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Sitka Farmers Market weekly newsletter

Due to the COVID-19 outbreak this year and our concern for everybody's health and safety, there will be several changes to the way the Sitka Local Foods Network hosts a greatly scaled back Sitka Farmers Market this summer. We will use the online portal Salt and Soil Marketplace this year, and people will pre-order their boxes of veggies or other available produce items during the week, then pick them up on Saturdays. We are not offering items for sale on Saturdays, and ask people to order during the week. This newsletter will be used to let people know what to expect in their boxes, and to remind them to make their purchases during the week. An article below will discuss what to expect at our markets and another article will explain how the market works this summer. A reminder to please wear masks when picking up your produce, so we all stay healthy. Thanks.

What's available for the Aug. 15 pick-up event

The Sitka Local Foods Network will have produce available for purchase from 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 11, through 8 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 13, using the Salt and Soil Marketplace website, http://www.saltandsoilmarketplace.com. Our pick-up event will be from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturday, Aug. 15, at St. Peter's Fellowship Farm (located by the See House behind St. Peter's By The Sea Episcopal Church, 611 Lincoln Street). Note, if you can't make our pick-up time, please arrange for a family member or friend to pick up your order so we can close at noon.

Our lead gardener is Laura Schmidt, and our Sitka Farmers Market co-managers are Ariane Goudeau and Nalani James. We wear masks and gloves during the market. Please remember to wear your mask when you come to pick up your produce, or stay in your car until we get your name and bring you your produce. We want to keep everybody safe and healthy this summer, but still make fresh local produce available for Sitka. Thanks.

Here is what's available for purchase this week. We have six large farmer's choice veggie boxes, 12 small farmer's choice veggie boxes, five boxes of greens, two small rhubarb baskets, five small bundles of garlic, five baggies of basil, 10 salad bags.

Do keep watching our Salt and Soil Marketplace page, because sometimes we add new items that become available after the order period opens (for example, a couple of weeks ago we added white sweet turnips to our offerings on a Wednesday). It's amazing what just a little bit of sunshine can do. All of our produce is grown in Sitka and has a Certified Naturally Grown designation for sustainable agriculture practices.

Large farmer's choice basket for Aug. 15

This week our large farmer's choice basket sells at $40 each. It includes onions, zucchini, a baggie of snap peas, a batch of potatoes, a large salad bag, a bundle of carrots, chard/kale, and bundle of garlic.

Small farmer's choice basket for Aug. 15

The small farmer's choice basket, at $20 each, will include a baggie of snap peas, a bundle of carrots, a bundle of onions, and zucchini. Our greens boxes, at $20 each, will include a salad bag as well as bundles of chard and kale. Small rhubarb baskets are $10 each, salad bags are $7 each, a bundle of 2-3 small or medium heads of garlic is $6, and a baggie of basil is $4.

Bundle of garlic

Once again, we will have our 2020 Sitka Local Foods Network tote bags, with our new logo designed by Alyssa Russell and Lisa Gilardi of The Hullabaloo Studio in consultation with our board of directors. These tote bags will be available for $12 each, and the funds raised will help support our efforts to grow food, host the farmers market, connect people to garden education classes, and sponsor the Sitka Food Business Innovation Contest. We also have some of our 2019 Sitka Farmers Market tote bags left in stock for $10 each, and once they are gone they are gone. These make great gifts for friends and family, and they help cut down on plastic waste.

2020 Sitka Local Foods Network logo tote bag, good for holding all of your new produce

We accept WIC farmers market coupons and SNAP Alaska Quest EBT cards, with matches provided thanks to grants from the White E, Sitka Legacy Fund, and The Alaska Community Foundation. We will provide one $20 small produce basket for one $5 WIC coupon or $5 in SNAP benefits with this grant (limit one per family per week, and limited by our available baskets each week). People using WIC and SNAP benefits aren't able to use their benefits through the Salt and Soil Marketplace, so they will need to reserve their basket by calling the Sitka Farmers Market phone at 738-7310 or emailing sitkafarmersmarket@gmail.com. WIC users will need to bring their coupon and SNAP users need to bring their Alaska Quest cards to the pick-up so we can process your orders. Reservations need to be placed starting at 5 p.m Tuesday and by 8 p.m. Thursday for that Saturday. Due to the limited amount of available produce, this service is provided on a first-come, first-served basis. When we are out, we are out for the week.

