Really Really Fresh From the Farm

Family owned farms are always looking for new ways to generate revenue. One way is to have consumers come right to the farm to shop for their produce. These are called “you pick” farms.

In Alaska, you have to “get” while the “getting” is good since nothing grows in Alaska’s fabled long, far north winters. Ted and Katie Pyrah’s “Pioneer Peak Farm” in Alaska’s Matanuska Valley has been a popular stop for “You Pick” enthusiasts for nearly 20 years.  The farm offers rhubarb, beets, broccoli, greens, peas and both red and Yukon gold potatoes. Pyrah’s supplies the wagons and pickers supply the muscle. There’s a lot of ground to cover. At close to 50 acres, this is bigger than many “you-pick farms” in the lower 48. So big that you may need directions just to find your harvest. Ted Pyrah points out the right spot to pick “Wait a minute, go by the Rhubarb where that yellow insect trap is.”

While all of this is a pretty good business for the farmer, for these you-pickers it is serious business because when the long Alaska winter sets in, produce prices in the supermarkets here go sky high. For Evelina Walker, “you-pick” means saving up to half on winter grocery store bills. She says, “It’s expensive. Vegetables are expensive at the store so you stock up for the winter so you don’t have to buy vegetables when you need it. When you’re on a budget you gotta get it while you can when it’s cheap. Ha-ha.”

Chuck Walker knows from experience that preserving your own makes a lot of sense, “I’ve learned to do an inventive way of life up here. Get as much as you can, grow as you can, or whatever because the winters. Come February it’s still winter up here.”

Come winter, Chuck and the others often pay premium prices for produce since almost all of it is shipped in from warmer climes.  Which makes it easy to understand why local produce, at local prices, is so popular in Alaska’s short growing season.  
But there’s something else at work here too. In addition to saving money and getting produce “fresh” from the field, it’s the sense that “you pick” farms really represent that self sufficient, “can-do” spirit that most Alaskans feel.

So, even if you’re not growing your own, you’re picking and preserving it: and savoring a sunny taste of summer during Alaska’s long winter months.

Alaska Agricultural Fact
Alaska’s first agricultural college was created by Congress in 1918. Hay and potatoes are the state’s top field crops, but as you might expect, “agriculture under glass” is big in Alaska. Greenhouse growers raise vegetables year round.