AK Root Cellar

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

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

Local Farms and CSAs

Find local produce, eggs, fowl and meat nearby.

WEB RESOURCES

Slow Food USA

Envisions a future food system based on principles of high quality and taste, environmental sustainability, and social justice.

Local Harvest

Helpful website to find farmers' markets, family farms, and other sources of sustainably grown food. Local producers also register on this site.

Sustainable Agriculture

Dedicated to educating the public on a sustainable food and agriculture system that is economically viable, environmentally sound, socially just, and humane.

American Farmlands Trust

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.

Weston Price Foundation

Dedicated to restoring nutrient-dense foods to the human diet through education, research and activism.

Bioneers Conference Focus on Healthy Local Foods - 10/14/2009 11:10 am

The Alaska Local Food Film Festival - Mark Your Calendars! - 9/12/2009 12:58 pm

Share the Bounty and Feel Rich - 9/9/2009 9:57 pm

Great Film about Local Food - 8/19/2009 10:33 am

Corporate Trickery Tests our Discernment - 7/21/2009 1:42 am

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

Great Film about Local Food

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Dear Local Foodies,

Come see the free movie FRESH showing this Saturday Aug 22, 2009

Here is a wonderful opportunity for a free film and tour of an exemplary organic growing system (vegetables, herbs, flowers, pigs, chickens) that feeds 500 a summer plus 3 CSA subscribers. Feel free to go to one or both.

The film FRESH is a documentary celebrating the local food movement. FRESH celebrates the farmers, thinkers and business people across
America who are re-inventing our food system. Forging healthier, sustainable alternatives, they offer a practical vision of our food and our planet’s future. FRESH addresses an ethos that has been sweeping the nation and is a call to action America has been waiting for.

This could, just could, inspire you to grow (more) food. It is an exciting time as the momentum for eating locally grown food is growing rapidly across
the country and here in Alaska. Join the dynamic exchange of thoughts, experiences, ideas, etc.

TOUR
We’ll walk around the NOLS (National Outdoor Leadership School) Farm showing you:
- Our new solar-powered, gravity-fed, drip irrigation system (funded
by the Mat-Su Health Foundation and the Alaska Division of Agriculture).
- Soil building methods including cover cropping and composting.
- Utilizing chicken tractors to raise pasture-fed birds and fertilize
the fields.
- Outdoor composting methods and indoor worm bins.
- Running a small-scale CSA (Community Supported Agriculture).
- Using pigs to till up new garden areas.
- Season extension techniques, including cold frames and hoop houses.
- Raised beds vs. not

Target Audience: Backyard gardeners, established farmers, aspiring
new farmers, and anyone interested in local and sustainable agriculture.

WHERE: NOLS is at 5805 Farm Loop Rd. in Palmer. To get here from
Palmer, take the Glenn Hwy north out of Palmer, heading towards
Sutton. Go about 2 miles from downtown Palmer and make a left onto
Farm Loop Rd. NOLS Alaska is about 1 mile down on your left. Look
for our wooden sign in the hay field next to the driveway.

Park in the lower section by the big red barn (the parking area is to
your right when you come down the driveway). We’ll start the tour in
front of the barn on the upper part (opposite from where you park).

WHEN: Saturday, August 22nd
* Tour is from 2-3 pm.
* Movie and discussion is from 3:15 - 4:45 pm.
* Lead by Kathy Ciarimboli, director of the NOLS Farm Project.

RSVP: Please drop us an email (kathy_ciarimboli@nols.edu) and let us
know if you plan to come (so we can get an idea of how many people to
expect). If you don’t do email, you can leave a message at 746-4047,
ext. 336 (but email is preferable).

See you there, dear readers!


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