Kenaitze greenhouse to sprout in Old Town Kenai

A grassy spot in Old Town Kenai next to the parking lot of the Kenaitze Indian Tribe’s Dena’ina Wellness Center may be occupied next summer by gardens, raised plant beds, and a 1,512 square-foot greenhouse full of vegetables and plants that the local Dena’ina Native people traditionally used for food and medicine.

This summer the Dena’ina Wellness Center’s Traditional Healing program hosted workshops about traditional and contemporary ways to use local plants as food and medicine. The plants used in those workshops and in the wellness center’s traditional treatments were harvested from the wild. Kenaitze Wellness Director Deborah Nyquist said the greenhouse would expand these programs.

“In order for us to do that in a more comprehensive way, we’d like to be able to dig in the dirt,” Nyquist said. “To have access to foods and medicines that were not only traditionally ours, but other fruits and vegetables the Dena’ina people wouldn’t have had, but are part of our contemporary diet.”

Nyquist said the specific plants that will grow in the greenhouse “depend on what our tribal members want.” She said the Kenaitze Tribe is organizing a team to look at food sovereignty — an issue she said has attracted a lot of attention when it comes to salmon, but less with regard to vegetables.

“If you think about a typical food you’d purchase in a grocery store, like a loaf of bread, and think about all the steps it takes to get that loaf of bread here to a store for you and I to purchase… There’s many, many steps, and most of those steps I have no control over,” Nyquist said. “The only thing I have control over is picking it up off the shelf, paying for it, taking it home. Food sovereignty is looking at the foods that make me well — do I have access to them? And what do I have control over, in that process? If I take a salmon from the river for my personal use at home, I have control over many of those steps. There’s certain things I don’t have control over — the season, if they’re running. But I can go down to the river, net that salmon, bring it home and process it, prepare it, serve it to my family. I have more power, more sovereignty, over that particular food item. This is a way for our tribal membership to think about a lot of their food, and the medicinal plants as well — what do we have access to, what do we have sovereignty over, and what do I want to make sure my family has access to?”

Rusty Swan, Kenaitze’s Director of Housing Programs, was involved in planning and designing the greenhouse. He also co-owns a commercial greenhouse, the RustyRavin Plant Ranch, with his wife. The Kenaitze’s greenhouse is designed for growing year-round, Swan said. Its north wall and the northern half of its roof will be conventional opaque material, while the southern part of the building is transparent hard plastic, open to light.

“It’ll be easier to keep warm and still get the benefits of the sun,” Swan said. “It’s kind of a unique design.”

Local plants that might be less suited to a greenhouse climate will grow in the outdoor gardens and raised beds surrounding the greenhouse, while the warmer inside could be used for imported vegetables. The greenhouse is planned to sit on the corner of Overland and Mission Avenues, in the Kenaitze’s campus in Old Town Kenai. The Dena’ina Wellness Center is nearby, and a short walk away down Mission Avenue is the Kenaitze’s Tyotkas Elder Center. Though Swan said the greenhouse location has moved several times since the tribe began planning it last summer, it has landed near the programs that will be using it.

“Our elders might come over to the greenhouse, do some planting, perhaps storytelling of what plants they traditionally used, gardening activities with the youth, and actually growing vegetables that we can then incorporate back into our elder’s lunch program,” Nyquist said. “There’s a whole host of ways we want the greenhouse to be available to our tribal programs and our membership. It isn’t just going to be program-specific for how people can access the greenhouse.”

Presently the Tyotkas Elder Center gets its vegetables from vendors, Nyquist said. Other tribal programs that may use the greenhouse include early child care and diabetes prevention, according to an application to the Kenai Planning and Zoning Commission for a required permit.

In addition to being harvested, Nyquist said the greenhouse’s collection of local plants will be used in classes that teach not only the practicalities of plant identification, harvest technique, and etiquette, but also cultural knowledge.

“We want to be in the right spirit — harvesting with gratitude,” Nyquist said. “There might be a particular ceremony that folks will need to learn, giving thanks for that plant offering its fruits and benefits to us. All of that is a part of what we want to develop on behalf of the tribe.”

