perennial vegetables in Zone 3 (Alaska)

Christine Wilcox wrote:The Anchorage Permaculture Guild organizes both a seed and seedling exchange. I usually try to offer a few new or well tested perennials through the events. Most years there is demand for Good King Henry (Chenipodium bonus-henri), and I will grow some starts for the seedling exchange. This year I will also start some more Turkish Rocket (Bunias orientalis). It has done well, bees love it and I enjoy the taste.

I hadn't heard of Good King Henry or Turkish Rocket before, thanks!

Christine Wilcox wrote:We are still working out the growing conditions for Siberian ginseng. The plants grow well on our site but over-wintering has been more challenging, which was not the expected problem.

That is surprising. I'll have to try planting little patches of it all over the places (assuming I can get any of the seed to germinate).

Your post on gruit was interesting. I'm not a beer drinker myself, but I'll have to show it to the brewers I know.

My brother and I have a half-baked scheme to get our hands on one of the day neutral varieties of hops developed for South Africa and then trying to cross it with other types to get a cold hardy, day neutral variety that will do well in Alaska. We haven't made much progress because I'm not a beer guy and he doesn't use the Internet.

I'm not sure if this will help those of you in the USA.
Buy here is a Canadian nursery that has hardy fruit and nut trees. Some to zone 3.

http://www.hardyfruittrees.ca

I haven't ordered from them yet. As my food forest area is still being prepped. But maybe someone here has.

Jaime Cameron--living in BC, I haven't ordered from hardyfruittrees.ca .  I was drooling all over their site, then it turns out they don't ship to BC, probably because of quarantine requirements.  This is the case with several oufits east of the Rockies.
Roberto pokachnni--to the list, maybe we can add such things as pine cambium which could be used in an emergency, and of course spruce tips and really any young needles, suitable for teas rich in Vitamin C.  Same with balsam poplar catkins, if that's present in zone 3 and lower.
Great thread--I didn't know the "great white north" forum existed.  I don't see it in the forum index on the right of the home page, for some reason.

I accidentally left some hostas in small pots up on a shelf inside an unheated greenhouse last winter, and they survived. That's pretty dang tough!

At least a few of my groundnuts came back.

I messed up the Siberian Ginseng. I got it to germinate, but then I got too busy and I think I must have buried the germinated seeds too deep. None broke the surface of my tray.

For some reason I thought my Maximillian Sunflower didn't make it, but as I was walking by where I planted them in my overgrown test plot I thought "there's something strange about those fireweed shoots" haha.

caraway?  I will be trying it this year in my garden. https://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/843/