High tunnels bring warm-weather veggies to Alaska

At Oceanside Farm in Homer, Alaska, Donna Rae Faulkner and her husband, Don McNamara, spend their summer days trying to keep their roadside farm stand stocked with heirloom tomatoes, torpedo-size zucchini and piles of tomatilloes.

They grow their vegetables in a long line of 13-foot-high tunnels that run more than 60 feet long. In the winter, Faulkner sets up smaller tunnels inside the larger ones. On a sunny day in January, the sun can heat the nested tunnels enough to grow produce such as Asian greens and kale.

Over the past two years, Faulkner and her husband have invested their life savings in their high-tunnel farm. The former high school biology teacher said she was always interested in gardening, but the couple didn't turn to full-time farming until after they heard about a federal program run by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. "We caught the bug," said Faulkner.

In the past six years, 679 high tunnels have popped up in Alaska. More than half of them are on the Kenai Peninsula, which NRCS employees have nicknamed the "high-tunnel capital."

Shoppers, stores and restaurants can now choose locally grown food over produce that has been shipped hundreds of miles, said Pam Voeller, a soil conservationist with the NRCS.

Read more at UPI.com