by Nina | Jul 3, 2015 | From the Sea, Living off the Land
This seems to be a controversial subject in Alaska. Most Alaskans have an opinion on what to do with fish once its come out of the water. Many anglers face the daunting task of dealing with 30 or more salmon after a full day of dipnetting or casting. However once the salmon is caught, it’s imperative that the fish does not sit in water until you get home. If fish is kept in a cooler, make sure the cooler is drained every hour or so to keep the fish from swimming in a murky blood bath. These suggestions for preserving and freezing fish are my best methods along with some tips from old timers and many forum discussions. My method At the fishing hole: 1. After the fish leaves the water, cut the gills to start bleeding the fish. This prolongs the freezing life of the filets. 2. Avoid unnecessary violence. Bruising and bumping the fish will damage its cellular tissue. 3. Keep the fish on ice and protected from seagulls. Make sure the ice melt can drain from the fish. At home or processing site: 1. Rinse the whole fish with fresh water as completely as possible. Waiting to gut until you are home creates more mess but avoids sand in your filet. Gut the fish and remove the bloodline. 2. Filet salmon in your favorite style- I’ll discuss my method in another post. Pin-boning the salmon is easier to do once the fish has been frozen and thawed. – It’s best to minimize the amount of fresh water you expose your fish to. Fresh water will enter... read more
by Emily | May 29, 2015 | From the Garden, Living off the Land, Recipes
When I was little and my mom was harvesting rhubarb she’d cut off all of the leaves and I’d take them and use them as doll-sized umbrellas, or make a little house for mice or fairies using the wide leaves for the roof. My mom’s rhubarb patch is over twenty years old and produces both mammoth stalks and prodigious yield. We’d happily eat rhubarb multiple times a week as most of the time it was fed to us in cobbler or pie form. In fact now that I think about it, rhubarb is one of the first things I can remember being allowed to dice up myself. Rhubarb is a prolific Alaskan garden plant that can be grown in most northern climates. It needs plenty of rain and temperatures that consistently fall below 40°F in the winter. My mom’s secret to an impressive patch is to bury a couple of large starfish or sunstars (hopefully that you found already dead) about a foot and a half under the dirt beside the plants. This will provide fertilization for years to come. To start your own patch you will need root divisions taken from the crown of somebody else’s plant. Put them in the ground in early spring just after the ground becomes dig-able again. Once you have planted your starts, patience will be the name of the game. Don’t pick it for at least the first year (but waiting two-three years is better)! After waiting so long harvesting can be a rewarding experience. Pull your chosen stalk away from the others and using a sharp knife cut at the base of the... read more
by Emily | May 5, 2015 | Foraged, Living off the Land
The year before last my brother and his wife decided that they wanted to start raising chickens. My brother is especially enamored with the idea of being self sufficient, he’s been telling me how much he wants a goat for years now. They built a cute little chicken coop next to their homey cabin on Douglas Island, Alaska and somehow managed to acquire a handful of Transylvanian Naked Neck chickens. They were fairly good egg producers, and from what I was told they provided hours of entertainment to their keepers. One day in spring though, they were sitting in their cabin when all of a sudden they heard a ruckus outside. My brother ran out there and immediately saw their coop was under assault by a wily black bear. Now SE Alaska black bears aren’t necessarily anything to be worried about. Of course they can be aggressive and should be given a wide berth, but for the most part they are about the size of a large Newfie and fairly timid. In this particular case my brother only had to pick up an old snow shovel and shake it a bit and the bear in question took off for the hills. There was however one casualty. The noble chicken Blackavar (Yes named from Watership Down). Somehow the bear had been able to get a hold of him and I don’t know whether the chicken died from a broken neck or maybe just from the sheer terror of getting caught by a large land predator, but Blackavar’s body was undamaged by the bear’s teeth or claws so he seemed in perfect condition... read more
by Nina | Apr 24, 2015 | Living off the Land
It’s trendy, it’s sustainable, it’s what we do up here. It’s the best feeling in the world pulling a crab pot over the side of a boat to discover what sort of creatures crawled in. The feeling of eating the catch fresh that day is close to indescribable. In a sentence, its the way food was meant to be eaten. We hope you will enjoy following us on our stories of life in Alaska and the journey of collecting, hunting, fishing, and growing our... read more
