It Grows in Alaska – In the Alaska Garden with Heidi Rader

Growing Currants

November 2, 2023February 15, 2024

My favorite berries are blueberries (wild Alaskan ones of course!) and raspberries, but I have a special place in my heart for currants as well. Like many Americans, currants aren’t a mainstay. I first heard about currants from my grandma who lived in Anchorage. She was fanatic about them and currant jelly specifically. But I didn’t really appreciate them until later in life when I took a berry class from Dr. Pat Holloway. Importantly, I learned to identify them. This is an important first step in identifying any wild berry, particularly if there is a poisonous berry that is the similar color (there is and it is bane berry!). Wild currants can also be mistaken for high bush cranberries. Unlike high bush cranberries and lowbush cranberries which are too tart for me to want to eat fresh and high bush too seedy, I like fresh currants. I also like them made into syrup and jelly as well. You can make currant jam but it’s not easy! I prefer eating red currants fresh to black currants because their skin is much thicker. However, black currants have even higher antioxidant levels and vitamin C levels than red currants.

There are six species of black and red currants that are native to Alaska. Searching Ribes in plants.usda.gov via the Alaska State search will bring up all the species of Ribes in Alaska, including gooseberries. I’ve never seen them in quantity enough to pick many in the wild, but that may change along with the climate. In the wild, I find currants in the understory of forested areas, and so unlike many berries that prefer full sun, you can grow currants in partial shade.

Growing Raspberries

October 25, 2023February 15, 2024

Most gardeners I know tend to be fairly haphazard with their raspberry patches and that may include myself. And you can be because they tend to spread on their own (much more than you might want in some cases) and come back year after year without too much effort. However, with some forethought to the soil, attention to variety you’re planting, and regular pruning, you can maximize the quality and production of your raspberry patch.

Raspberries are personally one of my favorite berries to eat fresh or frozen. Although American red raspberries (Rubus idaeus L.) grow wild throughout Alaska, they can be annoyingly small and wormy, although their intense taste does compensate somewhat for these drawbacks. But in my backyard, I’d rather grow larger, more productive cultivars of raspberries. Raspberries also meet most of the criteria I have when choosing what to grow: they are a high dollar item, best fresh, highly perishable, can be eaten without cooking, can be harvested successively, and are something my family will eat as much of as I can grow. As with strawberries, there is a lot to learn about how to maximize production.

How does your garden grow? Through the seasons in an Alaska garden.

September 25, 2023February 16, 2024

This year, I decided to document my garden through the seasons. One of the incredible things about gardening in Alaska is how your garden transforms overnight. It’s magical, amazing, and perhaps why I love gardening. Only this summer Things. Did. Not. Grow. Until July. But then there were some pleasant surprises.

August 11, 2023: Herbs and nasturtiums are thriving.

Here is how my garden grew this summer. . .

More Ways to Use Rhubarb

August 15, 2023February 15, 2024

Rhubarb has been a staple in my life as a Fairbanksan. I grew up making rhubarb pie and rhubarb crisp, which are perfectly delicious ways to use rhubarb. Incidentally, one nickname for rhubarb is “pie plant.” Once established, rhubarb generally thrives with little attention in many Alaska locations. It is even thriving and volunteering on the edge of the trees in my yard with absolutely no care.

Not only is it prolific, the harvest period is also quite lengthy. As I’ve said before, I like to grow things that I can harvest all summer long. Although I certainly will not argue with rhubarb pie or crisp, let’s face it, there is a bit of a mush factor that accompanies these dishes. As my rhubarb plant has grown in productivity in the past few years, I’ve discovered a few new favorite ways to use rhubarb.

Rhubarb Pistachio Picnic Bars

This recipe for Rhubarb Picnic Bars comes from Smitten Kitchen and is a delicious way to use rhubarb in a dessert. I think it brings out the best of rhubarb, maintaining its beauty, taste and texture. It is one of those recipes that, after trying it, all of my friends and family ask me for. You can kiss the rhubarb mush goodbye in this recipe. Instead of almonds, I used pistachios as I’m not a huge fan of almonds.

rhubarb in chevron pattern with powdered sugar on top in picnic bar

Bump Up Your Strawberry Production

July 11, 2023February 15, 2024

There are never enough strawberries in our patch — I think my kids and my neighbor’s kids would agree!

I am not the only one who is figuring out how to grow strawberries successfully in Alaska. One of the top posts on my blog, It Grows in Alaska, is Untangling the Mysteries of Growing Strawberries in Alaska. To figure what I can do to bump up my strawberry production, I interviewed Andy Harper, a local strawberry farmer (Highlands of Alaska Farms) as well as University of Minnesota researchers who have studied annual strawberry production using a low tunnel system.

strawberries in a box — Photo by Andy Harper.

Andy has a half acre of strawberries in production this year. Some of those plants are research plants. He said he started the farm because, “I love berries, I lived in the UK and Scotland, they love black currants, I love those. I met Papa [Meunier] and he had everything. All different types of berries. I just loved berries. So I decided I wanted to do berry farming. Strawberries are the only ones I can make money on the first year.”

Gardening in Ruby, Alaska

June 12, 2023September 26, 2023

Full length shot of Evelyn sarten in mud boots. — Evelyn Sarten in her garden. Photo by Molly Cerridwen.

