Planting Day 2020: Marston Victory Garden

Muktuk Marston Advances on the Field (Photo courtesy Ken Anderson)

“Remember how Mr. Anderson used to make all of this easier and fun?” I overheard someone say as he inserted his spade into the earth.

            Twenty or so of us had gathered to put in the half acre that had been tilled as we worked toward the full acre that was the goal.  We were reclaiming a field that had been left fallow for nobody could remember how long.  I didn’t take the comment as a barb, but more as a challenge.

            “This field used to produce so many potatoes and carrots,” was what was voiced with each shovel full of clay-heavy earth that was moved.

            Our spades hit willow roots and sod as we fought back the forest overtaking the field.  The little Kubota that was used to till the ground was no match for the years nature had been working on it, and the old John Deere A disappearing into the trees overrunning the field acted as yet another stark reminder of what had been.

            “I had an older guy teach me how to use a shovel correctly,” another man spoke up.  “Did you know the back of the shovel is designed for your foot to put weight on?” he asked his shoveling partner to the right.

            Evidently time had not only been taking back the field, but had begun erasing the knowledge of how to put one in.  We were catching it just in time for more reasons than one.

            It was not really doom and gloom though.  Even as people wore blisters onto their palms and sweat ran down their backs, smiles were on their faces.  They were waging the battle happily.

            “We used to have potato holidays,” Ike smiled as the spade went back through sod and clay.

            “Potato holiday,” Jeff educated me, “was what the school called it in order to con the kids into thinking they were getting the day off while they were actually getting free labor out of us.”

            “We would get prizes for biggest potato, smallest potato, ugliest potato,” Doris smiled as the memories turned over in her mind as she turned the soil over in front of her.

Ken Anderson displays a little of the harvest with his apprentices at his sides. (Photo Courtesy Ken Anderson)

            A slew of kids showed up as the first cut potato seeds were brought to the field, and they ran through the rows dropping seed a little more liberal than the adults intended.  They laughed and bounded, their energy both contagious and enviable.  Adults went and thinned and covered seed.

            “I’m glad our kids are seeing this,” a mom voiced, “it is important to know where our food comes from.” 

            “Potato plants come from potatoes?” her young daughter asked incredulously as she and her brothers ran about putting in seed, covering it up, and hauling compost.

            To them, this was the potato holiday revived.  They were loving the free labor they were giving.  Dirt coated their hands and decorated their cheeks.  The sun was warm, and a light breeze kept off the mosquitos. 

Kristin Follet with some eager assistants

            A group of adults cut seed at the picnic tables, a group of kids ran them to the field to plant, and another group of adults formed the rows and covered the seed.  It was labor intensive, but progress was being made.

            The original plan was to eat a potluck meal together after getting the field done, but the field had done us in.  Families packed up and went home having completed just a quarter acre, but it was a quarter acre in production that had been willows and tall grass before we had gotten there.

            Another quarter acre was put in by small groups throughout the rest of the week.  A couple people here and there would head up to the field.  An unknowing group of Alaska Airlines workers on a walk around town were roped into the project.

            “Hey,” they said as we drove by, “where you guys headed.”

            “Up the road to the potato field, want to come?”

            “Yeah, why not?” and they put in ten rows over two days.

            Though they would probably shake their heads at how we got it done, I am hoping Marston and Anderson would be proud of what we had accomplished.  We’re taking back their field one potato seed at a time and reestablishing our self-sustaining lifestyle.  Nobody said it would be easy.

 

Special Thanks to our volunteers:

 

Alaska Airlines Crew (Shawn, Mike, Brian, Feletti)

Brad and Kamy Webster Family

Doris Ivanoff

Ike Towarak

Jeff and Talon Erickson

Jeff and Kristin Follet Family

Luke and Kristen McDonald

Nick Bruckner

Marty and Jessie Towarak Family

Reid and Angie Tulloch Family

The first row of 2020 (from left to right: Luke McDonald, Nick Bruckner, Jason Harris, Marty Towarak)  

Another row with Jeff Erickson and Ike Towarak in the foreground- our memory banks of what the field was.