“If I’m 14, then you’re 12,” Xinlan says with a laugh, looking at her brother Xiling. They’re sitting outside at Alaska Farm Fresh, one of several new farms on the Kenai Peninsula. Inside the house, a string of blue and red 4-H ribbons hangs on the wall above the kitchen table, where the Tanner siblings do homework. These scenes from the short documentary film, Nourishing the Kenai, released in 2023, highlight the past experiences of two kids learning to balance school, farm work, and the ups and downs of growing their own food.

After an early childhood spent moving around the country with their parents for employment, the brother-sister duo wanted to develop the kinds of relationships that required putting down roots. Their dad Dirk Tanner worked as a traveling physician’s assistant, taking different short-term positions in various locales. Their mom Faye Tanner was a firmware engineer at Intel for years before shifting to remote work in electrical engineering.

Neither parent had farming experience. The kids never even had pets, excluding a crab they found on a beach and kept for a while. Yet the family embarked on a four-month road trip, volunteering as “WWOOFers” (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms) at farms in the Pacific Northwest. Then they landed in Alaska to start their own farm. On the Kenai, they found mentors in local farmer Abby Ala of Ridgeway Farms, and in the nearby intentional community of Ionia.

Xinlan, now 17, and Xiling, 15, recounted their first winter on the 13-acre farm in Kasilof, when the family lived in a camper and hauled their own water from the mercantile. “We used to compete to see whose pillow would freeze to the window the hardest,” Xinlan said. For two shy, homeschooled kids, the Kenai Peninsula’s agricultural scene offered a welcoming social network and support for the steep learning curve of starting a farm in Alaska. Xinlan and Xiling got involved in 4-H. They made friends and soon began to focus the chaos of their new farming life into a few key pursuits: Xinlan began a breeding program with sheep from Kenny Lake in 2018, and Xiling bought and raised turkeys. He credits the 4-H program with coaxing him toward confident relationships with others and even leadership roles.

“We never really had friends,” Xinlan said of their experiences before moving to the Kenai. 4-H helped her learn “how to be part of something bigger than my own family unit.” Agriculture became the common ground they shared with their new friends. Xinlan found her footing and gained confidence in 4-H, soon entering the ranks of district leadership and even mentoring younger 4-Hers who wanted to learn how to breed sheep. Xinlan is currently vice president of the district 4-H board, while Xiling is vice president of the Junior Market Livestock (JML) board, which coordinates the youth livestock auction.

Xinlan and Xiling grew up surrounded by Chinese culture and cuisine. They learned to use all the parts of an animal. As they experienced the hard work of raising animals, this practice of reducing waste blossomed. They often saved the organs of their animals for their grandmother to cook and eat, and they canned their own bone broth. Xiling raised ducks one year to provide meat for the popular dish, Peking duck. Xinlan, the family’s filleter of fish, saved carcasses to boil down with oats and feed to their chickens during the winter months. She didn’t want to waste anything from “all the memories that went into the food.”

Both Xinlan and Xiling speak Chinese, the first language of their mom and their grandmother, who now lives just a few minutes away from them in Kenai. As Farm Fresh Alaska, they sold produce, eggs, and in the winter months, frozen Chinese potstickers and dumplings made with their own meat and veggies. Access to the Anchorage year round market helped them make ends meet as a small farm, and they partnered with a Kenai Peninsula caterer specializing in local food to coordinate bi-weekly grocery and supply runs to the “big city.” At the height of their farm production, they drove with as many as 70 dozen eggs in the back of the truck for each run.

In 2021, Faye and Dirk separated, and Xinlan and Xiling moved to Kenai with their mom. Losing access to the land in Kasilof marked a huge shift in their farming efforts. They left behind three high tunnels, paid for by a USDA grant program, as well as animal pens, outside gardens, and other infrastructure, and the stability— coveted by many beginning farmers—of working their own land.

