Looking for a fellow Countrysider in or around the Alaska area to send me some Fireweed seeds. I'm a first year beekeeper and I've heard it makes for a great tasting honey. Please e-mail me and I'll give my address, I'll pay for postage and enclose a few dollars for your time. Thanks in advance. Bill

-- Bill Jaddatz (BillsHsFrm@aol.com), August 19, 2001

Answers

Bill, it's too late this year, but if you hie yourself out and look along the roadsides you should, along about the end of July next year, find all the fireweed in bloom you can possibly gather seed from!! If you don't happen to see any right around where you are living, travel over towards Tok, where there was a big fire a few years back (1990) and look around the burned areas. That's where fireweed gets it's name, is because it likes to grow in freshly burned, or cultivated/disturbed, areas. If you don't know what it looks like, check out the plant identification books at the library or the book store. It's also known as willow herb sometimes. Or ask anyone who's lived up there for a while and likes outdoor things. They ought to be able to point the flowers out so you know what they look like, then I guarantee you'll be seeing them all over the place! Only one of the most common wildflowers in the State!! :-)

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), September 19, 2001.