Bushes Bunches Stand
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About
As the longest lasting farm stand in Alaska, we are proud to now champion food security in Alaska and act as your locally grown and sourced Alaska Grown Grocery Store year-round! Please come visit us to see what new food products Alaskans are creating and keep your money here in the state to build and support food security and year-round food production for the Alaskan people!
Programs and Partners
Location
Palmer, AK
Farmstand location, 2355 N Old Glenn Hwy, Palmer, AK 99645, three minutes from Palmer heading towards Butte, on the left before Clark-Wolverine Rd.
Manager
History of Our Farm 1920s: John “Frenchy” DuFour staked the original homestead in 1914. He came up from the Lower 48 and worked on the railroad and as a miner. 1956: Bruce Bush’s father bought the farm from a guy named George Johnson who had owned it for a few years. Bruce’s sister Nancy started a little vegetable stand. The kids needed to do something in the summer to earn some money. A little table with radishes and lettuces earned them $4.65 the first day. By the end of the season they made $2,000. The next year we built a little wooden stand, and we kept expanding every year. By the time the 1960s hit, we were rolling. 1988: Bruce took over the farm, except for the greenhouse. The greenhouse was taken over by Bruce’s niece. 1988: Bruce started a farm stand near the Parks Highway. A popular destination for locals and visitors alike, it operated every summer until 1999 when it had to be moved because the highway widened. 2014: We re-opened the farm stand at its current location, 2355 North Old Glenn Highway, Palmer, Alaska. The Four Seasons of Bushes Bunches Early Spring Bushes Bunches begins planting their seeds in late March or early April every year. All seeds are started in heated greenhouses. One greenhouse is heated by natural gas and another by woodstove. The mega doses of sunlight which Alaska enjoys are a critical component of seed growing success. Our plant nurseries are active all summer, but the big push is in early spring. Our farmland is turned over and tilled each spring after threat of snow is hopefully gone (in 2013 we had nine inches of snow on May 18, ugh!). Alaskans should not plant into outdoor fields until after Memorial Day or May 31 due to possibility of late frost. We also open the Greenhouse towards the end of May and beginning of June for plant starts for your gardens and farms. Summer Once the plants are transferred to the fields, it is Mother Nature’s job to take over most of the work. We do have irrigation, but nature provides the plants with tons of sunshine, up to 18 hours per day over the summer solstice, June 21-22. Our growing season is short, but our sunlit days are wonderfully long. Late Summer Come late July to early August our lettuces, radishes, early potatoes, kale, turnips and kohlrabi start making their first appearances. The store fills to the brim with produce and customers. We love them all! Early Fall In September we are bursting from the cornucopia of vegetables coming off the farms. It is during fall that we will get our root cellar and canning crops out to our CSA folks. The store stays open through late October to accommodate all our cold weather crops. Cabbage, potatoes, carrots, beets, parsnips come off the fields in abundance. If you are looking for bulk quantities of root crops, fall is the time to get them, or you can pre-order on our subscription service. Fresh Alaskan Grown produce is sometimes available into November if nature holds back on freezing weather. Winter Beginning in the winter of 2022, we will continue to offer you the staples of greens, milk, breads, meats, pasta, dried goods, and jarred or packaged goods that are predominately Alaskan Grown and healthy for your family.
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