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| Alaska has the unusual distinction of simultaneously being quite hard to grow crops in, due to its subarctic nature -- and capable, with extreme care -- of producing gigantic vegetables. |
Alaskans Try To Farm & Garden, With Mixed Success, Far From The American Breadbasket
The problem of "Alaska Grown" food is, of course, a very serious one. In 1898, when the first American soldiers came to Alaska, and walked up the Copper River, they were
charged, in part, with finding out if agriculture was possible in Alaska. The answer is: "Kind of."
Copper Center was one of the first would-be agricultural stations.
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| Sign in Copper Center, Alaska, on the Richardson Highway, talking about how the community was started as a "Government Agriculture Experiment Station." |
Eventually, there were farming areas, including Palmer,
Kenny Lake, and Delta Junction. They all had varying degrees of success.
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| Delta Junction roadhouse. |
Because there were no indigenous livestock in Alaska -- no pigs, or horses, or cows or domesticated sheep and goats -- Alaska's incoming westerners have extensively experimented with introducing livestock.
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| Duck eggs in Kenny Lake. |
Because horses need hay and other feed that is actually grown by humans for them, the roadhouses that sprang up often had hayfields surrounding them -- in effect providing "gas" for the horses, in the form of hay.
Then, outsiders began looking for animals that more closely matched the northern
subarctic forage. For example, they brought in reindeer -- from other northern
countries -- with the idea that the reindeer could provide meat and milk,
and would be able to eat Alaska's natural vegetation (as could musk ox,
which are currently being experimented with at the Musk Ox Farm, in
a milking experiment.) Both of these non-indigeonous animals -- reindeer
and musk ox -- were brought to Nunivak Island, for example, after fur hunters pretty
much wiped out the natural sea animals surrounding the island.
As Alaskans, the problems of Alaska-produced
flood are very real for us. This is not an easy place to grow things.
It can freeze throughout much of the state any month of the year.
Starvation and malnutrition have a strong historical background in Alaska,
including a hundred years ago, during the Gold Rush.
At the current time, we who live in Alaska are almost entirely fed by two sources of food:
1) Incoming food from Costco, Walmart, Fred Meyer and Safeway, and
2) Wild fish and meats.
During the summer, "Alaska Grown" food has become more common, with Farmers' Markets and tie-ins to Alaska's grocery stores. Potatoes, broccoli, and fresh greens and lettuce, along with carrots and peas (and the old standby--rhubarb--all grow pretty well in Palmer, and are promoted in Fred Meyer supermarkets under the "Alaska Grown" logo.)
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| Alaska Grown greens from the VenderWeele Farms in Palmer, Alaska, at Fred Meyer in Anchorage. |
During the summer, "Alaska Grown" food has become more common, with Farmers' Markets and tie-ins to Alaska's grocery stores. Potatoes, broccoli, and fresh greens and lettuce, along with carrots and peas (and the old standby--rhubarb--all grow pretty well in Palmer, and are promoted in Fred Meyer supermarkets under the "Alaska Grown" logo.)
But, one telling story of how difficult it is for Alaska to "provide" farmed food
to people occurred several years ago, when a Middle School librarian
in Sitka tried to eat locally--produced food one September -- for a week.
You might think she could succeed, because Sitka is far more temperate
than Interior Alaska. And because she kind of cheated -- using deer and fish. It turned out she mainly survived on 18 eggs, tomatoes, raspberries and greens. She lost weight, and wound up consuming only around 300 to 700 calories a day -- which would eventually kill her if she continued. She grew very weak in her "locally grown" experiment.
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| Food Market in Willow, Alaska, along the Parks Highway. |