Walter Cook Sr.: Interview Outline: Section 6 Photo of Walter's father standing in the garden Tape Reference Number: H2002-09-05 Walter Cook Sr. talks with Bill Schneider, Hazel Apok, and Eileen Devinney in Kiana, Alaska on February 27, 2002.

Hazel Apok: Before we forget, I wanted to ask you where the -- where did your dad get his seeds from to grow?

Harry Cook [Photo courtesy of Martin Smith]

Walter Cook: Oh, okay. Well, sometimes he -- when, he goes to work at Fairbanks, I guess he probably saying he could get them from -- in one of those -- there must be an AC Store over in Fairbanks, them days, I guess. AC Store, that's where you-- where he buy seeds. And if he don't get most of his seeds, he would get them from local -- from local white guys like Albert Wise and them, because they are the ones that planted a lot of gardens, too. They always have spares, I guess. They always giving seeds, too.

But anyway, before he plant his garden, about April he would start planting in them boxes, you know. In soil. Plant those, especially those cabbage. And by the time it warms up, ice br-- well, June, June is -- that's when he start planting on the garden. When those guys -- I seen those cabbage, they can grow about that much. And all you had to do was move them right to the -- to the garden.

And fall time, August, September, those cabbage heads grow really big heads when we -- when we get good summers. Carrots, long carrots. And turnips, big turnips. Lettuce. We don't -- only problem is those lettuce, we don't keep them for winter cause they spoil pretty easy, though, it seems like. Cabbage, cabbage last a little longer, though. Like they don't spoil right away. Except turnips and carrots. Well, potatoes, he started planting potato, and like I said a while ago, they grow pretty big, too. They used to be better than store bought stuff, more better to eat, looked like they were more juicy or something.

Eileen Devinney: Does anybody garden here today?

Walter Cook: No. I -- I'm not -- not that I know of. Except for right now there are probably a few people up at

Shungnak or either Kobuk (map), I think they used to do some gardening up there.

Bill Schneider: Let's take a second to see how we're sounding.

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