This blog is for those of you who would like to add more local foods to your diet, meet local farmers, learn new recipes based on seasonal eating and preserving the summer harvest. Food is political too, so here you can learn about and influence local and national agriculture issues, and participate in helping to rebuild the Alaska food system. May each of you chew happily and wisely.
Ellen Vande Visse, MS, was an organic market gardener from 1986-2006. She instructs and consults about sustainable agriculture, compost, compost tea, and eco-gardening through her own Good Earth Garden School and for UAA. She is a published author about Alaska gardening. For more info, please see goodearthgardenschool.com.
NEWSLETTER
Sustainable Agriculture for Alaska
This July-Sept., 2008 Cooperative Extension newsletter includes a story by Matt Shaul of Cranberry Ridge Farm on how his Wasilla farm got started in goat cheese production.
EATING LOCAL
High grocery bills spur CSA interest
Read this June 9, 2008 Fairbanks News Miner story on three Fairbanks-area CSAs and growing demand for their local produce.
DNR's new farm, food, etc. directory
This Excel spreadsheet includes 16 categories from farms to farmers markets, herbs to aquaculture. Provided by the Div. of Agriculture, Department of Natural Resources
Find local produce, eggs, fowl and meat nearby.
WEB RESOURCES
Envisions a future food system based on principles of high quality and taste, environmental sustainability, and social justice.
Helpful website to find farmers' markets, family farms, and other sources of sustainably grown food. Local producers also register on this site.
Dedicated to educating the public on a sustainable food and agriculture system that is economically viable, environmentally sound, socially just, and humane.
The nation's leading advocate for farm and ranch land conservation.
Community Food Security Coalition
Dedicated to building strong, sustainable, local and regional food systems that ensure access to affordable, nutritious, and culturally appropriate food.
Dedicated to restoring nutrient-dense foods to the human diet through education, research and activism.
Utilizing Wild Plants - 6/28/2009 11:51 pm
Finding Quality Food: - 6/28/2009 11:30 pm
Food, Inc. is Released—Can You Help Bring It Here? - 6/27/2009 7:57 am
Lawns in Rows? - 6/17/2009 9:10 pm
Come Join the Discussion - 6/16/2009 11:46 am
Upcoming Local Ag Edu Events sponsored by the Anchorage Cooperative Extension - 4/20/2009 2:42 pm
Upcoming Agriculture Marketing Conference has info for Everyone - 4/7/2009 12:03 pm
Mushrooms & Permaculture Spring Events - 4/1/2009 11:42 am
More of the Valley's prime farmland is on the chopping block - 3/7/2009 8:46 am
George DeVault, of The Seed Savers Exchange is coming to AK - 2/2/2009 2:35 pm
Local Agriculture Events & Opportunities - 1/19/2009 1:43 pm
Alaska Food and Farm Directory Survey - 12/11/2008 6:24 pm
EATING ALASKA COMES TO ANCHORAGE - 12/1/2008 3:26 pm
Alaska Division of Agriculture Seeks Community Comments on 2009 Strategic Plan - 11/24/2008 4:51 pm
Community voices needed to support Ak's food system - 11/12/2008 11:07 am
About root cellars - 10/24/2008 5:10 pm
Stocking up for winter offers comfort and security - 10/16/2008 9:55 pm
Dear Mr. President-elect.... - 10/16/2008 6:46 pm
Ethan Berkowitz Unveils Agriculture, Food Security Plan - 10/11/2008 9:08 am
Palmer's first Potato Pageant Wed Oct 8th - 10/7/2008 7:51 pm
Farmers' Market Update from Arctic Organics - 10/6/2008 4:52 pm
Are you a Bioneer? - 9/25/2008 10:57 am
JUNE 28, 2009 - 11:51 PM
Do wild herbs qualify as local food? You betcha!
Take note—here is an opportunity to learn about wild and medicinal herbs in SC Alaska. In this wild-crafting workshop, you learn what to pick, how to prepare and eat, and how to make herbal medicines.
Plant Spirit Medicine Retreat
The Food and Medicine at Your Back Door
Homer, AK
July 9-12
• Learn to develop a spiritual relationship with plants through skills of direct communication and
expanded awareness
• Explore the healing and medicinal power of plants in a secluded peaceful setting
• Learn to Identify local wild plants and their medicinal properties
JUNE 28, 2009 - 11:30 PM
We’re exploring local food, right? Well, locally produced food is no better than imported food if it lacks vitality and nutrients. Ailing vegetables and fruits rescued by toxic chemicals are not healthy for anybody. And what fun is a pithy strawberry or bitter broccoli?
