Tucked amid Palmer's cookie-cutter subdivisions, a diverse collection of farms continues the area's long agricultural tradition.

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Arctic Organics is a small farm (six acres in production) tucked beneath the jagged ridges of Matanuska Peak in the Butte. Owners Sarah and River Bean serve about 150 families through their community supported agriculture program, sell at the Anchorage Farmers Market, provide greens to local restaurants, and open their farm stand to the public for two hours each Friday during the summer.

Though the Beans are committed to organic, sustainable agriculture, they can't label their produce as organic. Until the fall of 2002 they held an "Alaska organic" certification from the Alaska Organic Association, but when the Federal government took over the term "organic" the Beans decided to pass on the label. This was part cost (the new regulations require certifying agencies to be accredited, which Sarah Bean estimated would cost $10,000, or $2,500 per AOA farm) and part philosophy, since the new language created, as Bean put it, "standards we didn't feel were high enough anymore."

Ben Vanderweele is at the other end of the valley's farming spectrum. He has about 160 acres in production and supplies many of the grocery stores in the area with potatoes, carrots, lettuce, Brussels sprouts and broccoli.