Released!
Released! For another day of foraging fresh grass 🌱 and tasty bugs🦗!
New video dropped in Alaska Homestead Academy - this one is foraging in Alaska for medicinal plants.
Such a great class!
Join the academy this week and you can talk with herbalist Darryl Patton in a live Q&A - ask him all of your questions!
alaskahomesteadacademy.com to join
What a view!
Sitting at my Grannie’s antique table enjoying my view and practicing gratefulness for our many blessings.
🍎🍁Making applesauce is super simple - and the process makes your house smell like a perfect fall day! First, peel and core your apples and cut into chunks. Next, add just a tiny bit of water to your pot and add honey or sugar and cinnamon to taste. Simmer for a couple of hours until the apples are tender. Use a potato masher to mash the apples down - but not too much! You want to leave some yummy chunks!This is a great time to do a taste test. Does it need more cinnamon or sugar? Add it now! Once it’s sweetened and seasoned to perfection, fill your jars and water bath process. 15 minutes for pints and 20 minutes for quarts. Enjoy this yummy taste of fall all winter long!
I’m currently doing a healing protocol that includes drinking a quart of bone broth/meat stock every day. Who knew getting healthy would be so tasty!?!?
HOW MUCH GARLIC TO PLANT IN YOUR ALASKA HOMESTEAD GARDEN FOR FULL SUSTAINABILITY
One thing we are super passionate about right now is making our Alaska garden as sustainable as possible.
We have lots of fruits and berries that are perennials in the orchard but now we're starting to work on our perennial (or self-sustaining) vegetable garden. There are tons of options that are Alaska hardy, including garlic!
Now they aren't technically a perennial because you do have to replant every year. However, you if you plan properly, you can buy seed garlic once and never have to buy it again. Here's our formula:
First, I know that we go through about 2-3 bulbs of garlic per week in our family. That includes enough for overflow things like our veggie ferments, fermented garlic and honey, fire cider, and plenty to share with friends. That means I need to harvest at least 156 bulbs to sustain our family.
However, if we also want to have plenty to plant next fall, we need to make sure we plant plenty of extra for that. If we need an additional 156 cloves to plant, and if we can safely assume that each bulb has an average of 10 cloves on it then I need to plant an additional 15 bulbs to supply our family for the following year.
And, as always, I plant extra. 🙂 Don't you?
Three Bears Alaska Inc. on KGB has a good thing going and you do not want to miss out!!Please share - this is super cool! The 4-H meat they purchased at the livestock auction this year is ready! Not only is this @buyalaskagrown , these critters were raised by local kids!They have all the parts including the heart, liver, hocks, tongue, etc. plus the usual roasts, steaks, etc.But here’s my favorite part. I had no idea they do this. They don’t take the cost of the animal into account in their pricing. These critters don’t come cheap. However, in their commitment to community, they price the meat exactly the same as what’s already in the case.For example, their Alaska grown family packs of burger are only $5.39/lb!Incredible.This is about the most premium meat money can buy - yet it’s affordable. Get to the KGB Three Bears today!
Abbi says: Honeyberries are ready!!
The bad news: If you don’t already have an appointment to pick this weekend, we are sold out.
The good news: There’s lots more fruit coming on!
Be sure to sign up for our texting service to be informed of our u-pick dates and other news on the farm. It’s easy! Just text your name to (206) 759-8575 and you’ll automatically be signed up!
((We promise not to spam you - we don’t have time for that and know you don’t either!))
Ever wonder what it's like to raise 100 meat birds? Here's a quick snippet of my morning chores. It's too fun to call it work!
We love the idea of free range chickens but we just have so many predators around (including an ermine that nested UNDER the chicken house - but that's whole other story) so we decided to get some movable fencing so our meat chicks can have the freedom of moving around and scratching, etc with safe boundaries in place.
They LOVE it! And so do I!
Honestly, there's a lot of hype around Premier 1 Supplies fencing but I'm sold! Especially for animals you grow out in the summer only like chickens and pigs.
I love that we can make it any shape we want, we can move it around obstacles or place we don't want them, and it's super simple for just one person!
One more thing I love ... We're considering expanding the orchard ... again. Big Surprise, huh? Haha! Well, I love that they are getting the ground all ready and fertilized for us while living their best life. :) It's a win-win!
For now, the chicks are in new digs and we're all happy. :)
We love the idea of free range chickens but we just have so many predators around (including an ermine that nested UNDER the chicken house - but that's whole other story) so we decided to get some movable fencing so our meat chicks can have the freedom of moving around and scratching, etc with safe boundaries in place.
They LOVE it! And so do I!
Honestly, there's a lot of hype around Premier 1 Supplies fencing but I'm sold! Especially for animals you grow out in the summer only like chickens and pigs.
I love that we can make it any shape we want, we can move it around obstacles or place we don't want them, and it's super simple for just one person!
