Each spring, about 50 pickers young and old get paid a few bucks a pound to collect spruce tips during a short harvest window in small town Gustavus.
Food
Gardentalk — Trim a little now for a bigger harvest later
Prune each tomato or cucumber plant’s extra side shoots so it can put more energy into growing more fruit. Better ventilation and airflow around the plants also limits mold and mildew infections.
Yakutat sockeye fishery blindsided by historic low return
Commercial sockeye fishing in Yakutat has been closed due to historic low returns, leaving set-netters in a bind until coho and chum season later in the summer. Unlike other salmon fisheries around the Southeast, biologists never saw this coming.
Gardentalk – Go big with garlic and deadhead those scapes
Trim off the scape before it starts curling so the garlic plant can devote more energy to bulb development
Murkowski, Young respond to Chinese tariff on American seafood imports
Alaska’s economy could suffer as a result of China’s 25 percent tariff on American seafood imports and that worries U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski. In a written statement, Murkowski urges President Donald Trump to reach a trade policy with China that protects the export market.
Central Southeast king salmon following forecasts
For good and for bad, king salmon runs around Petersburg are coming in as forecast so far this year. Anglers have only been allowed to keep chinook salmon in a limited few areas with hatchery kings for the first part of this month.
Gardentalk – Is it dead yet? Some plants may still cling to life
Master Gardener Ed Buyarski has some hints to determine if your vegetable plant, shrub, or tree will survive from dead roots, cold shock, or wind burn and sun burn damage.
Gillnetters’ barbecue replaces kings with sockeye, adds event for fishermen, families
For over a decade, Lynn Canal gillnetters have hosted a king salmon barbecue each summer to celebrate local fishermen and the start of the fishing season. However, a shortage of kings this year has pushed organizers to change the menu to sockeye and rockfish.
Sitka Tribe, Forest Service team up to test historic tubers
Sitka Tribe of Alaska and the U.S. Forest Service will partner in an effort to genetically isolate and identify the Tlingit potato — and incorporate it into Sitka’s food-security strategy.
Investigation closes on Kuskokwim gray whale killing
A letter closes the investigation into the gray whale killed last summer on the Kuskokwim River. The final enforcement outcome was a slap on the wrist nine months after the whale swam up the river.