In the Alaska Garden with Heidi Rader
If you know me, then you know this article is actually just an excuse to brag about the fig … tree … in my office. Yes, it produces figs, even in the winter, which I love. No, I do not have an army of wasps living in my office to pollinate the figs, but that doesn’t seem to matter. OK, sorry, back to houseplants. I will try to stop talking about my fig, which, if you come into my office, you can see is hard to ignore.
When I wrote about growing raspberries in Alaska, Charlotte Porter got in touch with me and wanted to tell me about her success growing Kiska raspberries and her pruning techniques at her Two Rivers farm. Twenty-five years ago, Charlotte was given six Kiska raspberry plants. Today, she has 700 row feet of raspberries, from which she harvests an average of 80 gallons a year.
I didn’t write much about Kiska in the initial article, partly because I wasn’t aware of anyone selling the plants locally or online. It was a variety developed decades ago at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Agriculture and Forestry Experiment Station from the wild raspberry (Rubus ideaus) found throughout Alaska. When I visited Porter Hill Farm, I discovered that Charlotte and her family do a lot more than just grow raspberries.
Continue readingSam Knapp could do anything. He has degrees in physics and chemistry as well as an advanced degree in plant ecology. Yet, here he is in Fairbanks, Alaska, making a living growing a wide variety of crops that he stores and sells only in the winter. Oh, and writing about it. I asked him why.
Post-college, Sam worked as an engineer in an office and volunteered on a farm on the weekends. He found the weekend work a lot more rewarding than the office work. Climate change mitigation and food security motivate him as well. Although reality has set in and his view of farming is less idyllic, he still finds the work satisfying, worthwhile and well aligned with his values.
Continue readingHoneyberries, or haskaps, are a unique berry. Honeyberries have a huge range in shape, size, productivity, taste, timing and evenness in how they ripen and how easily they come off the bush. The taste of honeyberries is often compared to other berries. I think the taste is unique, and you should try them and make your own comparisons (or not) with other berries.
I have written several articles on berries and they are roughly in order of my personal preference: first, on cultivating wild blueberries, next strawberries, then raspberries and then currants. So now I’m tackling honeyberries or haskaps, so they are my fifth favorite berry. They would be sixth if you include cloudberries, but I’m not going to write about cloudberries since they are generally not cultivated, although there may be ways to protect and promote their growth in the wild.
Some berries require full sun, a narrow pH range and well-drained soils. Honeyberries tolerate partial shade, wet soils and a wide pH range. Their pruning requirements are more manageable than other types of berries, and they won’t take over your backyard with thorny bushes like raspberries tend to do. What’s not to like about a berry that is easy to grow, cold-hardy, highly productive and ripens earlier than most berries?
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Steve and Sara Masterman grow fruit outside of Fairbanks, Alaska. I had the pleasure of interviewing them about their decades old orchard in Fairbanks. I was blown away by the depth of their knowledge of growing fruit in a cold climate. Steve described it as an addiction.
Steve grew up on a 12 acre farm in Wales, United Kingdom. His family raised cattle, chickens, turkeys, ducks and had a small orchard. He couldn’t believe he when heard about a guy growing apples off of Chena Hotsprings Road. He had to see it for himself and soon bought his first two apple trees from Clair Lamers.
It was 2007 and those were some of the last trees Claire sold. Claire was the master fruit grower in Interior Alaska for many years and taught Steve how to graft.
Continue reading“Hey, you want to go to Alaska this summer?” Rudy Klaver asked Eli Brockman a couple of years ago as the two high schoolers ate lunch. Eli said yes and joined Rudy for a summer working for the Russel family at Boreal Peonies in Two Rivers, Alaska in 2023.
Twenty-five years after University of Alaska Fairbanks horticulture researcher Pat Holloway’s initial discovery that Alaska held a niche in the peony market due to its unique bloom time and access to markets, the peony farming scene has ebbed and flowed.
From the first research plots being planted around 2001, to the boom between roughly 2014 and 2016, to post-COVID and high inflation rates that have left no business untouched, many farmers have come and gone. Those on the scene today are business savvy, hard-working, energetic, and have the health and lifestyles that allow them to focus on peonies full-tilt for at least six weeks during the height of the summer.
The peony farming gold rush in Alaska started because the flowers garnered a high price per stem due when they bloom. That is, they bloomed in Alaska in July and August during prime wedding season. At that time, peonies are not blooming elsewhere or at least nowhere with ready access to air transport and other infrastructure needed to export them.
The number of peonies planted in Alaska increased exponentially from 20 roots in 2004 to over 120,000 roots in 2012. In 2013, 150 peony farmers (or interested farmers) attended the Alaska Peony Growers Association (APGA) meeting which was close to the peak of interest. There was an effort to reach a global market (including Europe and Asia) through cooperatively marketed peonies.
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.
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.
Continue readingThis 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.
Here is how my garden grew this summer. . .
Continue readingThere 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.
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.” Papa “Larry” Meunier was a legendary berry grower and cultivator in Interior Alaska and a longtime Tanana Valley Farmers Market vendor.)
Continue readingSign up for Grow Your Own Food, a free class on EdX taught by Heidi Rader!