Xinlan moved her sheep to her friend and business partner’s farm in Nikiski, and now brings her lambs into the garage to bottle feed if something happens to the mother. Xiling got permission from their landlord to raise turkeys during the summer months. They tend a small greenhouse. The siblings relied on skills they had gained during the frequent relocations of their childhood and adapted.

“A turkey’s greatest enemy is itself,” Xiling said. The meat turkeys he raises tend to eat so much so quickly that they’ll choke on their own food. Sometimes Xiling massages the food down their throats. He walks with them to gain their trust; he needs to be able to flip them over during the showmanship competition in August. It’s Xiling’s favorite part of the JML fair, and the time spent with his animals often pays off. He has won multiple showmanship awards.

More changes are in the works. Next fall, Xinlan will study Engineering at MIT in Boston. She plans to sell off her remaining sheep to other 4-Hers or give them to her friend. It has been simpler to “get out” of livestock than she thought it would be. Xiling will be finishing high school and applying to colleges a year early. Though they may not return to Alaska, the siblings see themselves growing their own food again in the future. In the meantime, they’ve worked tirelessly to promote agriculture among other youths in Alaska.

Xinlan and Xiling see that Kenai Peninsula farmers are getting older. They know that many children of farmers don’t want to continue farming, that there is not a lot of profit in it. “Choosing farming as a career is definitely going to be a challenging thing to promote,” Xinlan said. “A lot of young people look down on it, they think it’s some kind of third-rate job. It’s absolutely not.” And there’s a supportive—not competitive—community.

“There’s definitely a stable, growing market for farmers on the Kenai,” Xiling said. He and his sister don’t think enough young people know that.

Their Caring for the Kenai proposal to promote agriculture among youths won third place; Xiling auctioned a turkey and raised over $1,000 for Kenai Local Food Connection (KLFC); Xinlan gueststarred on The Female Farmer Project podcast; the pair created a mobile app for KLFC’s local food directory.

“A lot of our agricultural scene is still based on word of mouth, or pamphlets and posters and stuff, whereas the younger generation is very chronically online,” Xinlan said. She and Xiling wanted to grow the online presence of the local food scene, and they had the technical skills to do it.

They work as contractors for a small web design company. They have put together teams to compete in CyberPatriot’s National Youth Cyber Defense Competition and the National Science Bowl. Recently, their science team won the regional title; together with their teammates and their mom, who is the team’s coach, they will travel to Washington, D.C., to compete at the national level.

Even as they put down roots and took on the challenge of farming in Alaska, the siblings excelled at their studies, particularly in math and science. They noted how these two parts of their lives were sometimes at odds.

“It’s hard to take the fast pace of society and the slow pace of farming and make them mesh together,” Xinlan said. “Sometimes farming is just too slow for people; they want the vegetables now, they don’t want to wait until summer.” She and her brother have seen firsthand the health benefits of locally grown food, and the better taste, and they think everyone else should, too.

“It doesn’t have to be huge,” Xiling said. “Even if you don’t have a giant farm, you could just have a backyard garden and grow some lettuce.” “It’s not something you have to do your whole life, either,” Xinlan added. People can start small. People can learn, as her family has, to have a garden or keep animals. “It doesn’t have to be a full-scale operation by any means, but grow some food and sell your surplus, get into the community. You don’t have to stake your whole life on this thing.”

Those who are too busy can buy local food, and start replacing some of their diet with local ingredients. “We just need everyone to get involved at some level, to some degree,” Xinlan said.

As our conversation waned, I asked Xinlan and Xiling if there was anything they don’t do. There was a pause. “Yeah,” Xinlan said finally. Sometimes, their friends or their mom suggest that they drop something, that it might all be too much. But they insist that they love what they do, love growing food and pursuing math, technology, language, and music.

These remarkable teenagers offer us a clear vision for food security in Alaska: get involved, grow some food, and share with your neighbors.