The snow in the mountains means it is closing time for several local farmers' markets.
Saturday is the last market of the year for the South Anchorage Farmers Market and the Anchorage Farmers Market.
"This weekend will mark the end of the 2014 market season for us, it will be a celebration of another fantastic year," says Arthur Keyes of the South Anchorage market.
Expect a large lineup of vendors, including: Glacier Valley Farm, VanderWeele Farm, Joan's Salmon Burgers, Arctic Choice Seafood, Rempel Family Farm, Seldovitch Family Farm, the Hungry Squirrel, Stockwell Family Farm, Sweet and Sassy Kettle Korn, Zoi Food 4 Life, Joan's Jams and Jellies, Drool Central and Two Sisters Greenhouse.
The Rempels will be back with their usual large selection of vegetables, including four varieties of beets, 12 kinds of potatoes, several kales, kohlrabi, snow apple turnips, green cabbage, Brussels sprouts, winter squashes, rutabagas, parsnips, carrots, daikon, arugula and a salad mix. After taking a week off, Rempel Family Farm will join the Center Market on Oct. 25.
Center Market
The market at the Mall at Sears is busy and getting busier.
Duane Clark says as other markets close, vendors will move indoors to the Center Market.
"Alex (Davis) and I changed our market order last week," Clark says. "We moved farther into the hallway and placed six of our vendors closer to the doors. The idea was to have our customers get to see all of our vendors. It really helped several of them to have their best day ever in our market.
"This year has been a great year of growth for us at the mall, and as the other markets close down for the season we will gain several more. BurgerFi is opening at the mall. They are desiring to have seating in our hallway. That is requiring us to move our market into the main hallway of the mall. It looks like sometime in November we will move."
Earthworks Farm is one of the vendors returning to the market, both on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
"Bruce is bringing in the root-crops -- carrots, onions and the remainders of our kale for our storage cooler," says Dee Barker. "Afterwards he will plow the field to prepare it for the winter and coming spring. He tills in green manure, which is seeds of various plants such as clover to increase the nitrogen content in the soil, and oats, which can reduce the proliferation of weeds.
"We are also getting the bees ready for winter. Tonight Bruce will be putting the chicken wire around each hive and will be stuffing the space between the hive box and the wire with hay. We will not be enclosing them completely yet because they are still flying and eating up the remainders of honey that I left on the comb that I extracted the honey from. I leave these frames of comb in the open just for feeding them."
Clark says "shrimp returns this week as the best of Prince William Sound is harvested near Valdez." He will have spot shrimp and coon-stripe shrimp. He also will have pure raw local honey, apples, tomatoes and grass-fed yak meat from Sunny Hill Ranch from Montana Creek.
Davis' A.D. Farm will have cabbage, beets, potatoes, carrots, fresh mussels from Kachemak Bay, barley products and pork items.
On Wednesday, look for Alaska Vegan and Gluten Free, with its regular lineup including soups, spaghetti/pizza sauce and lemon hemp-seed salad dressing.
La Grassa will have spinach and original hand-cut pasta, golden beet ravioli, potato and caramelized onion ravioli and vegan strozzapreti.
Farm 779 will showcase "all things autumn featuring the bounty of the harvest," says owner Julie Meer. Items include autumn krauts, kvass in red or golden, a new kefir soda, three kinds of coconut kefir and coconut bacon.
Sweet Caribou will be at Wednesday's market and is "especially excited about the fleur de sel carmel caramel apple macarons -- they are out of this world," says owner James Strong.
Also look for hazelnut chocolate, chocolate strawberry and rose lychee Parisian macarons, along with brownies and several varieties of cupcakes, including triple chocolate moose and snowshoe hare, made with Alaska carrot cake and orange cream cheese frosting.
Anchorage Farmers Market
Rob Wells will have "the last blooms of the market season" on Saturday.
"With heat to keep the cold at bay, the late blooming plants continue to produce great flowers," Wells says.
His blooms will also be available at Wednesday's Center Market.
Top Shelf Artisan Market
Look for local yak, beef, pork and seafood at the Top Shelf Artisan Market in Palmer.
Additionally, Meer says, highlights will include "freshly harvested root veggies, honey, jams and salsa. Delicious hand-cut artisan pasta and ravioli from La Grassa, and all things whole food probiotic from Farm 779."
Steve Edwards lives and writes in Anchorage. Contact him at akmarketfresh@gmail.com.
Local farmers markets
Monday: Mat-Su Farm Market, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., Palmer Depot
Wednesday: APU Farmers Market, 1:30-6:30 p.m., 4101 University Drive; Center Market, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Mall at Sears, Benson Boulevard and Denali Street
Friday: Top Shelf Artisan Market, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., 550 S. Alaska Street, Palmer
Saturday: Anchorage Farmers Market, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 15th and Cordova in the Central Lutheran Church parking lot; Center Market, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Mall at Sears, Benson Boulevard and Denali Street; South Anchorage Farmers Market, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., Subway/AT&T Sports Pavilion at the corner of Old Seward Highway and O'Malley Road