farming

On August 1st we went on a Matanuska - Susitna Valley (Mat-Su Valley) Farm Tour.  A bus took us (Dave, me and our friend Waverly) and 40 other folks to 3 different vegetable farms, a bison ranch and the only active creamery in Alaska .  We got some good ideas, ate good food and had a great day seeing an amazingly beautiful area of Alaska.   New on my list to grow next year: turnips and kohlrabi, both SOOO good raw!  We learned a lot about the history of farming in Alaska as well as the current challenges faced by farmers.  There is so much that goes on behind the scenes economically, politically, and socially!  It really made me want to be more active in the local agriculture movement than just buying produce at the farmers market :o)

This farm was by far my favorite - it was beautiful, organic and cozy/homey feeling.

This farm is a you-pick farm that does a lot of great education for school kids and sells it's produce at a half that at the grocery store! (the pic below is a potato patch tiller!)

This is the bison ranch, also where we had a delicious lunch of local beef stew, mixed green salad, homemade rolls, strawberry juice (!) and rhubarb strawberry hand pies (OMG!).  The view was breathtaking.

The creamery was our next stop.  Although they do not sell products direct to the consumer, they do sell at multiple local grocery stores.  We now buy their milk!  YUM!!!

Our last stop was a larger farm that does sell some produce to some of the local grocery stores and is the largest farm in the Mat-Su Valley.