I was recently invited to talk about gardening on Talk of Alaska. Before the show, I was asked how I got into the work I do. It got me thinking about how I got into the work I do.

My first job was working on a farm at age 13 in 1995. My neighbor got a greenhouse and farm at auction after a marijuana bust. One greenhouse was full of gorgeous roses of all colors. I worked from 7 to 11 a.m. It was tough to get up that early when I was accustomed to sleeping in until 10 a.m. in the summers. But it was satisfying to be productive and get some exercise in before the time I would normally wake up. 

The bike ride was short, but I lived at the top of Coyote Trail, so biking home included a hill with 600 feet of elevation gain in one mile. I gathered big and small eggs from guinea hens, chickens, ducks and geese. There were peacocks, but they were just for looks. I pollinated tomatoes, wrapped English cucumbers and stuck the Alaska Grown logo on them. I sidebudded, cut and stripped roses. I sold eggs, tomatoes, cucumbers, and roses at the Tanana Valley Farmers Market — the oldest and longest continually running farmers market in Alaska. 

I didn’t understand why I didn’t sell out every week at the market, but at the time, interest in local foods was not mainstream. My least favorite part of that job was feeding the turkeys and butchering them. They were mean. I remember my hands freezing, digging up potatoes in the fall. Looking for eggs in the morning was like going on an Easter egg hunt every day. I liked working in a greenhouse full of roses.