Last Frontier Locavores - Recently Updated Pages

Local Foods Direct

raspberriesandhoney — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 17:10:36 CDT

Where to buy local foods directly from the farmer or maker. Organized by food type and then location.

Butter

Interior

Papa's Greenhouse--PO Box 56604, North Pole, AK 99705; 907/488-7326. Delivers to Fairbanks weekly.

Dairy (Milk, Cheese)

Interior

Northern Lights Dairy--Hc 60 Box 3300, Delta Junction, AK 99737-9333. See Local Foods Retail page for sources.

Southcentral

Cheese Futures Campaign--907-746-0044. New dairy in Wasilla (name?) is selling cheese in a manner similar to a CSA: pay now, cheese later. Intended to help the farmers affected by the Mat Maid closure. Dairy will eventually have other dairy products, too. See Resources page for ADN article on this.

Eggs

Interior

Papa's Greenhouse--PO Box 56604, North Pole, AK 99705; 907/488-7326. Delivers to Fairbanks weekly.

Honey

Lance Gillette--Local Alaskan Honey in Fairbanks. 451-0109 or lancegillette@alaska.net

Ice Cream

Interior

Hot Licks Ice Cream--P.O. Box 82963,Fairbanks, Alaska 99708; (907) 479-7813. Available yearround in restaurants and grocery stores and summers at direct outlets on College Rd. and So. Cushman.

Jams & Jellies

Meat

Interior

Delta Meat & Sausage Co.--P.O.Box 350, Mile 1413 Alaska Highway, Delta Junction, AK 99737, 1-800-794-4206 or
(907) 895-4006; www.deltameat.com; deltameat@wildak.net. Delivers to Fairbanks weekly.

Raspberries

Lance Gillette. Fairbanks. Located near the bottom of Ester Dome Road. Upick sometimes available. Tel. 451-0109 or lancegillette@alaska.net

Farmer's Markets

estereditor — Tue, 27 May 2008 16:40:08 CDT

Where to buy locally farmed or produced goods in a market setting. Organized by location and then by market.

Copper Center

Copper Valley Community Farmers Market--MM 101 Richardson Hwy Loop Rd, between post office and Copper Center Lodge. Phone 907 822-5608, contact Liz Rietveld, lizrice@cvinternet.net. Saturdays every other week July-Sept. 10-1

Delta Junction

Highway's End Farmers Market -- behind Visitors Center. Ph 907 895-4215, contact Lynn Bundy, deltariver48@yahoo.com. Saturdays June-Sept 10-5

Ester

Ester Village Farmers Market in the Village Square, third Thursday of the month, 4 to 8 pm. Contact Monique Musick for more info, photosynthesisak@yahoo.com or 457-3279, www.esteralaska.com. First market on June 19.

Fairbanks

Tanana Valley Farmer's Market--College Rd. & Caribou Way -2600 College Road Fairbanks, AK Phone/Fax 907 456-3276 farmersmarket@mosquitonet.com

Fox

Nenana

North Pole

North Pole - Santa's Farmers Market (two different contacts, not sure which if any is current)

Community Supported Agriculture (CSAs)

Methodini — Wed, 21 May 2008 13:28:45 CDT

CSAs are a program where by you, the consumer, buy a subscription or "share" and then get a weekly delivery of veggies and other products during the growing season. This section is organized by location and then by farm.

Fairbanks

Basically Basil--PO Box 83271, Fairbanks, AK 99708; (907) 479-2089; basbasil@mosquitonet.com

Calypso Farm & Ecology Center--PO Box 106, Ester AK 99725; 451-0691; info@calypsofarm.org

Rosie Creek Farm - P.O. Box 181, Ester, AK 99725;Tel. 907-479-3642; www.rosiecreekfarm.com;rosie-ck@mosquitonet.com.

Spinach Creek Farm--5181 Murphy Dome Road, Fairbanks, AK 99709. Phone: 455-6043. Pete and Lynn Mayo, proprietors.

Resources

Methodini — Wed, 21 May 2008 13:24:07 CDT

Need help identifying mushrooms, learning to properly can salmon, or applying for a fishing license? Or maybe you just want to read more about it? This is the place for listing classes, articles, and other useful links. Organized by resource type.

Classes and workshops

UAF's Cooperative Extension Service offers a wide variety of classes in gardening in Alaska, food preservation, and building a small business. Courses are offered in several locations throughout the state and year round.

Interested in growing your own food? Check out the Master Gardening course offered by the Cooperative Extension Service. The Master Gardeners course is a twelve week class that, contrary to its title, assumes that you know absolutely nothing about gardening. The class starts from square one and the students are usually a mix of novice and experienced gardeners. Students have the option of paying a large fee and doing no volunteer time or paying a relatively small fee and putting in 40 garden-related volunteer hours. The Extension Service is very flexible about when and how you do your volunteer time.

Fairbanks

UAF Summer Sessions includes classes in mushroom identification by Prof. Gary Laursen.

Calypso Farm and Ecology Center offers evening and weekend workshops ecological gardening throughout the year.

Organizations and groups

The Fairbanks Community Cooperative Market is a group trying to develop a local coop market for organic and natural foods. Hopefully, this will include local products.

Don't have space for a garden where you live? Contact the Fairbanks Community Garden. For a small fee ($50.00 a year) you can rent a plot. The Community Garden supplies the dirt, water, some basic tools, a big fence, and a port-a-potty. You supply the seeds and manual labor. Very nice site at the very end of A Street (back in the woods) in Hamilton Acres, a stone's throw from the river.

