UAF Cooperative Extension Service

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• Sitka Seafood Festival to hold debriefing meeting on Tuesday (Aug. 17)

Now that the inaugural Sitka Seafood Festival is over, the steering committee will host a debriefing meeting at 7 p.m. on Tuesday night, Aug. 17, at the wine bar at the New Bayview Restaurant. The debriefing session will be informal and shouldn’t last long. People who can’t make it, but have comments, can contact festival coordinator Alicia Peavey.

To learn more about the Sitka Seafood Festival or to find out how you can be a part of the second annual festival, send an e-mail to sitkaseafoodfestival@gmail.com. You also can contact Alicia Peavey at alaska_al33@hotmail.com or 1-928-607-4845.

Anyway, here is a slideshow of scenes from the inaugural Sitka Seafood Festival. A similar slideshow can be found at the Sitka Local Foods Network’s photo site on Shutterfly.

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• Sitka Spud Walk to take place on Thursday (Aug. 12)

Photo courtesy of USDA Agricultural Research Service Image Gallery / Photo by Scott Bauer -- The average American eats 142 pounds of potatoes a year, making the tubers the vegetable of choice in this country

Photo courtesy of USDA Agricultural Research Service Image Gallery / Photo by Scott Bauer -- The average American eats 142 pounds of potatoes a year, making the tubers the vegetable of choice in this country

Jodie Anderson with the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station will host a walking tour of local potato patches on Thursday (Aug. 12).

The one-and-a-half-hour walk starts at 4:30 p.m. at the Crescent Harbor Shelter, near the corner of Lincoln Street and Harbor Drive. The tour will visit several of Sitka’s potato gardens and participants should be prepared to walk about 1 1/2 miles in whatever weather conditions exist at the time.

The UAF Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station conducts potato-growing trials statewide to evaluate various potato varieties and to assess potato plant diseases in Alaska communities. There is no charge for the tour, which is open to the public.

For more information, contact the Sitka office of the UAF Cooperative Extension Service at 747-9413.

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• Sitka Farmers Market’s third season opens on Saturday, July 17, at ANB Hall

The Sitka Local Foods Network will host its third summer of Sitka Farmers Markets with five markets that start on July 17 and take place on alternate Saturdays through Sept. 11. The Sitka Farmers Markets give Sitka residents a chance to buy and sell locally produced food and crafts.

The Sitka Farmers Markets take place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on July 17, 31, Aug. 14, 28 and Sept. 11, at the Alaska Native Brotherhood Hall (235 Katlian St.). The markets feature local seafood (fresh, frozen, and cooked, ready to eat), locally grown and harvested fruits and vegetables, baked bread, locally picked berries, jams and jellies, cooking demonstrations, live entertainment, locally brewed and roasted coffee, music, local arts and crafts, and a variety of other items gathered or made in Sitka. We emphasize local products and lots of fun. You also can vote for the Sitka Farmers Market in the America’s Favorite Farmers Markets contest by following the links at http://www.sitkalocalfoodsnetwork.org/.

Sitka Local Foods Network board members Natalie Sattler, left, with parsnips, Lisa Sadleir-Hart, center, with turnips, and Doug Osborne, right, with turnips, show off some of the produce for sale at the final Sitka Farmers Market of 2009.

Sitka Local Foods Network board members Natalie Sattler, left, with parsnips, Lisa Sadleir-Hart, center, with turnips, and Doug Osborne, right, with turnips, show off some of the produce for sale at the final Sitka Farmers Market of 2009.

As a bonus, Medicine For The People, one of the bands in Sitka for this weekend’s Homeskillet Fest 2010, will play during this Saturday’s Sitka Farmers Market.

“The Sitka Farmers Market is like a carnival every other Saturday,” said Kerry MacLane, Sitka Local Foods Network Board President and Co-Coordinator of the Sitka Farmers Market. “It’s a fun community space to enjoy with your family or to meet your friends for fresh coffee and baked goods. There is live music, cooking demonstrations, art, and, of course, fresh veggies, fruit and seafood.”

“In 1970 there were only 340 farmers markets in America, and by 2006 there were more than 4,385. I think this dramatic growth is attributed to the many layers of social and economic benefits these markets offer,” said Doug Osborne, a health educator at the SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium (SEARHC). “Last year, several participants said Sitka’s markets were among the highlights of their summer.”