What happens at the greenhouse won’t necessarily stay at the greenhouse.

“We also want to empower our folks to do what they can in their home,” Nyquist said. “They can be container-gardening if they live in a smaller apartment, or perhaps create a garden bed on their property. We have a lot of folks who are very interested in greenhouse gardening, but don’t have access, and we hope to provide access here, in addition to education and how they can carry those skills home.”

Swan said the tribe plans to start building the greenhouse in the spring and have it ready for planting in the coming summer. Some tribe members are preparing by cultivating medicinal wild plants in home gardens and their own greenhouses, Nyquist said.

Swan said his RustyRavin greenhouse started off selling flower starters but has gradually became more food-oriented as he sees the growing popularity of raising your own food. For him, food sovereignty is an attitude he’d like the next generation to inherit.

“Now that I’m older and wiser, we’re eating better,” Swan said. “I wish we’d thought of this 20, 30, 40 years ago. But we obviously can’t change that. The only thing we can do is pass this information on to our kids and grandkids. I can’t change what happened to me, but I can change what will happen to you.”

Reach Ben Boettger at ben.boettger@peninsulaclarion.com.

More in News

An 86 pound Kenai River king salmon is measured in Soldotna, Alaska, on June 29, 1995. (M. Scott Moon/Peninsula Clarion File)
Kenai River king salmon fishing closed entirely for 3rd year

Kenai River king salmon were designated a stock of management concern in 2023.

The Kenai Peninsula College Main Entrance on Aug. 18, 2022, in Soldotna, Alaska. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
University of Alaska Board of Regents to meet in Soldotna

The last time the board met on the Kenai Peninsula was April 2012.

Kenai Peninsula Borough School District Board of Education member Penny Vadla and student representative Emerson Kapp speak to the joint Alaska House and Senate education committees in Juneau, Alaska, on Monday, Feb. 10, 2025. (Screenshot courtesy Gavel Alaska/KTOO)
KPBSD among dozens of districts to deliver in-person testimony to Alaska Legislature

Districts spotlighted programs already lost over years of stagnant funding that hasn’t met inflationary pressure.

Rep. Bill Elam, R-Nikiski, speaks during a town hall meeting hosted by his office at the Nikiski Community Recreation Center in Nikiski, Alaska, on Saturday, Feb. 8, 2025. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
Education dominates Elam’s 1st town hall as state rep

Education funding dominated much of the conversation.

Kenai Middle School Principal Vaughn Dosko points out elements of a redesign plan for the front of the school on Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2022, in Kenai, Alaska. (Ashlyn O’Hara/Peninsula Clarion)
Work soon to begin on Kenai Middle security upgrades

The security upgrades are among several key KPBSD maintenance projects included in a bond approved by borough voters in October 2022.

The Kenai Fire Department headquarters are photographed on Feb. 13, 2018, in Kenai, Alaska. (Peninsula Clarion file)
Kenai adds funds, authorizes contract for study of emergency services facility

The building shared by Kenai’s police and fire departments hasn’t kept up with the needs of both departments, chief says.

Kenai Parks and Recreation Director Tyler Best shows off a new inclusive seesaw at Kenai Municipal Park in Kenai, Alaska, on Thursday, June 27, 2024. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
Kenai awards contract to develop Parks and Rec master plan

The document is expected to guide the next 20 years of outdoors and recreation development in the city.

Balancing Act’s homepage for the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District’s Fiscal Year 2026 Budget. (Screenshot)
KPBSD launches ‘Balancing Act’ software, calls for public to balance $17 million deficit

The district and other education advocates have said that the base student allocation has failed to keep up with inflation.

Natural gas processing equipment is seen at Furie Operating Alaska’s central processing facility in Nikiski, Alaska, on Wednesday, July 10, 2024. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
Harvest Alaska announces proposed redevelopment of Kenai LNG terminal

The project could deliver additional natural gas supplies to the Southcentral market as early as 2026, developers said.

Most Read