Panoramas

Hatcher Pass, beautiful blueberry pickin day

 Looking south at sunset across Turnagain Arm from Kincaid Park in Anchorage

Looking south across Kachemak Bay from Homer at sunset

McCarthy

McCarthy/Kennecott is a community at the end of a 60 mile dirt road. I believe this is the farthest I have ever been from civilization. It borders the Wrangell/St. Elias National Park and Preserve, the largest the NPS owns. This is where Valerie was two summers ago on a field course, as it is a spot for planes to take off for serious backcountry expeditions. We met some locals young fishermen and old sourdoughs. We even got to walk around on the root glacier with cramp ons, which is 5000 feet deep of ice. When I woke up the first morning i looked up the valley and saw a vertical wall of ice blinding me.



Hatcher Pass Blueberry

Finally got up to Hatcher's Pass to get some blueberries. I am glad that we waited too because it was the most beautiful day I've had yet in Alaska - sunny and warm, clear blue skies. There were many many cars lined along Archangel Valley Road and people on the surrounding slopes. One group that had just come down  as we were going up told us that they did not get any. We did not let that discourage us and we found some bushes full of berries across the creek in a pretty magical area overgrown with moss, lichen, and other low growing alpine/tundra type plants. There are at least three species of Vaccinium up there: V. ovalifolium (Oval Leaf Blueberry), V. alaskaense (Alaskan), and V. uliginosum (Bog Blueberry)

Crowberry - Empetrum nigrum. Has an edible berry with lots of water but only ok to bland tasting, good for a thirst quench (I was also drinking out of the stream) but nothing like the Blueberry flavor

(photo: blueberries in a bowl)

Plants!

Most of you probably know by now that I am an aspiring botanist- just in the budding stage.  In the past few years I have progressed from knowing very little about biology in general to having a strong foundational knowledge of wild plant communities in different habitats, of course mainly in California. So in coming up to Alaska one thing I have been looking forward to is experiencing plant communities in a new location, in a very different climate regime from what I am used to in California, as we are at 60 degrees north in Alaska. Still there are many similarities as this is still the Pacific Northwest, and it has been very interesting checking out what is different and what is the same up here. Clearly, what I see growing and what I notice is highly dependant on the time of year that I am here (August - ). For example Valerie's photos of the garden and woods from May show a landscape just coming to life, while mine show a living landscape dying.

Among other resources I have been using the Lone Pine (Revised) Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast: Washington, Oregon, British Columbia & Alaska for help identifying new plant species.

As of this post I am still yet to make it up to blueberry land, which is up on the slopes a bit more, it looks like tomorrow we will go up to Hatcher's Pass area and get some.

As I have said in the other posts, it is refreshing to come to an area which still has a "wild" feel to it, the majority of plants are native and the soils are in good health.

Here are a few I have gotten photos of:

Highbush Cranberry (aka Mooseberry aka Squashberry)- Viburnum edule

This is the most common and available edible berry in the woods surrounding the farm. It is a shrub growing to about head height, with currant like leaves and bright red berries. Like the name suggests, they are very sour as bog cranberries, although still enjoyable to snack on while walking in the woods. Ben made some Highbush Cranberry Mead last fall and we shared a bottle for Caities going away dinner (along with many other farm fresh dishes, probably the best and "localest?" meal I have had yet to date). 






Fireweed - Epilobium angustifolium

Of course, what report on Alaskan flora would be complete without Fireweed?? This truly is the weed of Alaska and the greater Pacific Northwest in general, growing in burned and logged areas as well as right along side highways.  They say you'll know when summer is over when the last fireweed blossoms turn to erect seed pods then float away in the wind as cotton-like feathers. Also known as fireweed due to its role in forest succession, taking over soils deforested due to fire or logging.  It can grow to 5 or more feet, and its long linear leaves turn bright red in its last phase of life before dying back for the winter months, and this can be captured on a larger scale by photographers here covering entire slopes. In addition to its asthetic values it is an important species for honey bee farmers, and its fibrous stalks can be used to make fabrics much in the same way as hemp. In fact, there is a woman in Wasilla area who extracts fireweed nectar to produce a honey like product, when I asked her how she does it she would not say in effort to protect the proprietary process. In California you many see a few loose fireweeds here and there, and the furthur north you go through Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia it quickly becomes a dominant member of most types of habitats except deep forests. Fireweed!

Yarrow - Achillea millefolium

Although definitely not unique to Alaska Yarrow is an imporant herbaceous species here nonetheless. A herbaceous perennial belonging to the Sunflower family, this species has many subspecies and varieties in north america and probably worldwide. It is highly regarded for its various medicinal values and sweet smelling and beautiful white inflorescences. Considered a weed in many places it can be found in many environments, and is also very common in California. Funny how the "weeds" are actually some of the most nutrious and valuable plants around! ..and right under our noses the whole time...