The Sitka Farmers Market started as a community project that came out of a health priority planning meeting at the 2008 Sitka Health Summit. This event is sponsored by the Sitka Local Foods Network, Alaska Native Brotherhood Camp No. 1, Alaska Native Sisterhood Camp No. 4, Baranof Island Housing Authority, Sitka Conservation Society, the Alaska Farmers Market Association and the SEARHC Health Promotion and Diabetes Prevention programs.

Vendor fees are just $15 per market. Due to construction in the parking lot, only indoor booth space is available this year. We are the first farmers market in Southeast Alaska to accept WIC coupons. To learn more or to sign up for a table, contact Sitka Farmers Market Co-Coordinator Linda Wilson at 747-3096 (evenings and weekends) or e-mail lawilson87@hotmail.com. Vendor rules, registration forms and other information for potential vendors can be found at http://www.sitkalocalfoodsnetwork.org/.

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• Wealth of resources available to learn about traditional foods

A selection of traditional plant books that are in popular use in Southeast Alaska

A selection of traditional plant books that are in popular use in Southeast Alaska

Living in Southeast Alaska, Sitka residents are exposed to a wealth of traditional foods that grow in our forests or can be found along our beaches. But many Sitka residents aren’t familiar with which plants are safe to eat, and which plants they should avoid. They also aren’t familiar with when are the prime times to gather certain plants.

In recent years, several books have been published to help teach people more about traditional plants and how they can be used. There also have been other groups, such as the Sitka Tribe of Alaska’s Kayaaní Commission, the Sealaska Heritage Institute and the Alaska Native Knowledge Network, that have posted traditional plant information online, including complete curriculum outlines for teachers to use in their classrooms.

Some of the more popular books used in Sitka (many of these can be found at Old Harbor Books) include:

  • Wild Edible & Medicinal Plants: Alaska, Canada & Pacific Northwest Rainforest: An Introductory Pocket Trail Guide (Volumes 1 and 2) by Carol R. Biggs
  • Wild Edible and Poisonous Plants of Alaska by the University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service (FNH-00028)
  • Collecting and Using Alaska’s Wild Berries and Other Wild Products by the University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service (FNH-00120)

In addition to these books, the Sealaska Heritage Institute has created curriculum resources using the Tlingít and Haida languages that are built around using traditional foods (links on language names go to Grades K-2 versions, but upper-lever courses available on main curriculum link). Examples of the Tlingít and Haida Grade K-2 courses for Plants are linked below as PDF documents, but there also are separate courses for beach greens, berries, cedar trees, hemlock trees, spruce trees, herring, hooligan, salmon, sea mammals, as well as for other cultural knowledge such as canoes, totem poles and Elizabeth Peratrovich.

The Alaska Native Knowledge Network also some curriculum resources posted online for Tlingít, Haida and Tsimshian culture, including some by Sitka teacher Pauline Duncan. The Alaska Native Plant Society has some information on traditional plant use, but the group is geared more toward the Anchorage area. The Alaska Natural History Program publishes an online Alaska Rare Plant Field Guide. The University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service has online and printed guides available on plant identification, berries and berry use, and even has online tutorials about how to home can jams and jellies.

On a related note, the SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium (SEARHC) Diabetes Program will be turning its focus to traditional living classes for 2011. The program will focus on traditional foods and activities to teach its Native patients and other community members how to prevent and manage their diabetes (the SEARHC Diabetes Program operates throughout Southeast Alaska, not just in Sitka). The SEARHC Diabetes Program is looking for resident experts in traditional living (fishing, hunting, gathering, preparation, storage, gardening, etc.) who can help teach these skills to others. The program also wants to learn what types of classes people want to see offered in their communities. For more information, contact SEARHC Health Educator Renae Mathson at 966-8797 or renae.mathson@searhc.org.

Sealaska Heritage Institute Tlingít plant curriculum (Grades K-2)

Sealaska Heritage Institute Haida plant curriculum (Grades K-2)

UAF Cooperative Extension Service Native Plants of Alaska page on devil’s club

Nellie’s Recipes: An ANTHC (Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium) Traditional Food Cookbook for Assisted Living Homes

Alaska Traditional Food Resources (list from Eat Smart Alaska program run by Alaska Division of Public Health)

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• Juneau Farmers Market to host weekly booths with Juneau Artists Market

The Juneau Farmers Market will start hosting weekly booths this Saturday as part of the Juneau Artists Market. The Juneau Farmers Market booths will be open from 10 a.m. to noon starting on Saturday, June 12, at the Juneau Arts and Culture Center, and running through the annual Juneau Farmers Market and Local Food Festival on Aug. 28.