Of course, you're going to need compost for your garden and the nice folks at Golden Heart Utilities have got plenty for you. Check out their compost page here. It's safe to garden in and smells nice and clean. The price is right, too--$15.00 per standard pickup load or $5.00 per cubic yard for dump truck loads. Be forewarned, however--the black gold goes fast especially in the spring so be ready to move when the GHU announces its availability.

Publications

Articles and Newsletters

Read this article by Eric Troyer of the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner for a compilation of local food sources in Fairbanks.

Anchorage Daily News' four part series by reporter S. J. Komarnitsky on trying to eat completely locally for one week.

Here's an article about a new program for Cheese Futures to help support the dairies affected by the Matanuska Maid closure. Local cheese, finally!

Outpost Agriculture is a monthly column about local agriculture and food ethics by anthropologist Phil Loring, appearing in The Ester Republic.

Linden Staciokas, a local writer and gardener, has two articles on-line that may be of interest: eating your garden weeds and clever ways with left-overs.

Books

Like a Tree to the Soil: a history of farming in the Tanana Valley, 1903 to 1940. Josephine Papp & Josie Phillips, published 2008. This book has biographies of farmers, gardeners, greenhouse operators, dairy farmers, and poultry ranchers, as well as discussions of what they grew, the organizations they formed, and generally giving a good overview of how the Tanana Valley was almost self-sufficient agriculturally for its early history.

Website resources

Alaska Grown is the official source for Alaska products certified by the State of Alaska. The site includes a directories of Farmer's Markets and Alaska Grown producers.

The Ethicurean blog, while not Alaska specific, includes essays on food ethics and eating locally, and has great recipes, too.

UAF's School of Natural Resources and Agricultural Sciences has numerous publications on local food production.

Local Foods Retail

estereditor — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 18:20:17 CDT

Where to buy local foods in stores or other retail outlets. Organized by location and then by store. Please include what types of local goods may be found in the store.

Fairbanks

Gold Hill Store--3040 Parks Highway, Fairbanks, AK; 479-2333. Eggs, milk, meat, mead, potato chips.

Alaska Feed Company--1600 College Road, Fairbanks, AK; 451-5570. Eggs, milk, meat, honey.

Restaurants

estereditor — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 15:29:04 CST

While restaurants serving Alaska wild salmon are pretty easy to find, other types of local food are rare. Here's where to list any places serving other local foods. Organized by location. Please include which menu items contain local foods.

Fairbanks

Sam's Sourdough Cafe--University Ave. Serves reindeer sausage. I'm assuming it's Alaska grown. Anyone know for sure?

El Sombrero Mexican Restaurant--downtown. Uses Delta Meat's breakfast sausage.

LemonGrass--Chena Pump Plaza. Uses local herbs and vegetables in its dishes, in season.

Chena Hot Springs Resort uses geothermal power to heat its greenhouses and produces vegetables for its restaurant. Read about it here.

Other Locally Made Products

MizMagee — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 14:36:00 CST

Where to find locally made non-food items such as lotions, yarns, and traditional crafts. Organized by product.

Lotions

Alaska Feed Company--1600 College Road, Fairbanks, AK; 451-5570 (carries "Far Above Rubies" brand).

Soaps

Alaska Feed Company--1600 College Road, Fairbanks, AK; 451-5570 (carries "Far Above Rubies" brand).

Clothing

Blueberry Baby--Chena Pump Plaza, Fairbanks, AK; 374-2772 (focus on organic baby items, but also carries local and Alaskan made items for the whole family including slippers, hats and other hand made dry goods on consignment)

Last Frontier Locavores Home

annielou — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 20:47:22 CST

Search the terms locavore and Alaska and you get snarky comments like this: "This [eating locally] is all well and good for people living in California, but how’s the local produce in Alaska?" from You Are What You Don't Eat, or, plaintive cries such as this woman who says she can find "no fruit within 100 miles but strawberries and for protein: only salmon, if they're running, and if one has a car to get to a fishing spot (from Locavores and 100 Mile Dieters)." Apparently, most people think of us a giant frozen wasteland, all the time. So, okay, Monday's high was -37 and this morning we woke up to nearly a foot of snow. It is January, after all--it's supposed to be wintry (I know, you non-Alaskans are thinking there is wintry and then there is hell, frozen over). But, it's still moose hunting season and my blue potatoes have only just started sending out ghostly fingers. I also have plenty of frozen carrots, purple cauliflower, and wild blueberries--and it's not as if freezer space is a problem--there's alwaysoutdoors!

So we only have three months of growing season--it's three months of 24-hour growth. None of that wimpy stuff like, say, night to interfere with all the photosynthetic goodness. This is the land of Giant Cabbages and 1,000 pound pumpkins, 55 pound squash, etc. (Don't believe me? Check out the Alaska State Fair). All it takes is a bit of planning--and a lot of canning jars--to get you through the winter. This wiki is designed to help with that.

Once you've become a member of the wiki, you can add your own resources or comments. I hope many will do so. Please share this new site with those you think might be interested. Anyone can use the wiki to read up on local choices.

It's taken me a long time to do the research needed to become more of a locavore. Information is scattered, out of date, and a lot of the local producers do not have an online presence. This wiki is intended to help with that. Besides, I'm a librarian. Compiling resources and making them available to others is what I do.