Bounty has come to us in Northern Country. In the form of seed. So many varieties each sporting their own colors, sizes, textures, shapes, and personalities. It is no easy feat to scope seed and have timing just so for a successful harvest in a land this vast. The target areas for Seeds of Success (SOS) collections this year were the White Mountains up the Steese Highway (Northeast of Fairbanks) and Dalton Highway around Coldfoot (North of the Arctic Circle). That’s right seed collecting North of the Arctic Circle, how wild and how wonderful. Both locations yielded productive collections. The White Mountains charmed us with their blustery alpine tundra and challenged us with the sedge seed succumbing to blight. Up the Dalton Highway we were surprised to see fall colors descending down the hillsides heralding the season’s change. Some highlights include our hands being dyed pink by the fireweed, our ears entertained by the musical pea seeds, and our eyes held in wonder at the Dr Seuss like fluff of the Eriophorum.

Much thanks and happy harvesting! Kim Hack

Blight on a sedge.

Oxytropis deflexa ripe for the picking.

A bumble bee visiting a cheery Potentilla fruticosa

Pillars of Pedicularis seed.

Seed collectors, Justin Fulkerson and Sam Snodgrass, must be mighty in the alpine

Feathery beauty of the Calamagrostis.

Fall colors have begun north of the Arctic Circle.

Barbed wire like seed must be plucked with caution.

Avalanche of seed overtakes Justin Fulkerson.

Eriophorum seed makes a compelling mustache on Justin Fulkerson.

Eriophorum seed makes for a lush fluffy bed.