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September Newsletter

2023

September Newsletter 2023
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BERRYPALOOZA!!!

As a child, this writer used to watch a movie about a man who owned a chocolate factory that had a room where candy actually grew on trees. Here in Alaska in September, this is actually true! Many gatherers hike through the Alaskan trails to harvest the natural bounty. Here are some tips on how to enjoy this splendor!


From Alaska.org:



Where To Go

Different berries grow better in different parts of the state, but bottom line there are a lot of berries pretty much all over Alaska. Some hot spots include Chugach State Park, Denali National Park, Denali State Park, even just around Anchorage, such as Sheep Mountain, Flattop Mountain Trail and Rendezvous Peak Trail. For more, here's a list of berry hikes near Anchorage.

Berries To Look For

  • Blueberries: Pick those with a light grey-blue color. Skip those with any redness. Hold a bunch over your bucket and rub them with your fingers. The good ones will come right off.
  • Raspberries: The deeper the color, the riper they are. If you have to pull hard to pick it, it's not ready. That no-yank picking rule usually applies to these lesser-known berries, too.
  • Cloudberries: Look like a golden raspberry and taste tart—some say it tastes like apricot.
  • Lingonberries (also called low-bush cranberries): Small, red and pretty tart.
  • High-bush cranberries These aren't cranberries, and tend to be sweeter. They're known for a musky smell—but can get confused for the dreaded baneberries. Most people use them for jams.
  • Salmonberries: Can look like yellow, orange or red raspberries; the oranges ones usually taste the best.
  • Crowberries: (which look like blueberries but with different leaves); taste pretty blah when raw, so tend to get used for pies.

Which Berries Are Poisonous

Avoid all white berries in Alaska—they're all poisonous. And the most infamous poisonous berry in Alaska is the baneberry, which has white or red berries—look for a black spot on the red berry. The bright side: because they taste so bitter, people often spit out baneberries before swallowing, mitigating their potentially deadly effects (they can cause cardiac arrest.)

If you're the least bit unsure, show your berries to a park ranger or someone at a local grocery or lodge before eating. Also, consider picking up a book with lots of pictures. Two good ones: Alaska's Wild Berries and Alaska's Wild Plants.

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12 U-Pick Berry Farms In Alaska

Looking for an easier berry picking adventure, and want to skip the hike to the backcountry?

We have rounded up some of the best berry picking farms in the state of Alaska, that will help you load up on fresh Alaskan berries for the months ahead.


Fernwood Raspberry Farms

Who doesn’t love a tart red raspberry? Located in Fritz Creek, this wonderful little farm also serves both the Homer and Anchor Point area. Fernwood Raspberry Farm offers u-pick berries by appointment.

They charge $5.00 per pound of raspberries and are available to visit u-pick Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays through Saturdays from 10am through 5pm

If you would rather have your raspberries picked and delivered to you, that can be arranged. Just call them for a no-contact delivery to your home, office, or campground.

Don’t forget to add some freshly cut flowers, or fresh eggs to your raspberries as you head home.


The Big M Farm

You will find tons of amazing berries at this farm, including varietals like Honey Queen Golden Raspberries, Saskatoon serviceberries, red currants, red and purple raspberries, and strawberries.

This beloved farm doesn’t use pesticides, so feel free to pick with abandon. And if you think you need more than just berries, check out their u-pick section of yellow squash, peas, peppers, pumpkins, tomatoes, and tons of other delicious vegetables.

They also offer flowers, beef, and brome hay. Make sure to bring cash, because they don’t accept credit cards.

They are open daily from 9am through 9pm all summer long. Most of the berries come in late summer to early autumn, so make sure to check their website and Facebook page for the most up-to-date information about picking times and varieties available.


Wildberry Meadows

While they are known for their incredible, lush peonies, Wildberry Meadows also offers berries and vegetables.

Located in Wasilla, underneath the Talkeetna Mountains, this 34-acre farm is an absolute treat to visit.

Don’t miss out on one of their “Pick your own peony” events, or join their flower subscription.

This farm is a delight to visit for every reason.


Northern Fruits Greenhouse & Nursery

Come pick fresh berries at Northern Fruits Nursery. Located in Palmer, Alaska by Lazy Mountain, you will want to visit for their great selection of raspberries, honeyberries, serviceberries, black currants, and red currants.

In spring, summer, and fall, you will find them open seven days a week.

They are open from 11am through 6pm, but make sure to check out their Facebook page for any adjustments in opening hours, and to see what berries are ripe and ready for picking.


Jackson Gardens

Pick all the berries you can possibly carry at only $5.00 per pound at Jackson Gardens in Soldotna.

Find gooseberries, raspberries, strawberries, sour cherries, and more. And if that’s not enough, they also have over a dozen different types of vegetables you can also pick.

Important note: All customers interested in the u-pick option must receive specific training and orientation before harvesting anything at Jackson Gardens. Make sure to call first before helping yourself to the fields.

They are open from Memorial Day through October, and when the last of the produce is gone. They are open six days a week, from 9am through 6pm. They are always closed on Sundays, as well as on July 4th.


