(P- As we drove towards Delta Junction we noticed a road called Agricultural Road and a grain silo or two. After my Google Earth of the area I was amazed to see how much Agricultural land was in the area! Next morning we retrace our steps to investigate. We discover, Yak, Bison, Beef Cattle and a Dairy Farm. Along with Barley, Oats, Canola and a few Potato fields. To me the crops all look stunted and very short on straw or foliage. There were also large fields of round or square bales that had just been made. We came across a Slaughterhouse and Butchers shop (Delta Meat and Sausage inc.) so time for a visit. The lady who served us was one of the owners of this family business. Time for 20 questions I thought!
-How long is the season? A max of 3 months (hence the short straw and foliage)
-what crops- See above
-How many Farmers? Not many now as the younger generation move away to more lucrative lifestyles
-Where are the equipment dealers? There aren’t any good ones and we all run old non computerised Farm Machinery as there are no technicians to service modern High tech equipment (looking around I could see she was correct)
-How did the farming start here? Politicians deciding Alaska must feed their own.
– Is it viable? Very hard to make viable and getting less and less of the land used
A few more questions and she gave us a map of where their farms were and sent us on a self tour. Before we left we stocked upon on locally grown and butchered, Bison, Yak, Angus Steak and Buffalo. We like to support local and the quality of the produce has been great.)
We then drive on thru the town of North Pole. Guess what they have a “Santa Claus” shop (as tacky as) with a big old Santa Statue out front and some penned up reindeer’s!
This reminded me of a Reindeer story!
I was reliably informed by the Lady who owned one of the quilt shops (so it must be true!) that whilst Santa’s Reindeers ( having male names) are all female! Why? Because Only Female Reindeer have antlers in winter! We have been misled with the Rudolf song evidently! Oh and Reindeer are tamed and farmed Caribou) – After that story perhaps we should stop calling at quilt shops!
J. Well I think Philip called ahead because the Quilt Shop, The Quilted Cow, in Delta Junction was closed.
Tassie Travellers 