"This week at the South Anchorage Farmers Market, all our plant vendors will have even more plant starts," says Nancy Lampman from the market.
So get to a local market and start making your dreams a reality.
Arthur Keyes of Glacier Valley Farm will be one of the vendors at the South Anchorage market. This is what he reports from the farm this week: "Busy, busy but what a great week we have had, with just the right balance of rain to keep the soil moist and sunshine to make things grow. I am very pleased with the progress we are making this season!
"The tomato and the strawberry baskets in the greenhouse are blooming. I saw little green tomatoes tonight right as I was coming in for the evening."
Glacier Valley Farm will have hanging strawberry baskets and hanging tumbling tomato planters.
Other vendors include:
Bearsden Gardens: Genovese, lemon, cinnamon, Thai and globe basil; dill; parsley; cilantro; tarragon; marjoram; thyme; spearmint; and tomato starts, along with hanging baskets, perennials and annuals.
Gray Owl Farm: Hanging baskets, container gardens and component plants. Something special is the edible "gourmet geraniums" with recipes included.
The Blue Poppy: A wide variety of plants.
Heart of the Mountain Organics: Vegetable and herb starter plants, including: lettuces, arugula, cilantro pots, dill pots, parsley, miners lettuce, spearmint, dried herbs and essential oils.
Arctic Choice: They will have plenty of seafood, including: halibut fillets and cheeks, troll-caught king salmon fillets, sablefish fillets, side-stripe shrimp, cod fillets, rockfish fillets, scallops, smoked salmon and king crab.
Matanuska Creamery: They will have a specialty 4-year-old cheddar cheese along with white cheddar and other cheese. They also will have seven varieties of cheese curds and 10 flavors of ice cream, including blueberry, triple berry, birch caramel and cashew vanilla.
French Oven Bakery: A selection of breads, whole wheat cinnamon rolls, macaroons, palmier, bolillos and other baked goods.
Lavish Me Soap Bar: This is a new vendor with gourmet, artisan handcrafted soap, bath and body products using premium all-organic oils and pure local goats' milk that nourish and moisturize the skin.
NonEssentials: They will have a wide variety of Alaska-made food products from tea to syrup to pasta to balsamic blends, including vinegars infused with herbs/tomatoes and peppers grown in Fairbanks and alder-smoked salt.
The Center Market continues to add vendors, according to organizer and farmer Alex Davis. New this week is a local coffee roaster, kettle corn and Fat Boy Ribs.
Davis will be there with pork cuts (chops, roasts, steaks, ground pork, Italian sausage, breakfast sausage and spicy sausage), fresh eggs, jams, goat cheese and organic parsnips. Duane Clark will also be at the market with his grass-fed beef, frozen Alaska seafood, breads and sweets from the French Oven bakery, popcorn and local honey.
The Anchorage Farmers Market will feature at least seven vendors -- Arctic Organics, Seldovitsch Farms, L&R Greenhouses, Matanuska Creamery, Bushes Bunches, Turkey Red Cafe and Floriponics.
Sarah Bean of Arctic Organics says they will have fresh arugula, lettuces, and basil that have been growing in the greenhouse. They'll also have German butterball, yellow Finn, russet and Desiree potatoes. For gardeners, they'll have plenty of vegetable and flower seedlings, along with a large selection of tomato plants, both those suited for growing outside and those better suited for greenhouses.
The downtown Anchorage Market and Festival kicks off this weekend and while Bill Webb says he doesn't expect too much produce until the middle of June he hopes "we are surprised with some earlier crops."
Some vendors at the market include Matanuska Creamery, Mat Valley Meats, local ice cream from Alaska Supreme, Kahlitna Birchworks, Chugiak Heights Honey, along with vendors selling candy, smoked salmon and other products.
Community Supported Agriculture sign-up
Arctic Organics is still accepting applications for its summer Community Supported Agriculture subscription service. This season's price is $600 and provides a weekly vegetable delivery to Anchorage from June 15 to Sept. 21.
For more information, visit www.arcticorganics.com or email info@arcticorganics. com.
From the sea
There are plenty of options available on ice locally right now.
"With so many different fisheries going on, it's very easy to get excited about fresh seafood," says Dannon Southall from 10th & M Seafoods in Anchorage. "The beginning of the month signaled the beginning of another troll king fishery in Southeast Alaska. These nickel-bright beauties will be coming in from Southeast Alaska all week long."
He says the head-on fish are averaging about 14 pounds and are going for $14.95 per pound and fillets are $18.95/pound. Southall says compared to regular weeks when the "white" kings are limited, this week there are plenty.
Halibut fillets are going for $19.95/pound and 10- to 20-pound headed and gutted fish are $10.95/pound, and 10th & M will fillet the whole fish for free. Fresh Prince William Sound side-stripe shrimp are $10.95/pound, while Alaska cod are $5.95/pound and rockfish are $8.95/pound.
The Copper River opening is scheduled for Monday, so Southall hopes to have a good report next week about some of Alaska's finest and freshest salmon.
FishEx (www.fishex.com) has a sale going on this week, with Captain's Reserve red king crab at 30 percent off, $24.46/pound, and king salmon at 40 percent off, $16.17/pound.
Steve Edwards lives and writes in Anchorage. If you have a suggestion for a future Market Fresh column, please contact him at sedwards@adn.com.
Local markets
Today: Center Market, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., University Center mall
Friday: Palmer Friday Fling, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Pavilion across from Visitor’s Center
Saturday: Anchorage Farmers Market, 10 a.m to 2 p.m. at 15th and Cordova in the Central Lutheran Church parking lot; Anchorage Market and Festival, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Third Avenue between C and E streets; Center Market, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., University Center mall; South Anchorage Farmers Market,
9 a.m. to 2 p.m., Subway/Cellular One Sports Center at the corner of Old Seward Highway and O’Malley Road
Sunday: Anchorage Market and Festival, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Third Avenue between C and E streets
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