At Pyrah's u-pick your own veggies

PALMER -- With backs bent, carrying little kitchen knives, they meandered through vegetable fields. Pausing to cut cabbage, broccoli, collard greens and cauliflower from various plants, they stuffed the veggies into little white bags labeled, "Alaska Grown" on the side.

Men, women and children come from all over Southcentral Alaska to pick farm-fresh produce from Ted Pyrah's u-pick farm, off Mile 3 Bodenburg Loop in Palmer.

Pulling little green wagons or pushing wheelbarrows overflowing with vegetables of their choosing, the harvesters on Saturday were visibly pleased with their piles of food. Out in the fields, strangers swapped recipes and food preparation techniques.

Greg Thorns, a stocky, middle-aged man, drove from Eagle River to harvest fresh greens.

"I've been doing this for years," Thorns said. "I bring my wife out here all the time. She makes a beverage out of these collard greens."

Out in a patch of mustard plants several older women shared secrets with u-pick newcomers about how to prepare the lettuce-like plant.

From blanching to freezing to preparing the mustard leaves with salt and garlic seasoning, the greenhorns received a culinary education as they shuffled down rows of vegetables.

Saturday afternoon, Pyrah zipped around the farm on his all-terrain vehicle, keeping kids off the pumpkins, helping people find vegetables and joking around with the harvesters.

For 10 years, Pyrah managed the farmland as a welfare farm for the Mormon Church, providing cheap food for low-income families.

Fifteen years ago, Pyrah began leasing the farm from the church to run his private business. Today he hires a few farmhands during the summer months and then opens up the fields for pick-it-yourself harvesters, starting the last week in June and running through the first week in October.

After teaching culinary arts at the University of Alaska Anchorage for 27 years, Pyrah retired three years ago and now runs the farm full time.

While he enjoys his work, he has no illusions about growing rich off the u-pick.

"It's not the money that I value," Pyrah said. "Small-time farmers, we all drive junk equipment, but there's a good feeling from working the ground and the scenery and just being here enjoying the farm."

Several people in the fields said they were most impressed by the scenery and the freshness of the vegetables, which continue growing right up until the moment they are picked and thrown into a produce bag.

Once the wagons and wheelbarrows were full, customers hauled their goods over to a wash station, sprayed them with water and then headed to an open-air check stand to settle up.

The u-pick farm is open Monday through Saturday, from 9 a.m. until dark, except on Mondays when it closes at 5 p.m. For more information, people may call Pyrah's Pioneer Peak Farm at 745-3557.

After a morning of picking, Al and Carrie Best, of Anchorage, pulled their vegetable wagon up to the checkstand.

"We just heard about this place the other day," Al Best said. "This is our first time, but we'll be back."

Contact Joel Davidson at joel.davidson@frontiersman

.com.