Here is this week’s Sitka Local Foods Newsletter courtesy of Linda Wilson. Don’t forget, you can sign up for the e-newsletter by typing your e-mail address in the box on the left side of the page.
Click here to read this week’s Sitka Local Foods Network e-newsletter.
Screenshot of Anchorage Daily News' Alaska Newsreader blog mention of the Sitka Farmers Market
It looks there’s more media coverage of the Sitka Farmers Market. The Alaska Newsreader blog on the Anchorage Daily News Web site has a link to the Daily Sitka Sentinel story (as it ran in the Juneau Empire) and a link to the Sitka Local Foods Network Web site.
Click here to see the ADN’s Alaska Newsreader item about the Sitka Farmers Market
A screenshot from the Augusta Chronicle Web site showing a story and photo about the Sitka Farmers Market
They’re talking about the Sitka Local Foods Network in Augusta, Ga.
The Augusta Chronicle’s Web site ran a version of a story that originally appeared July 17 in the Daily Sitka Sentinel and then was picked up by the Associated Press news wire. The article includes a photo of Sitka gardener Florence Welsh showing off some broccoli and cauliflower she was getting ready to sell at the first Sitka Farmers Market on July 18.
The Juneau Empire also picked up the same article to post on its Web site (the Augusta Chronicle and Juneau Empire both are owned by Morris Publications out of Augusta).
Anyway, click on the links below to check out the article on both newspaper sites.
Click here to read the article from the Augusta Chronicle’s Web site.
Click here to see the article from the Juneau Empire’s Web site.
A screenshot of the Juneau Empire's Web site with the article about the Sitka Farmers Market
Did your home garden produce a bumper crop and you have more vegetables than you can handle?
The Sitka Local Foods Network is accepting donations for its vegetable stand at the next Sitka Farmers Market, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 1, at the Alaska Native Brotherhood Hall. All proceeds from produce sold at the booth go to support community projects sponsored by the non-profit Sitka Local Foods Network.
Volunteers also are needed to help with set up and take down of booths. For more information, call Linda Wilson at 747-3096 (nights).
Lisa Sadleir-Hart, Maybelle Filler and Hilary Martin sell produce at the Sitka Farmers Market booth on July 18.
Shoppers look for deals at the first Sitka Farmers Market of the summer on July 18, 2009.
There have been a couple of new photo albums posted on the Sitka Local Foods Network page on Shutterfly (a photo-sharing site). There is an album of photos from Saturday’s first Sitka Farmers Market of the 2009 summer. There also is a photo album of photos from 2008 events, and an album of historical photos from 1898 to the late 1920s (used with permission from the Sitka Historical Society and Museum).
Click this link to go to the Shutterfly site where there are some new photo albums posted.
Sarah Williams shows off a hat she made to sell at the Sitka Farmers Market.
1. The first of five scheduled Sitka Farmers Markets this summer takes place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, July 18, at the Alaska Native Brotherhood Hall on Katlian Street.
2. More than 20 local vendors will be selling fresh veggies, fish, art and more.
3. The Gajaa Heen Dancers will be selling fry bread as a fundraising project for the group. Other ready-to-eat food includes black cod, crepes and fresh oysters.
4. Live music will be provided by the Sitka Blues Band inside the hall. Also, an open jam session will take place under a tent outside — all musicians are welcome.
5. Registered participants in the state’s Women, Infants and Children (WIC) supplemental nutrition program can exchange $5 vouchers for fresh produce from one of several approved stands. The Sitka Farmers Market is the first market in Southeast Alaska authorized to process WIC vouchers.
6. The children’s craft activity this market focuses on healthy eating and is called “eating by the colors.” Please bring the kids!
7. Creating the Sitka Farmers Market was selected by Sitka residents as a top community health priority at the 2008 Sitka Health Summit.
8. This event is sponsored by the Sitka Local Foods Network, Alaska Native Brotherhood/Alaska Native Sisterhood, Baranof Island Housing Authority, Sitka Conservation Society, the Alaska Farmers Market Association and the SEARHC Health Promotion and Diabetes Prevention programs.
Musicians play in the jam session tent
Grilling black cod collars from the Alaska Longline Fisherman's Association
The first of five Sitka Farmers Markets this summer will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. this Saturday, July 18, at the ANB Hall. The Sitka Blues Band will provide music inside the hall and other local musicians are welcome to join an open jam session outside the hall. The children’s activity focuses on healthy eating and is called “eating by the colors.”
Over 20 local vendors will be on hand to sell, barter or trade fresh vegetables, herbs, teas, flowers, berries, plants, salmon, art and more. Ready-to-eat food includes grilled black cod, crepes, fry bread and more. Additionally, there will be information on home gardening and building your own greenhouse. The Sitka Farmers Market is the first farmers market in Southeast Alaska authorized to accept WIC vouchers.
For more information, contact Linda Wilson at 747-3096.
Checking out the first 2008 Sitka Farmers Market
The publicity poster for the movie Eating Alaska
The movie, “Eating Alaska,” will be shown at 7 p.m. on Thursday, July 16, at the Kettleson Memorial Library in Sitka. The movie is free. “Eating Alaska” is a documentary movie by Sitka filmmaker Ellen Frankenstein about how Alaskans make their food choices. In addition to the movie, other Sitka residents will be on hand to discuss the harvesting and drying of seaweed, local medicinal plants, wild edibles and cultivating wild plants.
(Photo — Master gardener Bob Gorman shows off germinating seed starts during a free garden workshop in March. He will lead another workshop on July 8.)
SEARHC, Cooperative Extension host free garden workshops
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 third 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 remaining workshops take place from 1:30 to 3 p.m. on Wednesday, July 8, and Wednesday, Sept. 9.
These classes will be hosted at the SEARHC Community Health Services Building third-floor conference room in Sitka, but 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 hasn’t fully arrived, 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 two workshops in the four-workshop series were March 11 and May 6. The topics for the two remaining workshops are:
* July 8 — Gathering and pest management.
* 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 audeoconferencing sites, should contact Maybelle for other options. Maybelle also has extra copies of the handouts for those who miss any of the garden workshops.
Sitka Local Foods Network 
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