So how do you distinguish the quality of your produce before you buy it? There is a way. Allow me to introduce the fascinating term “brix”. Brix is a quick scientific measure of the sugar levels in those fruits and vegetables.
Did I say SUGAR? Yes, this is the one time more sugar means more health! The larger the brix number, the more you rejoice. Why? More plant sugar means higher food quality. It just so happens that plant sugar levels tell you the status of the plant’s overall health regarding vitamin and mineral content, trace minerals, their proportions and balance, enzymes, vitality, and yes, sweetness.
JUNE 27, 2009 - 7:57 AM
I'm getting very excited to see the movie, Food, Inc. and I am not usually a movie go-er. This is a documentary film about how food is really produced. I’ve been hearing fascinating excerpts and interviews as the camera zooms in on corporate practices and interviews outspoken critics like Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser.
There’s just one problem. Food, Inc. is showing in cities in the Lower 48 states, but where can we see it in Alaska?
Dear Readers, can you help? Can you call a few theatres and urge them to schedule this? Can you get a copy yourself and show it to groups? Food, Inc. sounds worthy of much discussion. Perhaps it can hasten a food revolution.
JUNE 17, 2009 - 9:10 PM
I just saw an amazing aerial photo that looked down on Anchorage in the 1950’s, just after the snow melted.
The checkerboard of city lots were, well, striped. Yes, stripes. Each little house sat surrounded by land worked up into tidy garden rows. No one had a lawn. Every yard was entirely devoted to growing vegetables and berries.
That adds up to lot of fresh food production! And how many potatoes did it take to see these settlers through the long winters? I presume if the photo could zoom inside those houses, we’d see shelves of canning jars full of sauerkraut, salmon, preserves, and vegetable bounty. Talk about security and self-reliance with a vegetable patch!
JUNE 16, 2009 - 11:46 AM
The food chain is getting weird with food poisoning scares, recalls, contaminants, and pathogens. This gives us all the more reason to become “localvores”—ones who eat locally produced foods as much as possible.
So Kim Sollien, the creator of this wonderful blog spot, asked me to take over, as she is swamped with concrete projects that get us Alaskans closer to food security. I’m honored and delighted to continue the writing to stimulate our collective thought.
Let me introduce myself. I am a sustainable agriculture college instructor, market gardener for 20 years, and an author of a book about Alaska gardening.
APRIL 20, 2009 - 2:42 PM
April 25—*"Container Vegetable Gardening"*, Master Gardener Mary Tilly, Alaska Mill, Feed & Garden Center, call the store to register.
April 29th- *Septic System Workshop* will be held from 5-9 p.m. at the
Cooperative Extension Service, 2221 E. Northern Lights. Find out how a
septic systems works, how to keep it working, what to do when it doesn't work and alternatives to conventional septic systems.
Call Lisa Wedin at 786-6341 to sign up.
May 2, 2009—* “The Well-Designed Mixed Garden: Building Beds and Borders with Trees, Shrubs, Perennials, Annuals, and Bulbs”* - nationally acclaimed
APRIL 7, 2009 - 12:03 PM
Are you interested in learning more about hosting tours on your farm? Do you have questions about whether or not you need a permit to provide samples at the farmers market? Have you thought about starting a CSA subscription box program with your produce, but aren’t sure what it takes? Are you a resturant owner looking to get more local food on your menu?
Join us at the first Agriculture Direct Marketing Conference, to be held April 15th - 16th at the Depot in Palmer! See the full agenda and registration forms at our web site www.dnr.alaska.gov/ag . Register by Friday, April 10 to avoid late charges. Please note that the Palmer Cooperative Extension Service is handling registration; contact information is available on the form.
