Growing Alaska

PALMER — Spring Creek farm is a new model for Alaskan agriculture that produces an abundance of food off a six-acre footprint and three greenhouses while modeling small-scale farming to new Valley growers.

It also aims to educate a new generation of farmers to change farming in the far north.

The picturesque Spring Creek Farm sits in prime farming location in the middle of Palmer. The farm has a fascinating history. The legendary pioneer and philanthropist Louise Kellogg owned the 700-acre property for decades, eventually donating it to Alaska Pacific University for educational purposes.

After Kellogg passed away in 2001, the property was administered by a trust that started running educational programs.

In 2014, APU hired Joshua Faller to take control of the farm’s food production interests. Faller brought his wife Megan Talley, who was also an experienced farmer. After a few months, Talley was hired by APU to become Farm Manager.

Talley explains the APU supervisor’s goal was to turn the property into more of a production farm, while still keeping a focus on education.

Spring Creek Farm as a school

Talley and Faller are realizing Kellogg’s goal of an educational farm as they host student interns and model sustainable small-scale farming in the Valley.

Tracey Wingate is visiting Alaska from Skidmore College New York. She is in Alaska to learn about invasive weeds and develop a weed map for the farm. Wingate explains she is working with a Professor at UA-Fairbanks “using GIS and GPS to work out areas that are most vulnerable to invasive weeds.”

She hopes to develop a weed plan that will allow better control and management of invasive species.

Katherine Bui is also in Alaska for the first time. She studies Environmental Science at Northern Arizona University. Bui says she is “really involved in the food community” at her school after starting a farmers market on campus.

“Part of the reason I wanted to come to Alaska is because it’s so different and I want to see how things are done here with the challenges they face,” Bui said, adding that part of the appeal of coming to a working farm was the tangible benefits of farming. “With a lot of sustainability efforts you don’t see the affect that you’re wanting for years to come but with farming, at the end of the season or with harvest, you get satisfaction seeing what you’ve produced.”

Cayley Eller is a senior at APU. She has experience farming in California and New Zealand. This summer she joins Spring Creek Farm as an Americorps Vista volunteer.

Her focus is on studying sustainable food systems and she is also working on food security and poverty prevention.

Her other goal as an Americorps Vista volunteer is performing community outreach, either by taking members of the public on tours around the farm or by leaving the property and teaching Valley residents.

Eller explains last week she did a worm-composting workshop at the Palmer Library with students.

Perhaps Talley and Faller’s most important legacy is co-founding the Alaska Tilth Program three years ago with the UAF Co-operative Extension. The program donates fresh produce to lower income families in the Valley.

Last year, Spring Creek Farm was able to give 3,000 pounds of produce to approximately 700 people.

The program partners with Winona Benson, a family nutrition educator, who gives free cooking classes throughout the Mat-Su Valley. Benson takes the farm’s produce and other healthy food to demonstrate how to cook healthily on a budget.

Once the class is over, participants are able to take produce home with them.

Last week, Benson had her first cooking demonstration of the season at the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Wasilla and she plans to give more demonstrations every other Wednesday.

Beyond cooking demonstrations, the Tilth Program also focuses on “building resiliency within the community around food,” said Talley.

The program teaches people how to be more self-sufficient by growing their own food or simply recognizing how to turn a vegetable into something delicious.

“If they see a rutebega on a shelf they say, ‘Oh that’s a bunch of food that I can turn into French fries that my kids will eat,’” said Talley.

Spring Creek Farm as a production farm

Talley describes that there are really two farmers working the property — production manager Joshua Faller and farm assistant Phoebe Autry.

With the six acres and three greenhouses Spring Creek Farm is able to send produce to a weekly farmer’s market held every Wednesday at APU’s campus in Anchorage.

This year they hope to go to growing year round by using their own greenhouses and greenhouse space at the Mat-Su Experimental Farm.

The farm has also adopted a Community Supported Agriculture program to create a direct relationship between the farmers and members of the public.

The program sees members of the public buying a share in the farm’s seasonal output at the beginning of the season when costs for farmers are highest.

Talley explains that there are a lot of up-front costs as a vegetable farmer, including buying soil and seeds and fixing up machinery.

If the farm has a bumper harvest the members reap the rewards; if it’s a rough year for the farmer then, “You’re not going to go out of business,” said Talley.

The cost for a full-share is $600 and $300 for a bi-weekly share. Talley says they have around 65 total members with 40 picking up food every week.

This year’s season started last week with a bag for each paying member delivered to the UAF Co-operative Extension in Palmer.

There were scallions, arugula, Napa cabbage, rhubarb and basil. As the season goes on the produce changes later in fall, members can expect cauliflower, broccoli and potatoes.

Talley said as the season progresses the bags will get larger and members can soon expect 10 to 12 items each week. “If you broke it up evenly you should get $33.33 a week,” in fresh organic produce, Talley said.

Last year that came out to around $750 worth of herbs and vegetables.

The CSA program doesn’t just benefit the farm or members — it also creates a model for new farmers.

“It shows new growers you can start with 20 members, you can start with 10 members, they’ll help you grow slowly,” said Talley.

Modeling small-scale agriculture is the third aspect of Spring Creek Farm. The farm hopes to show growers that it’s possible to make money from a small-scale farm in Alaska.

“Typically, new entry farmers are looking for a 6-to-10-acre footprint and if you do it right, you can make a living off it,” said Talley.

She does warn however that new growers won’t make a profit immediately.

“You’re not going to see a profit in year three — maybe in year eight,” Talley said.

The farm also currently practices organic farming, but they aren’t certified. Talley says they have considered becoming certified organic so they can understand how to navigate the bureaucracy and “help other people do it”

Future of small-scale Alaskan farming

Alaska has always had a strange relationship with farming.

“Anywhere else in the world, people had to grow food for people to be there,” Eller said.

Alaska developed differently. People immigrated in waves to work in industries such as oil, gold and fishing. As people came, “They were shipping food up with them,” said Eller.

To a large degree, that model still exists but Talley says there are a lot of people studying food security who might offer change.

In government, Talley cites a grant Spring Creek Farm received from the Division of Agriculture. The grant allowed the farm to buy a cooler at the APU coffee cart in Anchorage. They are now able to stock it with produce, giving the farm an extra revenue stream and potentially year round sales.

On the topic of government, Talley speaks highly of the Division of Agriculture’s personnel, but says underfunding has hampered their efforts.

Talley says they “need five more people for every person working there.”

That underfunding and understaffing has a simple explanation. “If the state had money, I think they’d be throwing a lot in agriculture,” said Talley.

Nevertheless, that financial difficulty from the state hasn’t deterred small-scale innovators in the Valley from using new technologies to improve yields.

Eller described visiting a local farmer with 2-acres who “had her processes really dialed in.”

“She had irrigation, hoop tunnels, greenhouse and really thorough systems. It was really cool educationally to model a variety of things,” said Eller.

This model could be vital to attracting more farmers to Alaska and ensuring that ‘Alaska Grown’ will exist for years to come.