Kenai Resilience

Kenai Resilience and Kenai Peninsula Garden Club are co-sponsoring two special workshops on June 16 featuring permaculture expert Saskia Esslinger of Red Edge Design in Anchorage, 9am – 12 pm and 1 pm to 4 pm. Registrations must in by June 10. Email your interest to Marion Nelson – mmkn@ptialaska.net ASAP and send 1/2 of the workshop fee to CPGC, PO Box 767, Kenai 99611.

9am-Noon – Workshop #1. ECOLOGICAL GARDEN DESIGN: Learn how to use Permaculture design principles to begin designing your abundant, low-maintenance landscape. Good design reduces inputs of money, time, and toxins to maintain the system. It helps us make better decisions and learn from our failures. In this workshop you will learn the basics of design and how to take cues from nature to help improve your designs. We will practice applying Permaculture design principles to come up with some novel ideas for our landscape.

1pm-4pm – Workshop #2. INSTANT GARDENS aka, yards to gardens: Tired of mowing? Turn your lawn into a garden in just a few hours, using mostly recycled materials. Sheet mulching is a great technique for building garden beds for many reasons: they are quick and easy to install over grass or other poor or degraded soil, they are significantly warmer, and they are easier to maintain. In this workshop we will talk about why and how it works as we build a garden together.

FOR WORKSHOP #2, PLEASE BRING A SHOVEL, AND BAG UP YOUR NON-MEAT KITCHEN WASTE INCLUDING COFFEE GROUNDS, TO ADD TO THAT GARDEN BED.

Workshop fee: $35 per workshop or two workshops for $60. (for same person)

Group size limit: 15 people (register by June 10!)

Location: Off K-Beach Rd., off Cannery Rd.

Workshop times: 9-12 and 1-4 on Thursday, June 16

As a new season of local food production gets underway, let’s take a look back at last year’s Peak of the Season Food Fest. Videographer Lincoln Wensley, who’s graduating from Kenai Central High School this week, captured the celebratory spirit of the event perfectly!! Thanks again to Lincoln, along with Harold and Bobbi Jackson of Jackson Gardens, who hosted the event.

Many thanks to Jeff Babitt, the local farmer who runs Alaskan HomeGrown, for speaking about the business of farming on the Central Peninsula! Jeff discussed his experience with farming and starting up a local food business, food law and how it affects his practice, and what drew him to the vocation of farming.  According to Jeff’s research, the proportion of locally produced or harvested food in Alaska has dropped from 80% in the 1960′s to less that 10% today.  He’s a strong advocate for increasing food security with locally grown food and he encouraged everyone in the room to plant a large garden.  For helpful information on growing in our cold climate, Jeff and other gardeners in the room highly recommended books by Maine farmer, Eliot Coleman, including The Winter Harvest Handbook.  Jeff’s vision is to make his storefront on K-Beach Road in front of Save-U-More a place where local farmers and gardeners can easily market their surplus produce.   If you missed Jeff’s speech, you might enjoy watching Michael Pollan’s presentation at the Bioneers in 2009  (Part 1, Part 2, & Part 3).

On August 14th, Jackson Gardens hosted the “Peak of the Season” Local Foods Potluck.  Approximately 60 folks showed up with tasty morsels that were harvested or grown in the state of Alaska (or the local grocery store, if they were new to the local foods idea).  Local musicians chipped in to provide musical entertainment, and there were plenty of places for the kids to play.

The Jacksons were amazing hosts, as they gave us a tour of their wonderful garden.  It was fantastic to simply walk through the paths of blooming & beautiful flowers and experience the life of a fruit tree inside of their greenhouse.  We are so grateful that the weather cooperated as well!  A great article was written up about the experience in the Redoubt Reporter.  Check it out!