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

Growing, Gathering, Hunting, and Fishing for Your Food is Part of the Challenge—Eating it is the Other

September 10, 2024September 16, 2024

One of the things I’ve long been curious about is how much food Alaskans grow, hunt, fish and gather and why they do it. This fall, I interviewed Jeff Yacevich, 38, who along with his wife, Laura Guiterrez, 40, is committed to getting much of his food from the land. They live in a cabin tucked away in a somewhat swampy spruce forest on permafrost in Goldstream Valley.

Jeff in red sweatshirt next to fenced garden full of brassicas

They estimate that each year they put up about 20 gallons of blueberries, 10 gallons of cranberries, and a couple of gallons of cloudberries, if they can find them. They aim to hunt for most of their meat, although in recent years they have purchased half a pig for bacon. They also fish for salmon and about 20 pike each year.

What Should You Grow this Summer?

May 21, 2024May 28, 2024

It’s not hard to dream about what you will plant in your garden when the seed catalogs start arriving, or you go to the greenhouse and see the luscious vegetables and gorgeous flowers. However, an overcrowded garden will be less bounteous and beautiful than a thoughtfully planned one with adequately spaced plants.

bright pink and orange flowers — Harlequin Mix Livingstone Daisy.

When choosing what to grow, try to find relevant information that is local, unbiased, and not profit-driven. Seed companies and catalogs are a great source of information, but they may not have done trials in Alaska. At the end of the day, they are also a business. When buying seeds, look for varieties that are identified as being adapted to short, cool growing seasons. For some crops like onions or strawberries you need to consider how day-length affects fruit maturation and keep your eye out for day-neutral varieties. For crops like spinach, look for bolt-resistant varieties. Take note that some varieties are developed to be grown in containers and some in a greenhouse.

Adventures in Seed Starting

May 13, 2024May 13, 2024

Embarrassingly, given my job title, I’m terrible at starting seeds indoors. I blame it partially on my travel schedule and not being able to give the little seedlings the love and attention they deserve. It could also be because I have not been willing to buy the proper setup to start seeds. Maybe it is because I am not a perfectionist, and some indoor seed starting can be a bit tedious. Or it could be because I’m short on time.

I do pretty well throwing seeds in the ground (direct seeding) once the soil is warm enough. But my direct seeding technique would also benefit from more precision in that I would need to do less thinning and would likely have more productive crops overall as well. I’m looking at you carrots!

I am also a good customer at our local greenhouses and happily (mostly) pay for the cost of transplants, knowing it has saved me a lot of time, effort and failed attempts.

But this year, I wanted to give preseason seed starting my best effort. I tried four ways of starting seeds, first planting them on April 3rd because that’s when I had time.

Traditional seed-starting soil with a heat mat
Peat pellets
Hydroponically (Aerogarden)
Winter sowing

Growing Currants in Alaska

November 2, 2023July 31, 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 in Alaska

October 25, 2023July 22, 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, 2023June 4, 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 in Two Rivers, Alaska, 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, 2023April 22, 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.

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