APRIL 1, 2009 - 11:42 AM
Events List:
Anchorage - April 3 & 4 -
Paul Stamets hosted by Alaska Botanical Garden
The Alaska Botanical Garden is proud to present our
3rd annual Spring Garden Conference
Life in the Garden: from Mushrooms to Moose
ABG Annual Meeting & Spring Garden Conference April 3 & 4, 2009
Keynote Speaker: Paul Stamets of Fungi Perfecti
Plus a wide variety of presentations by Alaskan gardening & ecology experts on topics from slugs, moose, and forest pests, to peonies, vegetables, fruit, and more! Pioneering mycologist Paul Stamets, renowned for his researchon medical and technological uses for mushrooms, will provide the keynote talk for the 2009 ABG Annual Meeting, entitled "Solutions from Nature: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World 6 myco-inventions to help steer humans towards a healthier & happier life with planet Earth.
MARCH 7, 2009 - 8:46 AM
I recently, received this farmland alert from Glacier Valley Farms and thought I would pass it along....kim
Hi CSA members,
This is a different kind of message: it’s a farmland alert!
Something that I think concerns us all has come up and I wanted to let everyone know about it. The Alaska State Fair has 40 acres of prime farmland that they are considering selling for development. The developer
would like to build a commercial truck-driving school.
We Valley farmers have talked to John Harkey, the Fair Board President, about selling the land to the Alaska Farmland Trust for preservation as a farm. We did not get a commitment from him, though. An offer for the land
FEBRUARY 2, 2009 - 2:35 PM
National Speaker Highlight of Statewide SARE Conference
The Fifth Annual Sustainable Agriculture Conference and Organic Growers School is scheduled for March 17-18, 2009, at the Fairbanks Princess Riverside Lodge in Fairbanks, Alaska. Presented by the UAF Cooperative Extension Service, the highlight of this year’s conference will be national guest speaker George DeVault, newly appointed president and executive director of the Seed Savers Exchange in Decorah, Iowa.
The Seed Savers Exchange is a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of heirloom varieties of vegetables, fruits, flowers and herbs, and agricultural biodiversity in general. DeVault’s position represents the pinnacle of a career that has included farming, mentoring farmers and writing about farming. He is also a volunteer fire chief, W.K. Kellogg Foundation Food and Society policy fellow and soon-to-be grandfather.
JANUARY 19, 2009 - 1:43 PM
No one sent out the search party so I figured I had better motivate myself to write before I lost every last one of my readers. The whole holiday season threw me, I have been hibernating and I have been working out the details of a new business venture, Alaska Root Sellers: a delivery business linking Matanuska Valley Farmers with area restaurants, universities and hospitals. It feels really amazing to be weaving a thread of connection within the fabric of Alaska’s food system.
But back to the whole point of this blog….There are lots of exciting events on the horizon related to Alaska’s food system and the production of our food. So, I thought I would share. I hope you find the overview helpful and motivating.
DECEMBER 11, 2008 - 6:24 PM
The Alaska Division of Agriculture is in the process of reviewing their 2008 Food and Farm Products Directory. They are interested in our feedback to see what we think of the new directory, and what we think could be improved upon. Please click on the link below to take this short survey and share your thoughts with the ADOA. The survey comment period with close on January 31, 2009.
Thank you for your time!!!
DECEMBER 1, 2008 - 3:26 PM
Eating Alaska is a 60 minute documentary about a vegetarian, who moves to Alaska , marries a fisher- man and hunter and begins to wonder what the “right” thing to eat is on “the last frontier.” What ensues are humorous and enlightening adventures in eating, taking viewers from Sitka to Kotzebue and including scenes with
the Alaska Community Action on Toxics, Alex Davis of Alaska Truck Farms and the Alaska Vegetarian Society.
This wry look at what’s on your plate explores ideas about eating healthy sustainable food from one’s own backyard, either urban or wild, versus industrially produced food shipped thousands of miles away.
NOVEMBER 24, 2008 - 4:51 PM
December 15th is the deadline to comment on the Alaska Division of Agriculture's Strategic Plan for 2009. This is the first time the division has attempted to develop a strategic plan to guide their work. I'm quite excited to have the opportunity to add my two cents.
If you want to comment too, here is the LINK
It's a PDF so you'll have to write your comments in another doc. and e-mail them to Lora Haralson at the Division of of AG at Lora.Haralson@alaska.gov
Please do take the time to read this document. It's only 22 pages long and there's a chance our comments will be considered and incorporated in to the plan. This opportunity allows us a vote for the kind of food system we want to create in AK. I hope you will join me by offering your opinion to the division's proposed direction.
NOVEMBER 12, 2008 - 11:07 AM
Why should agriculture be important to Alaska and Alaskans?