Common Ground Alaska

This amazing farm in Big Lake is filled with all the fruit and berries you know you want, and some you didn’t even know grew in Alaska– like their cantaloupe. You will find a wide variety of fruits across their several-acre farm. They have a wide array of berry varietals, including (but not limited to) six varieties of honeyberries (or haskaps,) five varieties of saskatoon berries, eight varieties of bush cherries, red and golden raspberries, black and red currants, and two varieties of strawberries.

This is a wonderful place to bring the whole family to pick berries together. Sampling is encouraged, but eating a large number of berries is not allowed.

They do have a bathroom available. It is a portable toilet but does have a sink for your use. They provide containers for picking, but you must bring your own containers to bring your berries home.

They do accept both cash and card, but not dogs, so please leave your furry friends at home. They also offer group pickings; a unique idea for parties, you can gather your friends together for an afternoon of picking fruit.

Pack a picnic and spend the afternoon enjoying the farm! Just give them a call to set it up.


Fire Apple Orchard and Gardens

Fire Apple Orchard and Gardens offers u-pick cherries and apples! You can choose between 12 different delicious cherries on this farm.

No pesticides are used on their delicious produce, so feel free to eat up as soon as you get to your car. They also sell apple trees and perennials.

They are open on Sunday from 1pm to 4pm; Tuesday to Thursday from 10am to 5pm, Friday and Saturday from 10am to 6pm; and closed on Monday.


Sundog Orchard

This farm in Wasilla, Alaska specializes in honeyberries or haskaps. This Alaska berry is very popular, and high in antioxidants. They also offer cherries and apples, too!

To pick berries at their farm, please call ahead to make an appointment. They are open each year from July through September, and only accept cash payments.


You-Pick-It Berry Farm

In the Interior and craving some delicious, fresh berries? Head to You-Pick-It Berry Farm.

Browse their 250 honeyberry plants, 180 raspberry bushes, or over 1,000 strawberry plants.

New to their lineup and ready for next season will be elderberries and currants, too. With this many berries, you are guaranteed to go home with something sweet.

Just a short drive from North Pole, Alaska, located in Moose Creek, this is a great small farm that the kids will love. And the owner will frequently come out and talk to you about the berries, including the best ways to pick them and plenty of friendly advice.

These berries are so good they go fast. Watch their Facebook page for picking alerts, and make sure to make an appointment. It’s a popular farm that books out picking reservations far in advance.

They offer 15-20 slots a week to pick berries, and the slots usually sell out within minutes. Slots are released weekly, and can be booked by messaging their Facebook page.


Birch Creek Ranch

Birch Creek Ranch is a small semi-remote farmstead in Alaska. In business since 1981, this gorgeous little farm is located right outside Talkeetna.

Bird Creek Ranch offers four delightful options for picking fruit yourself. You can pick from currants, both black and red, raspberries, and rhubarb.

The rhubarb is ready for harvesting in late June, but the berries aren’t ready for picking until at least mid to late August.

They encourage you to call ahead before driving out to pick the berries, just to be sure that there are some available.

Beyond the option to berry pick in their nursery, they also offer a CSA, a retail greenhouse, and flower and vegetable starts.

If you can’t make it out there, they also sell their produce at Flying Squirrel Bakery and Willow Farmer’s Market during the summer.


Dearborn Farm

This small farm in Palmer, Alaska offers a nice spread of berries including raspberries and red and black currants.

Located off of Trunk Road, it’s an easy 45-minute drive from Anchorage if you would like to stop by and stock up.

They also offer catnip, tomatoes, potatoes, and a beautiful variety of apples. They even host a free u-pick potato day. Make sure to follow their Facebook page to keep up-to-date with all of their specials and events.


Pyrah’s Pioneer Peak Farm

Easily one of Alaska’s most recognizable u-pick farms, Pyrah’s Pioneer Peak Farm is located in Palmer in the Matanuska Susitna Valley.

The property has been run as a farm since 1979 when it grew vegetables for the church, and by 1988 their u-pick style of selling fruits and vegetables was firmly established. The church discontinued its program and the Pyrah’s took over and still run the farm today.

They offer both strawberry and raspberry plant options for berry picking in Alaska. But you can also pick dozens of other types of vegetables and even flowers. Beyond u-pick, they also offer fun farm events all summer and autumn long. Make sure to check out their website for fun future events.

They are open from 9am through 5pm Monday and Tuesday, and Wednesday through Saturday they are open from 9am through 9pm. They are closed on Sundays.




Want to put those berries to good use? Eskimo ice cream is a fabulous way to utilize those sweet berries in a traditional Alaskan dish. You will want to make enough to share.

  • 1 cup Crisco Vegetable Shortening
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup water berry juice or 2 cups loose snow
  • 4 cups mixed berries

James Webb Telescope

The James Webb Space Telescope will find the first galaxies that formed in the early universe and peer through dusty clouds to see stars forming planetary systems. The James Webb Space Telescope (sometimes called JWST or Webb) will be a large infrared telescope with a 6.5-meter primary mirror.