A companion event to the Juneau Artists Market, which offers local arts and crafts, the Juneau Farmers Market will feature locally grown produce, cut flowers, homemade jams and jellies and baked goods. Plant starts also are welcome, so don’t toss your thinnings and starts. Instead, share them with another gardener. Juneau Farmers Market booth space is limited, so advance reservation required.

The season culminates in Juneau with the third annual Juneau Farmers Market and Local Food Festival from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 28, at the Juneau Arts and Culture Center. In past years, this was the only farmers market event in Juneau, so it’s nice to see weekly markets this year. Click the link above for more details on this larger annual event, which includes produce, fish, jams and jellies, baked breads and demonstrations about how to harvest and preserve local foods, or click this link for information from the Sustainable Juneau blog.

The Juneau Farmers Market would not be possible without its sponsors and partners: the Juneau Arts and Humanities Council, the Juneau Economic Development Council, the Juneau Commission on Sustainability, the Alaska State Division of Agriculture and the UAF Cooperative Extension Service.

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• Southeast Alaska Gardeners Conference and Garden Tours take place May 20-23 in Juneau

David Lendrum, co-president for the Southeast Alaska Master Gardeners Association this year, sent this invitation to Sitka gardeners about the Southeast Alaska Gardeners Conference and Garden Tours on May 20-23 in Juneau:

I would like to invite the Sitka local foods community to our biennial Southeast Garden Conference on May 20-23 at the University of Alaska Southeast-Juneau Campus (Auke Lake). The agenda will be available at our website, http://www.sealaskamastergardeners.org/.

The Extended Stay hotel by the airport has offered an rate of $79.00 per night to conference attendees.

Sitka’s own Florence Welsh of The Welsh Family Forget-Me-Not Gardens and Bob Gorman of the Sitka office of the University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service are featured speakers. They will be accompanied by Sam Benowitz of RainTree Nursery (Morton, Wash.), anthropological researcher Betsy Kunibe (Juneau), who has been exploring the early agriculture of Southeast Alaska, especially the early potato introduction to native peoples, and Dan Heims of Terra Nova Nurseries (Canby, Ore.), who has reinvented perennial gardening in our modern times.

We also will have a trade show and demonstration venue, and if the Sitka Local Foods Network would like to have a display we would welcome it. You can call me with any questions,

David Lendrum
Landscape Alaska, landscapealaska@gci.net
Co-President of the Southeast Alaska Master Gardeners Association for this year
907-321-4149

Some of the conference highlights include workshops on tool use and maintenance, planter/container design and maintenance, nutrition in wild plants, landscaping to attract native pollinators, birds in the garden, greenhouses in Alaska, low-maintenance landscape design, native plant propagation, meconopsis, fruiting plants for Southeast Alaska, organic edibles, creating flower arrangements to last, rock setting and plant choice for Southeast Alaska, tree grafting, creating color and flash with new perennials, perennials around the world, taking cuttings and how to get roots on sticks, and compost and worms. A PDF file to the agenda is linked below.

Southeast Alaska Gardeners Conference and Garden Tours flier

Southeast Alaska Gardeners Conference and Garden Tours poster

Southeast Alaska Gardeners Conference and Garden Tours agenda

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• Sitka gardeners to meet Tuesday, April 20, at UAS-Sitka Campus

Local gardener Evening Star Grutter of Eve's Farm, shown here with some of her homemade jams during the Aug. 29, 2009, Sitka Farmers Market, will be the guest speaker at April's meeting of the Sitka Gardeners Club

Local gardener Evening Star Grutter of Eve's Farm, shown here with some of her homemade jams during the Aug. 29, 2009, Sitka Farmers Market, will be the guest speaker at April's meeting of the Sitka Gardeners Club

The Sitka Gardeners Club’s monthly get-together takes place from 7-8:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 20, in Room 106 at the University of Alaska Southeast-Sitka Campus on Japonski Island.

The get-together provides a venue for gardeners of all types, interests and skills to informally exchange ideas, information, seeds and growing tips. Share and learn from other gardeners with no dues or commitments other than good fellowship.

Sitka gardeners plan to meet on the third Tuesday of the month at the UAS-Sitka Campus. This month’s meeting will feature gardening tips from Evening Star Grutter of Eve’s Farm, and it is sponsored by UAS-Sitka Campus and the University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service. For more information, call Cheryl Stromme at 747-9473 or Bob Gorman at 747-9413.

