Classes provide welcome relief from 'cabin fever'

PALMER — There’s much to do during the cold winter months in Alaska, and the Mat-Su Cooperative Extension Service wants to make sure Valley residents know it.

“We want you to get out there doing stuff,” said Chuck Kaucic, while giving a lecture on local trails at the extension service’s “Cabin Fever Reliever” on Saturday.

In and around the University of Alaska Fairbanks’s Matanuska Experiment Farm building (behind Mat-Su Regional Medical Center), about 75 people gathered to relieve their “cabin fever” with agriculture-related classes. Topics ranged from yogurt-making to compass navigation to greenhouse design.

Melissa Clampitt, administration assistant for the extension service, said the group had planned the event for 50 people, and were pleasantly surprised by the excess in registration.

“For the first time we’ve done this, it’s been pretty successful,” Clampitt said, cleaning up the kitchen in the “blue room” after lunch.

Agriculture and Horticulture agent Dr. Stephen Brown — who taught intro to gardening, map and compass navigation, greenhouse design and “chicken university” this weekend — said the extension service offers individual classes from time to time, but this was the first time that a whole day of interactive classes has been offered in the Valley.

However, many attendees seemed surprised to learn this.

Wasilla resident Erin Korn said she heard about the Cabin Fever Reliever through a friend, who she thought saw the event advertised on Facebook. As someone who described herself as “an aspiring gardener,” Korn said she found a lot of value in the classes. For just $25, Korn attended five different 50-minute classes, with lunch provided.

She said the most interesting thing she learned was that chicken manure doesn’t have to be composted before feeding a garden. She had been forming piles for each growing year around her yard.

“I’m not doing that anymore,” Korn said with a laugh.

She also participated in the compass and map navigation class, and with her newfound knowledge plans to better explore the trails between the experiment farm, Crevasse Moraine and Matanuska Lake.

Rob Stanley, a recent transplant from Oregon, said he, too, learned a lot at the event. He said he and his wife had gardened in the past, and were glad to know they would be able to get “good production growth” for vegetables and other edibles in Alaska.

When asked if he would consider taking some more classes from the extension service, he said, “absolutely, yes.”

Wasilla Homesteaders Club member Susan Selk said she, too, had “always had fun gardening” and was looking forward to “trying out some new ideas” after sitting in on some of the extension service classes. She said she knew of the event because her friend, Julie Cascio, works for the extension service.

In Cascio’s pasta making class at the end of the day, friends Alyson Tuomi and Sandi Woolsey said they enjoyed the various food-related classes of the event.

Woolsey said she and Tuomi were making an effort to be healthier by making more food from scratch.

“Everything was interesting,” Woolsey said.

Both women said they would definitely like to take more classes from the extension service in the future.

“It’s a great resource that a lot of people don't know about,” Woolsey said.

The Mat-Su Cooperative Extension Service is headquartered at the experiment farm building at 1509 S. Georgeson Drive. The office is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and provides many informative pamphlets and papers on agricultural topics, free of charge. For more information, call 745-3360 or visit facebook.com/MatsuExtension.

Contact reporter Caitlin Skvorc at 352-2266 or caitlin.skvorc@frontiersman.com.