teacher
Blatchley Middle School