Supporting and building a sustainable local food system on the Kenai Peninsula.

Local Food News!

• Homer Farmers' Market is the best place to get local veggies.  Support a local infrastructure of farming without all the shipping.  Besides, it's a fun place to go!  Runs June through September officially, though there is often folks selling veggies way into November.

• Homer Garden Club is a vital resource of local knowledge.  Meetings are held on the fourth Sunday of every month during the winter with speakers on topics ranging from permaculture to greenhouse gardening to flower garden design.  Want to start growing your own food?  Don't be intimidated by the expertise in the room when you go, just ask questions!  Their summer garden tour will inspire you.

• Glacier Valley CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) is run out of Palmer and is the only year-round CSA box around.  Some of their produce is shipped up from the Lower 48, but they fill it with as much local produce as they can.  If you sign up for a box, the drop off is at the Ring of Fire Meadery.

• The AK Root Cellar Blog is for those of you who would like to add more local foods to your diet, meet local farmers, learn new recipes based on seasonal eating and preserving the summer harvest.

• Global Food Collaborative:  Working in Alaska to connect businesses to each other and to other strategic companies and technologies --all for the purposes of a world-class industry with optimal supply chains.

• Edible Communities:  Cultivating Community Through Food

• Read about what the Upbeet Gardener, Marion Owen of Kodiak, proposes for a sustainable food policy for Alaska

• Alaska Permaculture Blog is a great way to share ideas and questions with others around the state on what works in Alaska for permaculture.

 

Other Resources

• Edible Communities:  Cultivating Community Through Food

Buying some local veggies at the Willgrow booth at the Homer Farmers' Market

The Homer Farmers' Market Annual Meeting and potluck will be Jan 30th at 2pm at the Kachemak Center. 

NRCS/USDA  high tunnel greenhouse project?  The deadline for grant applications is Feb. 12th.  Check out the program and then call the Homer office for more information at 235-8177.

Permaculture in Homer  Neil Wagner will be presenting to the Kachemak Bay Conservation Society on permaculture at Islands and Ocean on February 18th at 7pm.

Grants for food systems The Wallace Center announces $10,000-$100,00 in "technical and financial assistance to enterprising and innovative projects that directly address and resolve food access issues" Applications due March 8th.

Homer Garden Club meeting topics this winter include:  

• Jan 24th: Raising Plants from Seed.

• Feb 28th: Edible Mushrooms

• Mar 28th:  Easy Rock Gardening

• April 25th: Primroses

• May 23rd:  Extending the Season

HOMER FACT:

Because of our distance from major metropolitan centers, Alaskans have historically been very self-sufficient in terms of food production; hunting, fishing, and the gathering of local plants.  Over the years this has diminished and in our present-day Alaska much of our food comes from the grocery store. 

When looking into different areas of sustainability, a community must evaluate where its food comes from and how much energy it takes to get it.  In consideration of rising energy costs and the sizeable distance our food travels to get here, Alaskans must begin to see the importance of encouraging more local food production more than anyone in the Lower 48. Presently, Alaskan farmers only produce about 2% of Alaskans' food.

There is nothing better than eating what our local area has to offer, a practice that at the same time supports a local economy of producers and distributors.  So go to your local Farmers Market!

To contact us:

You can drop us a letter at:

Sustainable Homer, PO Box 1801, Homer, AK  99603

Phone: 907-235-6953

E-mail: info@sustainablehomer.org