Robin Richardson,of the Global Foods Collaborative, sent out a call this week challenging each of us to submit a letter to the editor during the next week to the Anchorage Daily News on why agriculture be important to Alaska and Alaskans.
This week-end the Alaska Farm Bureau meets in Anchorage for their annual meeting that gives a focus to this topic. It is time for those interested in assuring a sustainable industry to publicly come together to express the value that agriculture and growing/harvesting food and bio products means to Alaska and Alaskans. She suggested that the greatest impact would be to submit these letters between November 11 - 16. I am also open to posting your letters on my blog.
OCTOBER 24, 2008 - 5:10 PM
Root Cellaring, the book
Allie Barker, a home gardener, wild foods harvester and root cellar builder was a guest speaker at the recent Bioneers Conference at UAA. She brought her own copy of the book pictured above, written by Mike and Nancy Bubel, for the information table, and even some potatoes and carrots from her root cellar so conference attendees could see the good shape her year-old vegetables were in after their time in her root cellar.
Barker spoke Saturday, Oct. 18 at a session called "Building a food system that works for Alaskans." Along with this blog's anchor, Kim Sollien, Allie also shared the podium with Kathy Ciarimboli, the sustainable foods coordinator for the National Outdoor Leadership School in Palmer.
OCTOBER 16, 2008 - 9:55 PM
It’s been far too long since I have written a post from my heart. The summer seemed to wiz by. Though it was filled with exciting events: new houses, weddings, and family visits, I have not had the time to really write authentically about accessing local foods in Alaska…I hope my following words and information will help to inspire you to grab a few bushels of lovely roots still available at local farmers markets.
As the air changes from the summer smells of fresh cut grass and sweet smelling flowers, to fallen leaves and fermented high bush cranberries I think something in our DNA or psyche shifts. I have found myself plagued with thoughts related to the long winter, questioning whether I have put-up enough canned, caught, dried, frozen, and purchased foods to last, if not the whole winter, at least a month. As descendants of hunters, gatherers and farmers I think each of us are hard wired to want to store food in the fall, for later nourishment. For modern day eaters, what can we do to satisfy the urge to gather and store?
OCTOBER 16, 2008 - 6:46 PM
Michael Pollen wrote a long and thoughtful piece in The New York Times that anyone who cares about food sources and food policy won't want to miss. Here's a taste, and here's the link.
It may surprise you to learn that among the issues that will occupy much of your time in the coming years is one you barely mentioned during the campaign: food. Food policy is not something American presidents have had to give much thought to, at least since the Nixon administration — the last time high food prices presented a serious political peril. Since then, federal policies to promote maximum production of the commodity crops (corn, soybeans, wheat and rice) from which most of our supermarket foods are derived have succeeded impressively in keeping prices low and food more or less off the national political agenda. But with a suddenness that has taken us all by surprise, the era of cheap and abundant food appears to be drawing to a close. What this means is that you, like so many other leaders through history, will find yourself confronting the fact — so easy to overlook these past few years — that the health of a nation’s food system is a critical issue of national security. Food is about to demand your attention.
OCTOBER 11, 2008 - 9:08 AM
Yahoo! I am thrilled to share this press release from Ethan Berkowitz with you all. I think this is the first time an Alaskan congressional candidate has added food security to their platform. Way to go Ethan!
October 10th 2008 - For Immediate Release:
House Democratic nominee Ethan Berkowitz introduced his plan to protect and strengthen Alaska’s agriculture and food supply. “Strong leadership, strategic investments, and community outreach and education will safeguard Alaska’s food system,” said Berkowitz. “Alaska can become more independent from outside food imports and develop a true renewable resource with far-reaching benefits for our residents.”
OCTOBER 7, 2008 - 7:51 PM
Celebrate the International Year of the Potato right here in Palmer Wednesday October 8th
potatos
Palmer Railroad Depot 6 – 10 PM
Organized by Palmer's very own Bill "Potato Bill" Campbell
Come Cheer for your Favorite
Large One
Long One
Wonderful One
Funny looking One
Most arms and legs One
Come Share your
favorite recipe
potato joke
potato cartoon
potato story
potato art
-Brag about your crop of tots
-Tout the tuber
-Proffer Potato Poetry
-Sing Spud Songs
Bring special taters, tooth picks, carving knives, crayons, paper and especially an imagination
Important warning about e-mails purporting to be from the adn.com staff.
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