One more thing I love ... We're considering expanding the orchard ... again. Big Surprise, huh? Haha! Well, I love that they are getting the ground all ready and fertilized for us while living their best life. :) It's a win-win!
For now, the chicks are in new digs and we're all happy. :)
A MESSAGE OF HOPE - AND MARCHING ORDERS
🌻 Gardening friends - is this summer getting you down? I hear you! That's why I recorded this video - it's intended as a message of hope - and it includes marching orders!
☀️ This weekend, I was looking over my garden and was trying to figure out what to do. There are lots of bare spots where seeds didn't' germinate and some plants just aren't thriving.
🦋 So rather than let it get me down, I came in the house, grabbed out my seed packets, and started researching. It seems the average first frost in the valley is September 16. So based on that, we have almost 70 days of gardening left!
So I went through all of my seeds and picked some things to plant. Yep, I planted seeds in my garden in Alaska in July.
Here's what I did:
🥬 Cabbage - I have a cabbage from Foundroot that only takes 60 days. So I planted plenty of that. We will just do more ferments for our winter enjoyment!
🥕 Carrots - My carrots are 70+ days but they can actually do okay in a frost so I'll let them get as big as they can before harvesting. I use carrots in our ferments, in homemade soups that I can up using our harvested meat and veggies, and also we put some in cold storage.
🎈Radishes - I always plant several batches of radishes so we have lots of fresh plus lots for our ferment.
🥬 Swiss Chard - I love putting some greens in our soups in the summer so I'll just blanche and freeze more chard for our soups! It's also good in scrambled eggs. :)
🥬 Lettuce - Although we can't preserve it, Gene just loves fresh salad so I planted more lettuce because it loves this weather!
🌱 Peas - I hadn't even planted peas yet because they are going in an area of the garden overhaul that isn't done yet so I found some bare spots and planted them!
💪🏻 I garden like our life depends on it (even though we have a Three Bears 12 miles away). I don't have to but I choose to have that mindset. That gives me a sense of urgency and it also helps me get creative when seasons d
Have you ever gone foraging in Alaska?
Alaska offers so much to us that is pure and good and FREE!
But you have to know what to harvest, when to harvest it, how much is enough, and what to do with it.
That’s why we invited our friend Betty Carrington to the farm to teach a class on foraging. Betty has been foraging in Alaska for decades and she’s more knowledgable than anyone I’ve ever known. I absolutely love listening to her share her wisdom.
Join us for our foraging class while we wander the orchard and the wood behind our house and learn so much from my dear friend Betty.
Class is Friday June 2. Tickets are limited and can be found on our website.
PLANTING YOUR ALASKA ORCHARD
Tech wasn't on our side for this FREE class earlier so I decided to just record it here for you all.
Let's talk about planting your Alaska bushes and trees including spacing, soil prep, and more!
If you'd like to learn more, Gene is teaching an orchard Masterclass on June 3 and we'd love to have you! Join him as he tours the orchard and shares everything we've learned about planning, planting, and maintaining our orchard for maximized production.
The class costs less than one apple tree but it could save you hundreds! https://commongroundalaska.com/product/alaska-orchard-masterclass/
An illustration on why to harden off your plants plus some info on how to harden them off.
Basically, just like your skin is likely tender and couldn’t withstand a whole day in the sun without burning, your plants can’t either.
If you take a vacation in a sunny place in the winter, you either get a base tan in a tanning booth (which kinda hardens your skin off for the vacation) or you take it slow or use cover for the first part of your vacation. Why? So you don’t fry your skin and ruin your vacation.
Same with plants. They are tender and sensitive just like the pasty skin of an Alaskan after a long winter. 🤣
So, just like you have to take precautions or take it slow with the sun on vacation, your plants need you to take it slow when you harden them off to spend the summer outside. 🙂
How to harden? Put them outside in small incremented times and gradually increase as they seem able. Slow it down if the sun is intense and hot. 🙂
Also, just a reminder. We recommend waiting until June 1 to put plants out permanently. Especially frost sensitive plants. 🙂
CAN YOU PLANT YOUR ALASKA HARDY TREES AND BUSHES OUTSIDE NOW? NO!!!! Here’s why:
Nurseries start early to get plants green and lush early so what you see is a plant that is out of dormancy. That means that the sap is running through the plant again. Sap is similar to water in that when it freezes, it expands. If you put your tree or bush outside now, and if we have another killing frost (which is very likely), it will hurt or could even kill your plant. Plus, these lush, green leaves we work so hard for will die off and that doesn’t do the plant any favors either.
Our advice, you can sure start hardening your plants off but until you’re sure that your specific area will no longer get a killing frost, it’s best to have them inside at night.
Once the plants are outside for the summer, they will naturally know when the weather starts cooling down and the days get shorter and they will naturally start to go into dormancy. Once they are dormant, they should do awesome no matter how cold it gets but since they are out of dormancy now, please, please don’t put them outside to stay yet.
