Community Discussion: EPA and Bristol Bay

gathering materials for winter

We have been raking and bagging leaves and grass clippings in anticipation of winter time.  Our hope and goal is to make enough dirt to fill one raised bed, simply by composting during the winter months.  We have a warm spot in the basement where we have begun to use as a staging area, that will be used to store the composting material in enclosed Rubbermaid totes.  Our ingredients will consist of: shredded paper, dead leaves, kitchen scraps, grass clippings, and probably some ash from the steam bath.  The weather is remarkably mild for this time of year.  It has been raining for the past couple of days, and now it is breezy and overcast.  We are going over to Liboffville to turn some more dirt over to prepare for expanding our pseudo-community garden over there in the spring.   

1st Southwest Alaska Gardening Symposium a Wild Success!

The Southwest Alaska Gardening Symposium was this past week.  It started on Thursday, September 23 and ran through Saturday, September 25th.  There were 54 participants from 10 different Bristol Bay villages sharing on common dream - to produce more locally grown food, starting in our own backyard gardens.  It was totally inspiring.  Thank you to Michele Masley, who was the driving force and chief organizer of the conference, Rae Belle Whitcomb whose BBNA Workforce Development Program provided travel funding and prizes for the event, and to Hazel Koppenberg from the Marston Foundation. 

The perfect cap of the weekend was picking potatoes over at the garden that Chet and I started in front of Mike Davis' house over at Jerry Liboff's place.  The potatoes and turnips were beautiful and my son had so much fun digging into the dirt to pull potatoes out.  It was definitely the highlight of the weekend, especially since Chet and I were feeling a little frustrated at listening to all of these great gardening ideas and success stories, but are currently in the "landless" class in Dillingham.

Thank you Jerry for letting us put up a garden at your place!  It made our spring so fun to be able to work outside in the dirt, and now it has made our fall time so invigorating and will continue to fuel our passion for gardening again in the spring.  Quyana Chussmuck!

mushroom as big as your head!

frying up king bolete mushrooms

King Bolete (Boletus edulis)

Local harvest for newbies

We have a new hobby - picking wild mushrooms!  Our harvest has been very fruitful because we've focused on only a few key species that are fairly easy to identify - boletus or porcini mushrooms.  These are not gilled mushrooms, as the spores are borne on tubes on the underside of the mushroom cap.  They are large and only a few mushrooms can practically make an entire meal.  So far, we have made mushroom pizza, dried mushrooms (in the oven on low), mushroom soup, and salmon with mushrooms.  I'll post some photos for your viewing enjoyment.