All posts by Ashley

About Ashley

With a background in marketing communications, Ashley decided to take her interest in plants and gardening to the next level through The Alaska Urban Soil Project blog. As a newly self-proclaimed gardener, she's ready to blaze the trail for other wanna-be backyard vegetable gardeners and start an online community for fellow organic, local food lovers.

happy Alaska couple with iditarod sled team

The Alaska Iditarod: Sled Dogs & Mushers Kicking Off 2016 in Anchorage

It was a beautiful Saturday morning in March in surprisingly sunny Anchorage, Alaska.

The Iditarod track made of leveled snow (freshly trucked in from Fairbanks, AK) was perfectly spread along Cordova Street, spanning the entire length and width of the road. Any other week of the year,  Cordova Street is a semi-well used street, passing through residential neighborhood and running straight north through downtown Anchorage. Continue reading The Alaska Iditarod: Sled Dogs & Mushers Kicking Off 2016 in Anchorage

All American Pressure Canner and Box

How to get the lid off of a stuck aluminum pressure canner

I was a lucky lady this Christmas and got my very first pressure canner, the All-American 41-1/2-Quart Pressure Cooker/Canner, model 941.

After processing a batch of canned moose, I let the pressure canner naturally come down in pressure and waited the instructed length of time before trying to open it.

But to my surprise, once I unscrewed the twist knobs and tried to rotate the lid to get it off, it wouldn’t budge. I tried with all of my strength to twist the lid off without luck. Continue reading How to get the lid off of a stuck aluminum pressure canner