The Webb telescope will be the premier observatory of the next decade, serving thousands of astronomers worldwide. It will study every phase in the history of our Universe, ranging from the first luminous glows after the Big Bang, to the formation of solar systems capable of supporting life on planets like Earth, to the evolution of our own Solar System.

The Webb telescope was formerly known as the "Next Generation Space Telescope" (NGST); it was renamed in September 2002 after a former NASA administrator, James Webb.

Webb is an international collaboration between NASA, ESA (the European Space Agency), and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, is managing the development effort. The main industrial partner is Northrop Grumman; the Space Telescope Science Institute will operate Webb after launch.

Several innovative technologies have been developed for Webb. These include a primary mirror made of 18 separate segments that unfold and adjust to shape after launch. The mirrors are made of ultra-lightweight beryllium. Webb's biggest feature is a tennis court sized five-layer sunshield that attenuates heat from the Sun more than a million times. The telescope’s four instruments - cameras and spectrometers - have detectors that are able to record extremely faint signals. One instrument (NIRSpec) has programmable microshutters, which enable observation up to 100 objects simultaneously. Webb also has a cryocooler for cooling the mid-infrared detectors of another instrument (MIRI) to a very cold 7 kelvins (minus 447 Fahrenheit) so they can work.

For information on the James Webb Space Telescope in many languages, click here: https://jwst.nasa.gov/jwstKeyFactsInternational/

Social Media Short: Webb Mirror Beauty
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The Fall is Falling!

September brings the crisp air, and bright colors of the changing leaves. This is a perfect time to take some beautiful outdoor pictures, and enjoy the beauty that our Alaska has to offer. But did you ever wonder why the leaves change their color? Lets ask our friends at Harvard University!


From https://harvardforest.fas.harvard.edu/leaves/process



The Process of Leaf Color Change


Leaves change color during the autumn because the amounts of pigments change as the leaves prepare to fall from the trees. All leaves gradually lose chlorophyll during the growing season, and this loss accelerates before leaf fall. Under optimal conditions this process of chlorophyll loss is very orderly and allows the plants to resorb much of the nitrogen in the structure of the pigment molecule. Carotenoid pigments are also lost from the plastids during aging, but some of them are retained in the plastids after the chlorophyll is removed; this produces autumn leaves with yellow colors. In unusual cases, sometimes in winterberry holly, a fair amount of chlorophyll is left in the leaves when they fall. Such leaves are a pale green in color, or perhaps yellow-green from the mixture of chlorophyll and carotenoids.

Most interesting are leaves that turn red, because this color is the result of the active synthesis of anthocyanin pigments just before the leaves fall from the trees. This is the most common color of autumn leaves; about 70 % of shrubs and trees at the Harvard Forest produce anthocyanins during the senescence of the leaves. In these leaves, the actual shades of red are the consequences of the amounts of anthocyanin, the retention of carotenoids (or even a little chlorophyll). Anthocyanin and chlorophyll produce brownish colors. Anthocyanins and carotenoids produce orange hues. In some plants the color production is quite uniform, as in hobblebush or blueberry. In other plants, leaves vary between individuals (as sugar maples) or even dramatically within an individual (as red maples), or even within a single leaf (red maples).

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-Chloroplasts lose chlorophylls
-Anthocyanins made and move to vacuoles

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-Chlorophylls broken down
-Anthocyanins increase in concentration
-Carotenoids left in chloroplasts
-Lower cells still with chloroplasts

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-Chlorophylls break down to reveal remaining carotenoids
-No anthrocyanin produced

Fall is an excellent way to combine outdoor exploration and physical science together. Get out and enjoy this Fall!

Garin Martin
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PEAK Family Hour

Do you have questions about homeschooling? Are you unclear about anything that has to do with Denali PEAK? Do you need guidance from someone who understands your need? Then you need to do what we do here at Denali PEAK -

ASK GARIN!

Garin Martin is the Vice Principal for Denali PEAK, and our esteemed leader. She is an expert in all facets of our school, and can not only answer all questions concerning your homeschool journey with Denali PEAK, but has the ability to solve problems if needed. To help serve our families better, Garin is hosting an online zoom chat for anyone who wishes to attend named "Family Hour:"


Here is a recent letter from Garin explaining:


Family Hour is a new opportunity for PEAK families to come together and discuss various aspects of homeschooling. Questions and thoughts about general instruction, activities both in and out of the home, invoices, and reimbursements, as well as grading work and CREW development are some, but not all, topics open for discussion.

Based on the responses to the surveys sent out, Wednesday mornings from 8:30am-9:30am was determined to be the best time for our families to meet via zoom. Below are the dates for the year, and there is one zoom link for all meetings.

Please bring questions, thoughts, and ideas to the group. If there is a specific homeschooling need that cannot be met during this time, or prefer an individual discussion, I would be more than happy to set up a separate time to work with a family.

I look forward to meeting with you and thank you for joining me in advance!

Dates:
August 2, 16, 30
September 27
October 11, 25
November 8, 22
December 6, 20
January 3, 17, 31
February 14, 28
March 13, 27
April 10, 24
May 8, 22
June 5, 19

Denali PEAK
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