Some remnants of the early days of Western agriculture still remain in Southeast, including leaves from Henry D. Clark, the Rhubarb King.
Pickled veggies. Photo courtesy Foundroot. Leah Wagner and Nick Schlosstein are a husband and wife team who run Foundroot, an online business selling seeds proven for Alaskan growing conditions that are open-pollinated, which allows for home gardeners to save their own seeds. Foundroot sources most of its seeds from farms and other ethical companies in the U.S., and in 2017 they started a small farm in Haines where they grow seeds and produce for the local market. Foundroot has sent more than 16,000 seed packets to over 65 Alaskan communities and throughout the Lower 48. What does Foundroot mean? Leah: We were playing with a bunch of different ideas for the name when we started. Ultimately, we felt like we found the root of the food security problem, and also the root of the solution. In breeding those seeds we found the ability to really do something beyond meeting basic…
The family behind Synergy Gardens in Homer is dedicated to growing garlic and sharing their garlic love with all of Alaska.
Intentional community eats with purpose [by Amy Newman] LIVING OFF THE LAND IS THE ALASKAN WAY: Alaska’s Native people have led a subsistence lifestyle for generations; sportsmen stock their freezers with salmon and halibut in the summer and moose and caribou in the winter; weekend foragers spend the late summer months filling buckets to overflowing with berries for jellies and jam. Yet even in a state where subsistence living doesn’t elicit much awe, Ionia, a 200-acre intentional community located in Kasilof, 160 miles south of Anchorage on the Kenai Peninsula, manages to stand out. The 45 men, women, and children who live in the semi-isolated community focus on living as naturally and healthfully as possible, said Eliza Eller who, along with her husband, Tom, was one of the community’s founders. The idea for Ionia was formed more than 30 years ago, in 1970s Boston. Four families, each experiencing mental and…
Delivering plants and seeds and rototillers to Inupiaq Eskimo gardeners.
[by Seth Kantner]