Watermelonberry/Twisted Stalk - Streptopus sp.

This member of the Lily family is full of berries this time of year inside of the woods. Although a little hesitant to eat since there are many look alikes which have poisonous berries this one is regarded as edible, although somewhat bland. It is often used as a filler in jams and fruit preserves.

Cow Parsnip - Heracleum lanatum

Cow Pasnip, belonging to the Carrot Family, and for all intensive purposes poisonous to us humans, especially if the stalk comes into contact with skin. It is another weedy species up here, and is found growing in many different habitats and soil types, especially disturbed areas and forest edges. It grows very tall, up to 10 feet or so, and at this time of year is all seeds, the white inflorescences have past, and soon all that will remain will be dead stalks.

Red Baneberry - Actaea rubra

A poisonous shrub belonging to the Buttercup Family, the Red Baneberries are poisonous and not to  be confused with the Highbush Cranberry!

Devils Club - Oplopanax horridum

A large shrub belonging to the Ginseng Family, Devils Club has very large and sharp thorns, leading to its common name. One to be avoided when walking through a full summer forest.

Bunchberry/Dwarf Dogwood - Cornus canadensis

Belonging to the Dogwood family this very small member is nonetheless very showy, with symetrial basal leaf patterning, white flowers, and red (edible if not choice) berries. It is found in the woods, often carpeting the floor.

Yellow Rattle -Rhianthus minor

Belonging to the Broomrape and/or Snapdragon family, this herbaceous annual is found growing in sunny places, such as open fields. It has yellow flowers which fill up with loose seeds upon maturity which "rattle" when brushed with your leg, leading to its common name. This plant is native to Europe and not North America.



Hemp Nettle - Galeopsis tetrahit 

This herbaceous annual belonging to the Mint Family is not native to Alaska, but transplanted member nonetheless. It has a growing population on the farm, as far as I can tell. It is poisonous to humans, and therefore a less desirable weed to have around, although it is pretty. It resembles Cannabis in its growth form and habits, which is where its common name arises.

Wild Rose - Rosa (acicularis)

I believe that this species of wild rose is R. acicularis, or Arctic Wild Rose. This variety has the largest and plumpest rose hips I have ever seen or tasted! I am familiar with mealy, mostly seed hips of R. californicum, but up here they actually have substance and provide sustenance. A nice burst of Vitamin C while hiking through the woods. I did miss the blooms, but you do not hear me complaining : )

Geranium - Geranium sp.

This wild Geranium is a perennial which I assume to be a native. It is not as common as some of the other herbs but still makes a place for itself in open areas between fields and forest.

Monkshood - Aconitum sp.

Aconitum, which has many common names is a perennial of the Buttercup Family. Its parts contain deadly poison, and it is pretty, so look don't touch should do for this native member to Alaskan forests and open forest habitats.

"Weeds"

Pineapple Weed - Matricaria matricioides

Definietly a non-native, well traveled weed, this herbaceous annual belonging to the Sunflower family is a nice wild subsitute for Chamomille, and using it as such is exactly what I have done by snapping off the flower heads and making tea.

Dandelion - Taraxacum officinalis

A very common plant to all of North America if not the world, the Common Dandelion is one of the oldest, most nutrious herbs known to man. I personally have for the first time dug up the root and ground it down in a food processor, then roasted it in the oven to create  a nice coffee substitute, good for liver and digestive health. The greens are very nutrious as well when harvested young, and the flowers can be used to make tonics or wine. What a useful plant that most of us are lucky enough to have growing from our front lawns and sidewalks!

(photo: taken by Valerie)

Lamb's quarters - Chenopodium album

This herb has edible leaves, which are closely related to Spinach. The mature seeds are also a useful grain, as it is also closely related to Quinoa.

Chickweed - Stellaria media
This herbaceous annual belonging to the Pink Family, Caryophyllaceae has edible leaves and flowers and makes a tasty treat on salads or just a snack while walking through the field!

Clover - Trifolium

Also common up here are clovers, which fix atmospheric nitrogen and improve soil quality as well as being an imporant species for attracting pollinators

Shepherd's Purse - Capsella sp.

A member of the mustard family all parts of this annual are edible, as are most mustards.

Tall White Sweet Clover - Melilotus sp.

Another weed which I've noticed growing on the side of roads here in Alaska, it is a nitrogen fixer and pollinator attractor

Balsam Poplar - Populus balsamifera

A hardwood component of these mixed woods, the bark of this tree is very interesting, as it becomes incredibly grooved at older age. Perfect for climbing!