When you go to the Sitka page of Salt and Soil Marketplace website, http://www.saltandsoilmarketplace.com, to order this week, you might notice a couple of other Sitka vendors. Andrea Fraga of Middle Island Gardens will share our pick-up event and have her own produce baskets for sale. Lisa Sadleir-Hart of Anam Cara Family Gardens will have jams and jellies available this week, but will distribute those from her house. Spinning Moon Apothecary has herbal preparations for sale, and those will be distributed from their store. Raincoast Flowers is a new business selling bouquets of cut flowers, with distribution at our pick-up event. There may be new vendors from Sitka added later in the season.

As always, we look forward to seeing you this Saturday. Thank you for supporting local foods.

Andrea Fraga of Middle Island Gardens, left, and Brooke Schafer of Raincoast Flowers with some of their products at the market.

How our market will work this summer

The Sitka Farmers Markets will feature a different look and feel this summer, as we try to reduce the spread of COVID-19 while protecting everyone's health and safety. Our market this year will be greatly scaled back, in an effort to prevent the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. We will be down to just our regular produce vendors — the Sitka Local Foods Network selling produce from St. Peter's Fellowship Farm and Middle Island Gardens. Due to limited space and state rules not allowing craft vendors, these will be our only two vendors at this time.

Our biggest change will be using the online portal Salt and Soil Marketplace, so people will pre-order their veggies from 5 p.m. on Tuesday through 8 p.m. on Thursday using the online order system. We then will pack $20 small farmer's choice baskets with a selection of four veggies in season, and $40 boxes large farmer's choice baskets with even more items. There also will be occasional individual items, such as greens baskets, rhubarb baskets, salad bags, onions, leeks, etc., as it becomes available during the season. The produce will be available for pick-up from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturdays at St. Peter's Fellowship Farm (behind St. Peter's By The Sea Episcopal Church, 611 Lincoln St.). Our scheduled produce delivery days will be on Saturday, June 20 (limited produce availability, so soft opening) and every Saturday in July (4, 11, 18, 25), August (1, 8, 15, 22, 29), and September (5, 12, 19, 26).

Since this is the first time we've used this online portal, customers will need to create a free Sitka account on the Salt and Soil Marketplace (don't worry about the fee mentioned, since there is no fee for Sitka this year, but make sure you have a Sitka account). Before ordering, make sure you are logged into your account. You should see a list of vendors and products available that week with their prices. Make your order, then make sure you hit Confirm when you are finished making your order. Note, sometimes we may add new items to our availability during the week, especially if we get a sunny period that increases our produce growth.

We will not sell veggies on Saturdays. We are trying to have all orders pre-purchased so we don't have to handle money or charge cards. If you are a WIC or SNAP client, we still want to get produce to you but there will be updated rules since those programs technically don't allow for online ordering right now. Call 738-7310 or email sitkafarmersmarket@gmail.com, and we will let you know how you can access a small farmer's choice or greens produce box using your benefits.

With a new spike in COVID-19 cases in Sitka, we will do everything we can to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. That means all of our volunteers will wear masks and gloves, and we ask you to wear masks, too. When you arrive to pick up your produce, park your car and turn off your engine. One of our greeters will come to your vehicle to get your name, then will go to get your basket(s) while you wait in your vehicle. The basket(s) will be placed on the ground by your car door, and then you can put the produce into a tote bag or a box you brought from home (or a tote bag you purchase from us). When you are done, set your basket at the front of your parking space and then slowly drive away. We will pick up the empty basket so it can be reused later. If you walk or bike to the delivery location, we will have spots marked with tape for you to stand while you wait for your orders. Our goal is to minimize contact to prevent the spread of the coronavirus while still getting local produce to Sitka residents.

If you have any questions or concerns about the markets this year, please contact Sitka Local Foods Network board president Charles Bingham at 907-623-7660 or sitkalocalfoodsnetwork@gmail.com. We thank you for your patience and understanding as we try to figure out how to handle this unusual summer.

Copyright © 2020 Sitka Local Foods Network, All rights reserved.

Our mailing address is:
Sitka Local Foods Network
408-D Marine Street
Sitka, Alaska 99835

sitkafarmersmarket@gmail.com
sitkalocalfoodsnetwork@gmail.com

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Sitka Farmers Market · 408 Marine St Apt D · Sitka, AK 99835-7362 · USA