Category: Garden/Plants
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Blueberries, Week 19 in Healy
July 23, blueberries are coming out strong. We have a few wild blueberries in sight of the house, and loads of them less than a mile away. C doesn’t like eating them, but was kind enough to pick. What a lovely hour, spending time outdoors with my favorite person, hearing birds chirping, seeing views above…
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Savage Alpine Trail
On July 4th C needed to work and I hiked the steep 4 mile Savage Alpine Trail. I hadn’t expected the variety of habitats and wildflowers. So many different species were blooming. My labels are a decent guess. I dawdled, looking at flowers and mountains and hoping to see a pika or marmot. Most of…
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Spring Foraging, Week 11 in Healy
Fireweed & rose shoots have finally brought some freshly harvested greens to my diet. I also added some variety to my berries today. The bog cranberries taste similar to lingonberries (Vaccinium vitis-idaea, lowbush cranberry). Both overwintered well & are very juicy despite being around 7 months old. My tastiest find was a few dried blueberries.…
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Wildlife Babies I, Denali National Park
I saw a baby Dall Sheep! My first wildlife baby of the year. I could see it well with the binoculars but didn’t even try for a photo. C saw a moose baby earlier this week. I hope to see a baby caribou this year! On Friday I took the free Park shuttle bus to…
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Watering the Garden, Week 10 in a Dry Cabin
At some point I may use some of our precious hauled water to water my 3×4 raised bed. But I am hoping to avoid that. I have a 15-gallon water barrel but haven’t set up a tarp to direct rain into it. Besides, it could still freeze & I don’t want to break it. The…
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Lingonberries, Week 9 in Healy
These tart berries overwinter! They can be eaten after fall frost, dug from the snow, or – in my case – harvested as the snow melts. They are also known as low bush cranberries, and are related to cranberries and blueberries. All around the cabin we have mats of Lingonberries mixed in with Labrador Tea…
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Labrador Tea, Day 3 in Healy
I didn’t think foraging would start for awhile. But while shoveling snow to widen a path to the outhouse, I found some Labrador Tea! My Alaska edibles books are arriving Friday with our household goods. But I am confident in identifying this particular plant. Snow flattened Labrador Tea (Rhododendron groenlandicum, I believe, though there are…
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Goodbye Garden
I am eager to head to Alaska on so many levels, but will miss my garden. While I will miss friends too, at least I can keep in touch online. (Plus some of you will visit us, hint, hint). Dear Garden: Despite the neglect this last year, you continued to provide plenty of greens and…
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Countdown to March 2
Thank goodness we haven’t left for Alaska already as originally planned. Widespread snow storms and blizzards are currently stretching along much of our driving route (Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, Canada, Alaska). Rather than huddling up somewhere waiting for the conditions to improve, we are in balmy Virginia (77F today!). Today I worked…
Me & C 