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Salads at locally owned Turkey Red in Palmer are just one healthy, delicious menu item. Other dishes include grilled polenta, chicken with figs, moussaka, cioppino, soups, hot and cold sandwiches, pizza, and an array of desserts. Photo by Kaylene Johnson-Sullivan. Alex Papasavas did not set out to become a chef much less the owner of one of the most popular restaurants in Palmer, Alaska. In the early 1990s, she worked for the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) as a horse packer at the Three Peaks Ranch in the Wind River Range of Wyoming. When the ranch cook had to leave for a family emergency, Alex agreed to fill in. “I thought, my gosh, I don’t know anything about cooking,” Alex said. Her saving grace was a 1984 book, Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen by Harold McGee. “It just opened the door for me.” Since then,…

Home of the Alaska State Fair and freakish veggies The traffic light pulsing like a heartbeat at the intersection of Alaska Street and Evergreen Avenue gives Palmer a definite small-town feel. And though nestled in Alaska’s fastestgrowing borough, the town retains its charm and friendly pace. Still, it’s far from sleepy. Each autumn, Palmer is home to the Alaska State Fair, but throughout the year farmers markets, community celebrations, parades, and popular cafes, restaurants, and boutique shops keep things hopping. In 1935, when Alaska was still a territory and the Great Depression ravaged the nation, 203 families traveled from the Midwest by train and ship to reach the Matanuska Colony, an experimental farming community formed under President Roosevelt’s New Deal. They lived in a tent city at first, then began farming individual 40-acre tracts. About 6,500 people call Palmer home today. The town’s roots are firmly planted in the fertile…