FAIRBANKS, Alaska (KTUU) – The Fairbanks Soil and Water Conservation District (FSWCD) is running a series of classes this summer teaching interested members of the community how to grow gardens for market.
These summer classes, called Alternative Fairbanks Farm and Educational Cooperative Training (AFFECT) began in 2022, and are in their fourth year.
“The whole idea behind AFFECT was to increase our farmers and people knowing how to grow their food,” said Melissa Sikes, Natural Resource Education Specialist with Fairbanks Soil and Water.
According to Sikes, the class is designed for anyone with farming or gardening experience who wants to learn market gardening, “whether they want to take it to a large farm scale or just a scale enough that they can sell some stuff at the farmers markets.”
“The idea is taking gardening to a profitable basis,” she added.
Prospective students apply and are interviewed for the program, which accepted 15 this year, the number limited by the practicality of getting the students to the learning spaces, which consist of farms, greenhouses and gardens around the community, including Goosefoot Farm, Frontieress Farm and FSWCD’s own community garden at Corinthian Baptist Church.
At these spots, students hear from commercial growers about how to make the process work in the Interior, from some of the challenges of the region, to lessons they’ve learned the hard way.
“Our climate does…is different than any other place,” Sikes said. “Learning some of those techniques for managing, waiting ‘til the ground is thawed, how are you going to deal with melting permafrost if you have that in your field, those kinds of things… you can learn from our local farmers so much better than trying to figure it out from a book.”
Students also learn hands-on by completing tasks at the farms.
“Every farm we visit will have a different task for a different skill,” Sikes explained, mentioning “different types of drip systems, watering techniques, preparing the fields and also weeding techniques that they’ve been learning from the farmers.”
Once in the program, Sikes said the only associated costs have to do with traveling to class sites if needed, which can be reimbursed.
This year, classes started at the end of May and are scheduled to continue every Monday evening until the end of August.
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