The Summer Sun

The solstice has come. In other parts of the world, the solstice can come and go with little celebration. But in the land where you can see the midnight sun, the solstice brings a time of celebration. Alaska is a land of extremes and change. Every living thing seems to know that the daylight and warmth are fleeting. People are always outside, parades and festivals are countless and with 21 hours of daylight plants literally grow before your eyes.

(Adding Topsoil and forming the garden)

















(Planting some of our first plants)













The garden at Woodriver is flourishing. The entire garden is filled with flowers, herbs and vegetables. I have my second session of students working with me. I have the challenging task of engaging and teaching ten 12-14 year old students. It can be hard to motivate any person to weed for a couple of hours. It is especially challenging to motivate energetic, talkative teenagers. However I enjoy designing creative lesson plans. The students work with me for 3 hours a day, four days a week. Once a week we harvest vegetables to sell at our farmstand at the school. We have had two weeks of harvest which included bunching onions, radishes, napa cabbage, and bok choi. We doubled our profit from the first harvest to the second. It’s exciting to see after 6 weeks of work in the garden, students and community member eating from the garden.













(the garden entirely planted with sawdust ailses)





On Friday, the farm hosted a picnic for their CSA members. Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is where a person pays a farm a set amount (at Calypso it is $450) for weekly vegetables provided for the entire season. In some places like California, the vegetable share could last year round. In Alaska the members are guaranteed 13 weeks of veggies, although if the weather is favorable it could be more weeks. The Friday member picnic created a time for members to come up to the farm to visit and meet some of the staff. It was a potluck with delicious fresh salads from the garden, Alaska salmon, freshly baked bread from the farm and a delicious array of desserts. A folk band played with a caller so that we could square dance. I have never been exposed to such a large square dance community before I came to Alaska. The band played under a tent while we danced in the sawdust with our bare feet. A slight breeze brought the faint smell of manure while keeping the mosquitos at bay. The moment was perfect. The evening concluded with a group of us biking to the local bar (and only bar) in Ester. The Eagle is a large one room wooden building with a large covered patio. The door stays open while people and dogs move freely in and out. If hunger strikes you can buy a frozen patty from the bar and cook it yourself on the grill. We stayed late drinking beer and swapping stories and laughs. I biked home at 1:30 am in the dusky twilight reminded once again that I was in a land unlike many others.

Thank you all for your patience with me. Things are slower for me now and I hope to get to this blog more often. Hope you are all enjoying your summers.