{"id":30948,"date":"2015-09-27T08:02:38","date_gmt":"2015-09-27T15:02:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/kenai-apple-agriculture-at-work\/"},"modified":"2015-09-27T08:02:38","modified_gmt":"2015-09-27T15:02:38","slug":"kenai-apple-agriculture-at-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/life\/kenai-apple-agriculture-at-work\/","title":{"rendered":"Kenai apple agriculture at work"},"content":{"rendered":"

KENAI \u2014<\/strong> A bushel of people waited patiently in line on a chilly Sunday afternoon to get a taste of the apples at O\u2019Brien Garden and Trees in Nikiski.<\/p>\n

The O\u2019Briens, who grow cherries, raspberries, strawberries, rhubarb and more in addition to apples, recently collected evaluation sheets from tasters and allowed people to explore their 10-acre garden. The tasting marked the second one this season and was held for the second year in a row at the family\u2019s new location, where they transitioned after a moose problem in 2006 left their original orchard in poor shape.<\/p>\n

The tasting events have continued to grow since they began in 1991, said Michelle LaVigueur, daughter of owner Mike O\u2019Brien.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are becoming more aware that we\u2019re here first of all, and that you can grow apples in Alaska, which is quite a feat,\u201d LaVigueur said.<\/p>\n

For $5, visitors from around the peninsula could sample several apple varieties in one of the farm\u2019s high tunnels, scoring each on a scale of one to 10. A juice-making station was set up at the back of the tunnel, where visiting kids tried their hand at turning apples to juice, which was sold for $1 per cup.<\/p>\n

The evaluation scores are essential for O\u2019Brien, who uses them to inform which varieties to focus on in the coming season, he said. Each apple variety receives a score based on the average from all the evaluation sheets.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat will tell us what we want to propagate in the spring,\u201d O\u2019Brien said. \u201cWe can\u2019t say, generally, \u2018I like this apple.\u2019 Well, maybe I do, but not everyone is going to agree with that with their taste buds. So when we go ahead and do that, we\u2019re hitting the collective, common thought of, \u2018what are the best?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Another goal of the tasting is to spread the word about the reality of growing foods in Alaska, LaVigueur said. Seeing the process and the rewards for oneself is often more effective than being told, and LaVigueur said that is exactly what people get exposed to at the tasting.<\/p>\n

The myth that apples cannot be grown in Alaska is false, she said. Rather, growers need to take different approaches when working with the soil and environment to get the best results.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe trial a lot of different varieties, and even in the beginning (my dad) had to trial a lot of different root stock, is what we call it, and it\u2019s just the root of the tree,\u201d LaVigueur said. \u201cOnce we found one that was hardy enough for our area, then it opened up the possibility of more variety. When you take an eating variety and put it on the right root stock, because the energy is stored in the root for winter, it makes it to where the whole tree can survive.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the help of the evaluations, O\u2019Brien also eliminates fruit varieties that aren\u2019t performing well or aren\u2019t up to his high standards, making room for better products.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of places that do propagating aren\u2019t considering places like Alaska because it\u2019s a low demand. Why should they bother?\u201d O\u2019Brien said. \u201cIn this case, we not only propagate, but we grow and we eat our own (fruit), so we want the best. I mean, if something is OK, well we\u2019ll drop it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Robert Gibson, director for the Kenai Peninsula Chapter of the Alaska Farm Bureau and member of the Central Peninsula Garden Club, has attended the garden\u2019s apple tasting events for the last three years. Gibson enjoys learning about different fruit varieties as well as the latest innovations and initiatives to grow on the peninsula, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like to see that more and more people are interested in locally-grown foods, which is near and dear to me, being in the Farm Bureau,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In addition to being educational, the apple tasting is an opportunity to entice residents to take up apple and fruit growing in their own lives, LaVigueur said. O\u2019Brien Garden and Trees expands a little each year, and soon the production will be such that the O\u2019Briens will begin to seek out retail buyers in addition to frequenting local markets, she said. They are also working to repair the original garden site, which will reopen when the trees are ready, O\u2019Brien said.<\/p>\n

The O\u2019Brien\u2019s will host a winter apple tasting in October, which will feature later-developing fruits such as Granny Smiths and Honeycrisps, O\u2019Brien said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course those will be the ones that store the best,\u201d he said. \u201cThe later that they ripen, generally speaking they store longer. Winter apples will be the holdover for winter and you\u2019ll be eating those in the spring. Honeycrisp will last five months in common refrigeration.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KENAI \u2014 A bushel of people waited patiently in line on a chilly Sunday afternoon to get a taste of the apples at O\u2019Brien Garden and Trees in Nikiski. The O\u2019Briens, who grow cherries, raspberries, strawberries, rhubarb and more in addition to apples, recently collected evaluation sheets from tasters and allowed people to explore their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":418,"featured_media":30949,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":7,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-30948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/418"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30948\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30948"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=30948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}