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

Mushrooms & Permaculture Spring Events

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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.

Friday, April 3, 2009 at the Wilda Marston Theater of the ZJ Loussac Library. $10 per person; free to ABG members & Conference registrants.
Advance reservations strongly encouraged since capacity is limited.

Spring Conference, please contact Julianne: 907-562-7010
Alaska Botanical Garden
P.O. Box 202202
Anchorage, AK 99520
Phone: 907-770-3692, Fax: 770-0555

Anchorage - April 7, 9 and 14 -
Permaculture Documentary Film Series
hosted by the Anchorage Permaculture Guild

April 7,9,&14th
BP Energy Center
for more info call 344-0935

April 7th 6:00pm Spruce/ Willow Room (upstairs)
In Grave Danger of Falling Food (52 min) . Bill Mollison, author of the "Permaculture concept and recipient of the "Alternative Nobel Prize", believes that the single most destructive force on the planet is modern agriculture. Mollison has proposed a design system of agriculture which uses the engineering principles of nature itself, and has taken hold in dozens of developing countries. He combines hundreds of species-plant and animal-into a fertile self-regulating eco-system. His designs apply to the city as well as to the country, they can work in any sort of climate and once matured, have the potential to provide most of the food for any household.

Farming With Nature; A Case Study of Successful Temperate Permaculture; A visit to the farm of Sepp and Veronika Holzer. The Krameterhof in Lungau, Austria (37 min) This Documentary shows how an Austrian farmer simply observes nature and survives without depending on subsidies, chemical fertilizers or pesticides of any kind. Sepp Holzer created an edible landscape at 1500 metres above sea level - one of the few perfectly working permaculture systems in Europe. Between the pinetree monocultures of Austria he built a fishpond system with his own water power station, planted 9000 fruit trees of the most various kinds in connection with many other plants to support each other (plant families). Thirty different types of potatoes, many different grains, fruits, vegetables, herbs and wildflowers are growing just about everywhere - in the forest, on extremely steep hills, on rocky soil, on pathways, around ponds, as well as raised beds.

April 9th 5:30pm Spruce/Willow Room (upstairs)
David Blume's Alcohol Can Be A Gas; Fueling an Ethanol Revolution for the next century (2 hr 40min)"From alcohols amazing history to it's vitally important future, David Blume covers a wide range of topics - exploding the myths told about alcohol, and giving a primer on how to grow it, produce it, profit from it's byproducts, convert vehicles, claim tax credits, and far, far, more." With alcohol fuel, you can become energy independent, reverse global warming, and survive Peak Oil in style. Alcohol fuel is "liquid sunshine" and can't be controlled by transnational corporations. You can produce alcohol for less than $1 a gallon, using a wide variety of plants and waste products, from algae to stale donuts. It's a much better fuel than gasoline, and you can use it in your car, right now. You can even use alcohol to generate electricity. Alcohol fuel production is ecologically sustainable, revitalizes farms and communities, and creates huge new opportunities for small-scale businesses. Its byproducts are clean and valuable.

April 14th 6pm Alder/Cottonwood Room(upstairs)
Global Gardener with Bill Mollison (120 min) BILL MOLLISON is a practical visionary. For nearly two decades he has traveled the globe spreading the word about permaculture, the method of sustainable agriculture that he devised. Permaculture weaves together microclimate, annual and perennial plants, animals, soils, water management and human needs into intricately connected productive communities. Mollison has proved that even in the most difficult conditions permaculture empowers people to turn wastelands into food forests.


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