Fungus

Coming up to Alaska I was excited to eat so many wild blueberries and see wildlife. The biggest surpise to me so far however has been the diversity and abundance of Mushrooms! I have always wanted to learn more about mycology and especially how to identify and use edible mushrooms. It is safe to say that in our culture mushrooms have been villified and although the majority are not poisonous commonly they are assumed to be. I found a good book on the coffeetable here, Alaska's Mushrooms: A Practical Guide by Harriette Parker (1994), a well written introductary field guide with photos and explanations of some of the most common mushrooms found in alaska, most of which are also found in the mixed deciduous spruce forests of this Matanuska Valley.  This book has inspired me and given me needed confidence to accurately identify and safely consume wild mushrooms, with the internet as a useful secondary reference.
These guides, together with me coming here right around the time of the first rains after summer - a time ripe for mushroom fruits has been the catalyst I needed to make the step into becoming a more confident and experienced mushroom hunter. One thing which makes it interesting and different from harvesting wild plants and fruits is that the life cycle is often very specific, such as in the fall or spring or after rains, and the window of ripeness is very short, usually only a few days before the mushroom fruit goes bad.

Here are a few I have seen (I am missing photos for the Boletes, in particular the Orange Birch Bolete - Leccinum scabrum which is cool looking and edible when not rotten which happens quickly):

Gemmed Puffball - Lycoperdon perlatum

This is a puffball mushroom growing out of soil in these forest. Puffballs are considered a pretty safe wild mushroom to harvest as there are no poisonous look alikes. The key is to slice open the mushroom lengthwise, and as long as it is consistently white and firm throughout it is good to eat! So that is what I have done, sauteed with butter, which seems to be the extent and favorite method of preparing wild mushrooms. Fry in butter.

Tumbleball - Bovista plumbea

The tumbleball or common puffball is another puffball found in these forests, and another easy one to ID. If they are opened on top and puffs of spores shoot out then they are past, and not good for eating, but like the above gemmed puffball if you cut it open and it is white and not rotten on the inside, fry it up in butter! This is a small one, I found another one along the trail from tents to farm. At the state fair which we went to on opening day there was a 20 pound tumbleball someone found. The flavor and texture is definitely "mushroomy" in nature, but something about picking up a mushroom and eating it is satisfying to me. 





The Deciever - Laccaria laccata

Considered poisonous, called the deciever due to its highly variable forms. Very common in the woods and always small, gilled, and orangish colored.

The Sickener - Russula emetica

Another poisonous mushroom, and one which captures your attention in a dark forest. As with most of these mushrooms, they are found growing along footpaths, as this is where I have spent most of my time.

Fly Agaric - Amanita muscaria

This mushroom commands your attention in the forest, and when fully mature stand tall and seem to shine bright against the darkening and dying plantlife. I see them in groups busting up through the forest floor. This is the mushroom from fairy tales and Alice in Wonderland. Apparently containing many psychoactive compounds this mushroom is poisonous and should not be eaten. But it sure is beautiful!

Liberty Cap - Psilocybe semilancealata

A small brown mushroom they are hard to see at first -but once you see one you will see thousands, coming up from dung or the soil around it. It radiates a consciousness that tells you it has theraputic value. A medicinal mushroom not to be taken lightly. The psychoactive psilocybin compounds are why this mushroom is dangerous to powers at be, as it can promote consciousness and unity among all living things. 

Artist Conk -  Ganoderma applantum

 A shelf mushroom found growing on the sides of standing or fallen dead trees, both conifers and hardwoods.

Inedible to humans, these mushrooms are thick and heavy, and the white underside has been used as a pallete for artists giving it its common name. There are several different conk or shelf mushrooms in this forest, including the Birch Conk, found only on dead Birch wood.

Dung Dome - Stropharia semiglobata

Another small mushroom which exists in relationship to grazers, horses and cattle. It is not recommended to eat, although it is not outright poisonous. Mushrooms which fruit from cow or other animal dung are very important in "closing the loop" as it converts waste into something usable again.

Bolete:

Other mushrooms to be identified:

The above mushrooms I feel confident about their identity, the following are some other common ones which have caught my eye...

Some small gilled mushrooms hanging on the trunk of hardwood tree, a healthy looking population



I think this one is the Meadow Mushroom - Agaricus campestris, which is edible and actually one of the most choice mushrooms found here. This individual however is growing in the forest and not in the pasture, which makes me question its identity. I had one that I found in the pasture fried in butter and it was yummy. It is a close relative to the white button mushroom sold in supermarkets, and according to my Alaska's Mushrooms Book "A mushroom consumed by those who would otherwise not eat wild mushrooms"


Another fungus on dead hardwood, although gilled unlike the Conks



(photo: Possibly the 'Fried Chicken Mushroom' Lycophyllum decastes or 'Angel Wings' Pluerocybella porrigens, both edible with caution but very appealing, as they resemble the oyster mushrooms.)