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• Photo album from the 2010 ‘Let’s Grow Sitka!’ available

Lori Adams of Down To Earth U-Pick Gardens shows off a basket of produce she was giving away

Lori Adams of Down To Earth U-Pick Gardens shows off a basket of produce she was giving away

The Sitka Local Foods Network extends a big thank you to the more than 200 people who stopped by Sunday, March 14, for the “Let’s Grow Sitka!” garden show at Alaska Native Brotherhood Hall.

If you stopped by, you were able to check out booths from local gardeners who sell their surplus veggies, learn about Sitka’s first CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) venture, buy a new Sitka gardening handbook from Florence Welsh, pet some baby chicks, get your pressure canner gauge checked, start some seeds for the St. Peter’s Fellowship Farm, eat some Sisterhood Stew sold by the Alaska Native Sisterhood Camp No. 4, register for a master gardener certification course, learn about composting and slug control, and buy seeds for your own garden. Over the next few weeks, more details will be posted about some of the individual projects.

For now, click here to see a photo gallery from Let’s Grow Sitka! (look for the album with the Let’s Grow Sitka name). Keep an eye open, because there may be video links posted later, depending on how things turned out.

Sonja Koukel of the UAF Cooperative Extension Service's Juneau office checks pressure gauges for Perry Edwards of Sitka

Sonja Koukel of the UAF Cooperative Extension Service's Juneau office checks pressure gauges for Perry Edwards of Sitka

Let's Grow Sitka booths are still busy after closing time

Let's Grow Sitka booths are still busy after closing time

Lina and her mom hold one of several baby chicks owned by Andrew Thoms

Lina and her mom hold one of several baby chicks owned by Andrew Thoms

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• Sitka gardeners to meet Tuesday, March 16, at UAS-Sitka Campus

There will be an informal get together for interested Sitka gardeners from 7-8:30 p.m. on Tuesday, March 16, in Room 106 at the University of Alaska Southeast-Sitka Campus on Japonski Island.

The get together is for gardeners of all types, interests, and skills to informally exchange ideas, information, seed catalogs and growing tips. Share and learn from other gardeners with no dues or commitments other than good fellowship. The March topic is getting growing.

Sitka gardeners plan to get together the third Tuesday of the month at the UAS-Sitka Campus. This month’s meeting is sponsored by UAS-Sitka Campus and the University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service. For more information, call Cheryl Stromme at 747-9473 or Bob Gorman at 747-9413.

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• ‘Let’s Grow Sitka!’ garden show takes place Sunday, March 14

All gardeners and would-be gardeners are encouraged to attend the second annual “Let’s Grow Sitka!” educational and social event for Sitka gardeners. Let’s Grow Sitka! takes place from noon until 3 p.m. on Sunday, March 14, at the Alaska Native Brotherhood Hall on Katlian Street.

Learn about home greenhouses, how to prepare your soil, and what to do with all those slugs. Buy seeds and plant starts. Swap ideas and tips. Come learn, share, and get ready to grow your garden. Learn about plans for the Sitka Farmers Markets this summer. Let’s Grow Sitka is organized by the Sitka Local Foods Network and is part of the 10-day Arti Gras Sitka Music and Arts Festival, which takes place March 5-14.

Master gardeners are encouraged to sign up to share their personal experience on how to create a successful garden in Sitka. Also, anyone with a garden-related product or service to sell is invited to participate. Some of the expected booths are from the University of Alaska Cooperative Extension Service, St. Peter’s Fellowship Farm, Garden Ventures, Solexx Greenhouses, Harry Race, Down To Earth U-Pick Garden, Sitka Global Warming Group (garden-matching program) and many others.

There still are a few FREE tables available for vendors, education and demonstrations. For more information or to reserve table space, contact Linda Wilson in the evenings at 747-3096.

Doug Osborne answers questions at the Sitka Farmers Market table during the 2009 Let's Grow Sitka garden show

Doug Osborne answers questions at the Sitka Farmers Market table during the 2009 Let's Grow Sitka garden show

Sitka residents wander the booths during the 2009 Let's Grow Sitka garden show

Sitka residents wander the booths during the 2009 Let's Grow Sitka garden show

Mike and Robin run the White's Inc./Harry Race table during the 2009 Let's Grow Sitka garden show

Mike and Robin run the White's Inc./Harry Race table during the 2009 Let's Grow Sitka garden show