If you are curious about growing an orchard in Alaska, we have a couple of offers for you!
We have a FREE class all about planting your trees and bushes in your Alaska orchard - you can register here: https://calendly.com/tandy-storyandscript/planting-your-orchard-bushes-trees?month=2023-05
We are also offering a three-hour Alaska Orchard Masterclass all about planning, planting, and maintaining your Alaska orchard which you can find here: https://commongroundalaska.com/product/alaska-orchard-masterclass/
Happy planting (after that last frost)!
Announcement #4 - Most of the presale plants have arrived, they are repotted, and they are happily coming out of dormancy and growing in the greenhouse!
The bare root plants (strawberries and raspberries) won’t be here until May but everything else is here and growing!
If you preordered plants, you should have gotten an email from me. If you don’t see it, please check your junk mail. I did have some email addresses that were entered incorrectly at checkout and I tried to fix all that I could figure out but some I wasn’t sure about. If you didn’t receive an email regarding your plant preorder, please let me know.
If you didn’t get in on the preorders but you’re interested in plants - we’ve got you covered! We are having an open house to come visit the orchard and see all that we have going on happening on May 20 from 10 am - 6 pm.
We will have apples, cherries, Saskatoons, currants, raspberries, strawberries and more available at the open house.
Want to know what’s awesome about our apples? They are grafter right here on the farm and we winter them over for a year before we sell them - that proves their alaska hardiness! Plus - we only graft apple varieties that will ripen in our climate. 🙂
Preorder pickup times (no need to make an appointment, just come when you’d like during these hours) are:
Thursday, May 18 noon-6 pm
Friday, May 19 noon-6 pm
Saturday, May 20 10 am - 6 pm
Sunday, May 21 2-6 pm
Monday, May 22 noon-6 pm
Tuesday, May 23 10 am - 3 pm
Wednesday, May 24 - CLOSED
Thursday, May 25 noon-6 pm
Friday, May 26 noon-6 pm
Saturday, May 27 10 am - 6 pm
Sunday, May 28 2-6 pm
We are located at 6189 S. Carat St in Big Lake.
Hope to see you all in May!
ANNOUNCEMENT #2- FREE CLASSES AT THE BIG LAKE LIBRARY
ANNOUNCEMENT #2: Free classes this summer at the Big Lake Library!
The Big Lake Library has offered the use of the library on Thursdays for us to offer FREE classes! All classes are on Thursdays at 6 pm.
We are open to your suggestions and can possibly add more classes if there's something we're missing!
Thursday, May 11 at 6 pm: Cheap Raised Beds that WORK!
Thursday, May 25: Companion Planting
Thursday, June 1: Preservation Basics
Thursday, June 29: How to make Kombucha and Jun
Thursday, July 27: All things berries including how to make pectin, preservation methods, and more!
Thursday, August 24: Pantry stocking basics
Clarification: These are not our masterclasses which are held at the Big Lake Lions Club. Those are not free and they are 3-4 hours. The library classes are one-hour long classes learning the basics and building community.
Hope to see you there!
SUMMER CLASSES ARE LIVE!
WE HAVE AN ANNOUNCEMENT!
((actually, we have four of them so we will post a new one every day.))
Today's announcement: Our Summer Classes are LIVE! Hear all about them in the video!
Here's the short version:
June 3: Alaska Orchard Masterclass: Everything you need to know about growing plants, bushes, and trees in your orchard. This class is fully comprehensive. Location: Common Ground Alaska Farm in Big Lake
June 24: Canning Masterclass - Everything you need to know about canning fruit, veggies, meat, and meals using hot water bath and pressure canning techniques. Also includes pickling! Location: Big Lake Lions - also available to watch as a live-feed.
July 8: Fermenting masterclass: This 4-hour MASTERCLASS will teach you all of the why's and how's of fermenting - and you get to make one to take home! Location: Big Lake Lions - also available to watch as a live-feed.
July 22: Alternate preserving and storage: In this class we will go over other aspects including freezing, dehydrating, cold & dry storage, plus we will include preserving dairy by making cheese, yogurt, and more! Location: Big Lake Lions - also available to watch as a live-feed.
August 5: Sourdough Masterclass - Again, this is a masterclass so come ready to learn everything you can about starting, maintaining, and using your sourdough. Plus, we will give you some starter to take home so you can get started right away! Location: Big Lake Lions - also available to watch as a live-feed.
Finally, ((I'm SUPER excited for this one)) on June 17 we are offering a FULL DAY Intensive learning retreat where you will have a condensed version of each of these classes PLUS an orchard tour and a garden tour. PLUS an Alaska-inspired lunch. AND you'll get some pretty cool goodies to take home with you. This is going to be a blast! It's right here on the farm and we had to limit seating to 32 people.
So there you go! That's announcement #1 for the week. And there's so much more to come!
THANK YOU for
