Happy 2026, everyone! We’re thrilled to bring in yet another new year with you, we’re really looking forward to what this year will bring for our gardens! Since we have a few things to tidy up from last year, let’s first do that!
Our first annual Fairbanks Food Bank fundraiser that we did over Christmas determined our donation will be $144, which we’ll just round up to $150! It was a lot of fun (and maybe slightly terrifying) letting you all determine what our donation will be. Thank you all for participating in it!
Second, we solicited your input on our future efforts and various time management needs a few weeks back. There was overwhelming support for our daily Facebook posts, much of it from first time commenters! We learned a lot about you all and we deeply appreciate you sharing your opinions with us. So, I’ve decided to essentially keep our 2026 social efforts similar (but different, of course) to what we’ve been doing. It’s always great to hear that our efforts help so many and we really value your opinions about our efforts.
And that brings us to 2026! We are officially giving ourselves permission to start thinking about our 2026 gardens! We’re waiting for a few more seed catalogs to make their way in, but we’ll be making genetics decisions by February or so. As far northerners, it’s important to remember that the “rest of the world” is way ahead of us. So, unless you like seeing “Out of Stock,” it’s good to be prepared early!
In the meantime, we’ll be looking hard at last years experiments, new genetics and things we really enjoyed growing. Our goal is to decide what we want to bring forward and things we might leave behind. We tailor every season based on our previous experience, trying to do more of what works and what we like, less of what we don’t!
For now, though, we’re still in survival mode. We’ve been battling 40 to 50 below zero lately, pushing through one of the deepest cold spells in decades! It’s been all we can do to keep critical systems going. This winter is a contender for “coldest winter ever,” at least since records have been kept. But, adversity builds character and we’re definitely no stranger to challenge!
Here’s to your 2026! We hope it’s a great one and brings you peace, health and happiness. May your gardens be bountiful and your produce tasty!