Spring Creek Farm

(photo: Pioneer Peak behind field not under cultivation near tents)

Hello! I have been up here at the Spring Creek Farm outside of Palmer, AK for about two weeks now. (Visit http://www.springcreekfarmak.org/). It is an amazingly beautiful place full of life. I am lucky enough to stay on the farm, in a walled tent with Valerie volunteering my time to farm production. We do our cooking and cleaning up in the farm house, which is Louise Kellogg's house. She donated the property to Alaska Pacific University (formerly Alaskan Methodist University) in the 90s, for an outdoor educational location in addition to the main campus which is in Anchorage. It seems to be a pretty cool school with outdoor adventure skills oriented programs and a masters in outdoor education which meets out here on the farm. The entire property is some 800 acres, with several very large hay fields under production, the rest woods. And woods like I have not seen before! Since it gets so windy in this valley in the winter and any old time, the Mat-Su valley, the forests are all the same height around 40 feet or so. Birch, Cottonwood, and Spruce make up the overstory with many shrubby plants and herbs underneath. And mushrooms! I did not expect for there to be such a diversity of mushrooms, but I should not be surprised, this is the temperate rainforest of the Pacific Northwest and these are healthy relatively undisturbed soils.

(photo: Kellogg House)
Louise passed away in 2001 and now the farm house and farm area is taken care of by APU. Ben and Mimi manage the farm and have their own cabin behind the house. Gabbi and Val are the interns, Catie just left last week to Maine (she is a good cook!). Rebecca lives in Anchorage and was a volunteer earlier on in the summer. Val finishes next week as do I with her, Gabbi will stay through most of September. Frost is expected to come before then.

(photo: Caitie and Valerie at Spenard Market on Saturday 8-13, the first place I went to after I landed!)
I am very impressed with the farm. It seems very full and healthy. The fenced in area is probably close to 2 acres, with about half of that under production as garden beds. The fence is electric to keep Moose out.

(photo: garden beets)

An approximate list of what is growing:
-beets (red and gold)
-carrots (several varieties sweet and rainbow colored)
-salad turnips
-radishes
-rutabaga
-onions
-scallions
-garlic
-potatoes (many varieties, a really tasty purple one!)
-peas (shelling and snap, about 9 100 foot rows 4 or so feet high, literally tons of peas, well close to)
-zucchini
-summer squash
-winter squash
-brassicas (broccolli, cauliflower, romanesco, cabbage)
-mustard greens
-arugula
-salad lettuce mixes
-spinach
-purple orach
-pac choi
-oregano
-cilantro
-thyme
-sage
-calendula
-parsley
-celery
-sunflowers
A greenhouse with tomatoes, cucmbers, and basil

(photo: sunflowers and dill)

(photo: Brassicas at market)

(photo: Rainbow carrots)

(photo: hanging in the pea patch)

(photo: Greenhouse and smaller cucumber house)
...I have surely missed some. Most of these crops have went to market. Needless to say I have never eaten so farm fresh before.

Taz, is one of Bud's dogs (The hay farm manager who also lives on the property just before the Kellogg house), although she seems about as wild as any dog I have met, but still so friendly!! She is actually the coolest dog I have ever met, she seems to be 'omnipresent' on the farm and surrounding fields and woods, all of a sudden she will appear. She does not wear a collar and seems to survive mainly on meat from her own kills, we saw her nose deep into a dead calf in an adjacent field when we were walking the other day. She definitely has a consciousness more equal to that of a human rather than what I might normally think of as a dog.

(photo: Taz 'Taslina')

On the same not of meat, Ben and Mimi also raised a bunch of chickens this summer, some laying hens but most for meat. Yesterday I helped participate in the second and final slaughter (Val did not). I did not actually kill any of the chickens but did all the rest on about 4 of them, taking off the feathers and taking out the internal organs, saving neck, feet, liver, and heart. I feel it is a good experience for me for future homesteading skills and one that I should take if I am to continue to be a conscious carnivore - taking life should not be done without thought in my opinion.

Regarding the different aspects of being at such a high latitude:
It is getting dark at around 10 pm these days, the fireweed is past flower and the birch and cottonwood leaves are turning yellowing and falling. In fact, up here they do not so much refer to autumn as fall but rather 'fell' as once you notice it it has already passed, and winter is here.

Another interesting surprise to me is north, which is about 15 or 20 degrees to the right of where I would expect it to be at this latitude.

A lot of weather passes through this valley which is is fed by many glaciers (Knik and Mat for starts) and bordered by 5000 foot mountains, a very impressive and surreal place to be. It is nice to be in a place with a much cleaner atmosphere than California, and from the photos you can probably tell that clouds come and go all day long, with wind, sun, and rain.



(photo: Gabbi and Val walking out on the Matanuska River floodplain, Knik Glacier Valley in background)

(photo: Field and sky)

(photo: highlander)