Anchorage Daily News

WASILLA -- Alaska farmers are always trying to find ways to make summer last a little longer. Now a dozen around the state, including four in the Valley, are getting a chance to try, thanks to a new state agricultural grant program.

The program, offered by the state Division of Agriculture for the first time this year, awarded grants up to $5,000 each to farmers growing specialty crops -- things like spinach, raspberries and flowers.

The farmers couldn't ask for funding for regular operating expenses but rather had to pitch projects that could extend their growing season and make their crops more productive.

As might be expected with Alaskans, there was no shortage of ideas. The projects were spread around the state from Soldotna to Delta Junction to Ester and ran the gamut from a proposal for a chicken-friendly greenhouse to a North Pole farmer who wanted to reroute water from his berry plants to make them go dormant quicker in the fall.

Amy Pettit, a state agriculture development specialist overseeing the program, said the goal is to get farmers to experiment.

"I tried to come up with as few restrictions as possible ... and to make the grant enough money to induce them to try something they wouldn't normally try," she said.

As part of the program, the farmers have to match whatever funding they receive and promise to share what they learn with others.

Brian Olson, who successfully pitched a project to build high tunnels -- essentially giant row covers -- for his berry farm near Soldotna, said he hopes the projects will encourage more local agriculture, a good thing given the state's dependence on Outside food.

"Eighty percent of our food comes from a barge in Seattle," he said. "We need to have more things growing in this state to feed ourselves."

Olson said he got his covers up late this summer so hasn't given them a good test yet. But the tunnels, which are covered with a special infrared film, kept the air inside amazingly warm even on cold days.

"Even at 55 degrees, it got to be 110 inside," he said. "I had to go out there and roll up the sides."

Olson said he hopes the covers will allow his raspberry bushes to produce fruit longer in the fall and keep his blueberry plants frost-free in the spring.

One of the more ambitious projects came from Anne-Corinne Kell who oversees an educational farm just north of Palmer owned by Alaska Pacific University. Kell already produces enough vegetables for about 30 families on the acre of land she uses at Spring Creek Farm. But she's hoping to up her production with a 20-foot by 60-foot greenhouse to house everything from lettuce starts to tomato plants.

Kell wants to make the greenhouse as fossil-fuel free as possible.

To do that, the L-shaped building will, of course, soak up heat from the sun through its windows. But it will also include walls insulated with straw bales, use water warmed by pipes that pass through a compost pile and be sunk about four feet into the ground to protect it from the wind and help retain heat.

The plans also call for keeping chickens inside, which will provide fodder for the compost pile and carbon dioxide for the plants to grow, she said.

As is typical with farming, not all the projects got off the ground on time. Pettit said about half those funded have gotten their projects going so far. She hopes to be able to offer another round of grants next year.

"I'm actually 99 percent sure we're going to have it, but when we will know for sure, and when will be able to announce it, I'm waiting to hear," she said.

Find S.J. Komarnitsky at adn.com/contact/skomarnitsky or 352-6714.

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