Is the Alaska Frontier on the Horizon for this Fruit Grower Editor?

In October, I asked readers to give American Fruit Grower magazine Editor Dave Eddy good reason to send me on assignment to any of the 11 states I’ve never visited. I was not expecting the most convincing response to arrive via Alaska. In fact, I had literally written off such a notion in my column.

Well, it turns out fruit growing is doing OK for itself in The Last Frontier. Mark Wolbers, President of the Alaska Pioneer Fruit Growers Association (APFGA), contacted me to “perhaps pique your curiosity.” And that he has.

In Wolbers’ words, while commercial fruit production is not very high in Alaska, fruit growing is more prevalent than one might expect, starting with the fact APFGA consists of more than 200 home-grower members. Although they aren’t growing club apples or putting in high-density orchards, they do grow a wide range of apple varieties.

Part of being in Alaska, Wolbers says, is figuring out how and what to grow. Consequently, growers have been quite experimental while successfully growing sour and sweet cherries, apples, plums, haskaps/honeyberries, raspberries, blueberries, currants, gooseberries, and strawberries.

“This year I planted and grafted my first apricot,” Wolbers says. “The experimenting continues.”

An emerging cider industry is seeking Alaska-grown apples, and currently there is a study underway to identify and analyze appropriate Alaska-grown varieties. There are a number of available small growers, Wolbers says, as well as an interest in establishing orchards to meet the in-state need for juice.

Wolbers owns a quarter-acre home and lot in Anchorage and this year produced 140 pounds of cherries and more than 250 pounds of apples with relatively young trees. Having grown up in Michigan, he says, “I can attest that our fruit is as good, if not better, than what I had growing up.”

Best of all, according to Wolbers, Alaskans do not have the insect pests and diseases that are prevalent in the lower 48.

“It is quite easy to grow organically,” he says. “Recently, we noted the arrival of European Fruit Scale, but that is as bad as it gets.”

Meanwhile, Alaskans, as a whole, take little for granted.

“I have often noted the inverse relationship between climate and people’s yards. The longer the winter, the more amazing the yards and gardens. It is almost as if people who experience real winter also really appreciate and take advantage of the narrow window to grow stuff,” Wolbers says. “When living in California, where one could grow almost anything, most grew nothing. If a yard had a lemon tree, often you would see the lemons unused on the ground.

In contrast, Alaskans have a subsistence mentality. They dip-net for salmon, hunt for moose or caribou, and freeze or can any fruit and produce grown or gathered in a way that would make a depression-era mom proud.”

Dip-netting for salmon? I can’t think of anything better to do while I’m dip-netting for stories. In either case, it sounds like Alaska is the place to be.