Small but tasty tomato harvest from Naknek

Garden vegetable planner

My "recycled" indoor garden

The tomato seeds were salvaged from my cutting board, when I was cutting up tomatoes from our Full Circle Farm box, the soil was about 50% recycled from worm casings integrated into Pro-Mix, and, well, you can see that most of the containers in these photos were salvaged and would have ended up in the trash.

Some of these plants were started as early as October 4, 2010. You can see that there isn't phenomenal growth, but our daylight hours have been pretty diminished due to our Alaskan winter. However, the days are getting longer and my little tomato plants are growing bigger every day. You may also notice some other plants mixed in - pepper plants that I started from seeds salvaged from peppers I cut up. I'm so glad that my kids like vegetables!

Photos from this year's gardening activities

 
 
 
 

Cease and desist order rescinded

After a friendly farm visit by our state ADEC inspectors, they have subsequently rescinded the cease and desist order that they had issued back in March, telling Alaska Bounty to not compost any fish waste on our property.  This is a MAJOR win, as this proves the legality of what we are doing, and also points to the frivolousness of the complaints against me and my operation. 

Did I mention that the complaining party's wife works for the Pebble Partnership?

Seems ironic to me that these folks would rather see a 22-square foot mile toxic footprint and a lagoon of acidic mining pollution sitting above our precious salmon spawning grounds, but they will not tolerate the smell of a little fish.  My response: if you don't like the smell of fish, perhaps you should move away from the fishing village where you live.  I hear Canada is nice - especially where the Canadians have stripmined and destroyed their lands.  Perhaps the smell of tar shale would be an improvement?

Sweet little radish growing in High Tunnel #1. Photo taken 6/29/2010 by Izetta.

I'll miss the farm

I'm off to Portland today for training on "How to Write the Perfect EIS."  This will help me deliver the NEPA training to villages more effectively.  However, I am sad to be leaving Naknek and will miss seeing the progress on the farm.  With so many local gardens being planted in Naknek, I'm hoping that people will take more of an interest in locally-produced fertilizers and soils.  I'm willing to let people have the liquid fish-based fertilizer for the first couple of years, for marketing purposes and to prove the efficacy of the products. 

This project is probably the most exciting and fun thing that I've ever engaged in.