This year a Haines couple plans to grow a crop of vegetables specifically for the seeds -- entering them into a rare group of Alaska gardeners cultivating seeds for commercial production.
Like most seed companies in Alaska, Foundroot owners Leah Wagner and Nick Schlosstein have been selling seeds sourced from out-of-state farms. The dozens of seed varieties -- mostly heirloom and all genetically modified organism (GMO) free -- are sourced from several dozen small farms and picked for their ability to thrive in Alaska's cold, short growing season. But this year, the couple is ready to move beyond that and produce their own Alaska seeds.
There's only one other dedicated seed farm in Alaska -- Kurt Wold's Pingo Farms outside of Fairbanks -- which only produces a small number of seeds. Wold's farm provided seeds to the village of Tyonek last summer that resulted in an unlikely bumper crop of 80 pounds of watermelon.
In an interview last week, Wagner said they've worked toward producing seeds for a long time. The couple even moved from Palmer to Haines in 2014 in an effort to expand their business to seed production.
Now they live in a yurt on a homestead in Haines. At their small plot of land they plan to plant their first seed varietals this season: an early ripening pink tomato, an heirloom Russian pickling cucumber and cold-tolerant zucchini. They plan to have seeds ready for sale in time for the 2017 growing season.
To produce the seeds, the Foundroot owners will let their plants go a long time without picking them -- well past the point when they'd be good to eat. That means carrots will stay in the ground over the winter and that tomatoes and peppers go soft and mealy on the vine to let the seeds ripen as much as possible.
Wagner hopes producing seeds in Alaska will breed plants that are more adaptable to the state's growing season.
"Tomatoes are the hardest one," Wagner said. "A ripe tomato is really delicious."
ADN gardening columnist Jeff Lowenfels said major seed producers in warmer climates often get in many crops over the course of a single growing season. If you're trying to grow seeds in Alaska, it's hard to bring more than one crop to maturity each year.
That's likely why you don't see many Alaska gardeners producing seeds in a substantial way, Wagner said.
"Seed breeding is not fast process," she said. "This is going to be a very slow-going process for us."
But she hopes that by moving to Haines things will be a little better. Palmer may be the heart of Southcentral Alaska's farming community, but Wagner said the climate isn't as suitable to seed production. In Haines, deep snowpack better protects the seed crops, which often need to mature in the ground during winter. That's a big difference from Palmer, she said, where the ground often freezes hard and the snow can quickly get blown away.
And despite its location in rainy Southeast Alaska, Wagner said Haines has a moderately dry season during the summer -- perfect for allowing seeds to dry out, she said, though a few varieties might need to be moved inside to finish curing.
Wagner hopes that eventually most seeds in Alaska will be sourced in the state.
"Our intention is to do the best we can and to start that process," she said. "I don't think in our lifetime we'll see all the seeds needed for Alaska being produced in Alaska. That's a long process and we just want to get the ball rolling so more people are invested in that outcome."