Jon and I just got back from an awesome adventure in Alaska. Our trip included classic Alaskan experiences (floating on rivers, hiking up mountains), but we also managed to squeeze in a little garden time, including a tour of the agriculture exhibits at the Alaska State Fair and a visit to the incredible vegetable gardens at the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) in Palmer, Alaska. Now that we’re home, I thought I’d give you a little tour of a big Alaskan garden.

NOLS students stay at the Palmer camp on their way to and from mountaineering, sea kayaking, and backpacking courses, and they are lucky enough to eat fresh, organic vegetables grown right on the premises. Food scraps from the kitchen are composted or fed to the camp’s resident pigs…and they even raise and slaughter their own broiler chickens!

The NOLS Alaska garden features a gorgeous backdrop of mountains and huge rows of salad greens, broccoli, cabbage, beets, carrots, and rhubarb.

Peas line the fence of the salad garden, which includes incredible lettuces, arugula, and chard.

A hoop house keeps tomatoes, basil, and other culinary herbs toasty warm during the short growing season. I was definitely jealous to discover that this garden in Alaska had ripe tomatoes before me!

Even though the Alaskan summer is short and cool it has long, long days (almost 24 hours of light in June and July), which means that it’s possible to grow really big cool season crops like beets, turnips, cauliflower, and cabbage. At the state fair they have a whole section in the Agriculture exhibits devoted to enormous vegetables. While I have to admit that our encounter with a grizzly bear while hiking was certainly the most memorable part of the trip…seeing a 20 pound rutabaga was a close second!

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