Evelyn Sarten and her late husband Ed (Dwight) have gardened in Ruby, Alaska, for a quarter of a century. Evelyn, who was raised on the land on a Native American reservation in Taos, New Mexico, estimates she grows about 30% of her food.

She was taught to live with the land and she’s always grown her own food. Their garden in Ruby is characterized by innovation and making do with what is available. For instance, their chicken coop fence was constructed from an old couch frame, old bed frames, and leftover fencing from the school. Now her one remaining chicken lives in her Arctic entryway.

In addition to growing her own large garden, she also works for the Native Village of Ruby as the natural resources and agriculture program director, helping others in Ruby garden as well. With Evelyn, I and the Tribes Extension Program (www.uaf.edu/ces/tribes) sent out vegetable and flower seeds and organized gardening and plant foraging workshops at the school. We also purchased and built a raised bed garden for the school.

Never, Ever Gardened Before in Alaska? Keep Reading. . .

May 25, 2023March 1, 2024

Gardening for the first time can be daunting, especially in Alaska with the added challenges of a short growing season, sometimes too-cool weather, and sometimes very hot weather. Although the internet provides a wealth of information, when you’ve never done something before, sometimes you don’t even know what questions to ask. Here are some questions you may not have known to ask.

The first thing to think about when starting a garden is where are you going to put it?

An ideal garden spot would get eight or more hours of direct sunlight; have rich, loose soil free of weeds, rocks and roots; be a good distance from trees and shrubs; have an easily accessible water source; and have an 8- foot-high fence to keep moose and other pests out. That’s the ideal, but many of us garden in less than ideal spots because that’s what we have available. However, it’s something to work toward or arrange if you can.

raised bed with hoop house filled with flowers and veggies — This productive raised bed is located at the University of Alaska Fairbanks community garden which is a repurposed bridge and road over the train tracks. It heats up and gets full sun.

Don’t Let Someone Else’s Tradition Decide What You Eat This Thanksgiving

November 18, 2022February 15, 2024

At its core, Thanksgiving was and should remain a celebration and appreciation of the bounty of the land and those who are indigenous to the land. To me, the Thanksgiving meal is about celebrating what comes from the land where I live, not what was eaten in Jamestown, Virginia in the 1600s.

A gilled piece of salmon fillet on a green plate decoratively seasoned with fresh herbs.

Don’t be afraid to feature salmon instead of turkey in your Thanksgiving feast. This salmon is grilled and topped with fresh herbs, garlic, butter, and lemon.

Do you have copious amounts of moose, caribou, salmon, blueberries, or cranberries in your freezer? Or carrots, potatoes, or winter squash stored from the garden? Why not showcase what you gathered, hunted, fished, or grew this year? Why not place an Alaskan meat or fish in the center of the table? Perhaps, prepared in an extra special way for the holidays? Instead of apple or pumpkin pie, why not serve spiced blueberry pie (I add 1/4 cup lemon, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg, and 1/2 teaspoon of cardamom to my blueberry pie filling), cranberry pie with pecan crumble, or cranberry blueberry pie (use half cranberries and half blueberries)? Note: when I say cranberry in this article, I’m talking about Alaska low bush cranberries or lingonberries. Instead of standard dinner rolls, give a nod to the early miners of Alaska or sourdoughs and make sourdough rolls? Cooperative Extension has tons of recipes featuring Alaskan harvested, hunted, gathered or fished ingredients, as well as on how to cook with sourdough. Don’t worry, there aren’t any Thanksgiving police that will come to make sure you have a turkey, stuffing, and pumpkin pie at your celebration (okay maybe you do have one in your family). Continue reading

Gardening in the Wind

September 21, 2022September 21, 2022

I grew up in Fairbanks and according to my memory, it was never windy. Without wind, 40 below zero is not that cold. Without wind, you can water your garden and it stays moist for the day. Without wind, plastic row covers do not blow away. You get the idea. I am not a huge fan of the wind.

This spring, in addition to the wind, we had very dry (drought) conditions. I direct seed a large portion of my garden and the seeds need to be kept wet until they emerge. Keeping the seeds moist was really hard to do this spring because of the combination of hot, dry, windy weather. To keep the seeds moist, I used drip irrigation, covered the seedlings with Remay (frost cloth), and watered the seeds sometimes three times a day with a sprayer hose. Later in the summer, it is so much easier to keep a garden watered because the plants provide shade and they have roots.

blown over trees — The August 2022 windstorm blew over trees across a driveway near Fairbanks, AK. Photo by Julie Strickland.

Not only did the breeze seem to be a more constant companion this spring, there were also a couple of uncommonly intense windstorms in July and August. In Golden Valley Electric Association’s (GVEA) Ruralite magazine (September 2022), Josh Davis, the director of operations said, “The July wind storm was the worst storm we’ve had in my 18 years here.” He noted that the August windstorm was also pretty bad.

Do Artichokes Grow in Alaska?

August 22, 2022February 15, 2023

Do artichokes grow in Alaska? Why yes, they do! Unlike in warmer climates, here they are usually grown as annuals rather than perennials. They’re not something I’ve seen commonly grown or at farmers markets, but they have been grown in Fairbanks as far back as 1984 and are being trialed at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

About a decade ago, as an Extension employee, Taylor Maida grew artichokes in Fairbanks. Now as the trials manager at High Mowing Organic Seeds, she said artichokes growing in Fairbanks looked better than in Vermont! Her favorite vegetable to grow and eat is the artichoke.