We are well into berry season now

Here is some wonderful guidance for a world full of wonders.

Given to us by Adrienne Blatchford.



Alaska friends, some reminders for people that are picking berries and foraging plants on Indigenous land. I share these because First people have been great cultivators since time immemorial, leaving little to no footprint and have maintained a healthy eco-system while doing so. Please honor the lands where ever you are as if they were the lands your Ancestors have turned to dust and become a part of.



•Before you head out, never say I'm going to get....or catch...or pick lots....say I'm hopeful. I hope that we are blessed with a bountiful harvest or catch. We have a spiritual symbiotic relationship with the land, waters and what they provide, they hear your spirit. We are taught not to be boastful about the bounties from the land.



•be prepared. Bring a snack, water, bug repellent, your protection, whether it be a gun, knife or big animal spray, a big garbage bag just incase there is downpour.

•always let someone know where you are going. Alaska is a vast land of many different terrains. If you go missing, we need to know where to look for you.



•Dress for the weather.



•Say a quick prayer for guidance and protection. If you happen to run into a big animal, remind yourself not to be scared. They smell fear. Talk to it and let it know you're feeding your family. NEVER RUN! Slowly walk backwards. If it starts to approach you, offer your berries and show it your amaks, your breasts. Lots of stories behind it, sounds crazy, but it works.

•if you don't know what it is, don't pick it.

•leave the easily accessible berries and plants (close to the road, trail and bottom of the hill) for elders and folxs who are not as physically able as you.

•people are going to disagree and argue with me, but I was taught that berry combs are not for blueberries, but for cranberries and blackberries. Blueberries are perennials and have fragile branches while blackberries and cranberries are evergreen branches and much sturdier.

•dont pick all the berries or plants in one patch. We have been taught to leave some behind for the birds and animals who help us ensure the seeds are spread and plants and berries return.

•if there is only one flower, plant or just a few berries in a patch, leave them and move on to the next place.

•thank the berries and plants as you harvest them. Let them know you are nourishing your body or using them for medicine, feeding your family, helping elders. They hear you and will come back to offer themselves. That symbiotic relationship again. Permission and consent. They give themselves to you. Your good luck (weird word) will continue to also be bountiful when you respect the land and what is given to you.



•leave a small offering before or when finished with your harvest, different areas practice this. A bead, tobacco, a piece of candy, a rock. Something to let the others out there know you are thankful for their guidance, the land your appreciation for your offering from them. We stick it under the tundra or a rock, lots of stories around that too.

•if you bring in trash, haul it out. You wouldn't just leave trash laying around your yard or throw it out anywhere. Our Mother earth is hurting enough already. The places you go that have wild sustainable resources can only stay that way if we take care of them.

•watch your surrounding while you are out. Listen for the Anaqtiiyuuqs, the raven. They will alarm you before you see a big animal. If they start squawking, its time to go, NOW! If the swallow start flying high, the rain is coming. If you get lost, ask a raven where to go. It will guide you back to safety.



•watch where you're walking. When you break the branches of the berry bushes, they aren't coming back. When you disturb the tundra, you are changing the ecosystem. The moss and other plants also have that symbiotic relationship with each other, and your steps can interrupt the root systems.

•If you're on the bogs, make sure you stay on the tussocks (mounds of grass) You never know how deep the water is in between. Some are like black holes.

•never follow a person if you see someone in the distance that you don't know. They're calling for your spirit.

•if someone that is transparent and floating approaches you and asks for water, take off your shoe or boot and fill it with water and offer it to the person without making eye contact. If you're not wearing shoes, pretend you are, or use your bucket. It is someone who has succumbed to the elements and is wandering. They have the ability to take you with them to wander if you make eye contact. Take it how you want, but I honour our stories and instructions when we encounter these things.

•if you don't know how deep the water is, don't go into it, especially if you are alone.

•have fun. Make the best of your time on the land while you reset your internal clock.



•make sure you share a portion of your first harvest with an elder or single parent household or with someone who has a hard time getting on the land. When you help take care of our community, it will take care of you.

Good Eats

I have a backlog of food photos to share! I have organized them by meal.

Breakfasts

Omelette with turkey, bell peppers, onions, and tomatoes, topped with queso fresco and chives from the garden:


The breakfast the morning after taco night, with leftover guacamole and pico de gallo:


Yum! My love of pico de gallo is why I always keep my knives razor-sharp.

Huevos rancheros, with black beans, salsa from a jar, and cilantro from the garden (and of course queso fresco because what is life without cheese?):


Lunches

Grilled cheese and tomatoes!


Oh I guess that's it for lunches. They are a bit less interesting...

Suppers

Guacamole and pico de gallo in the making!


Now everything is ready for tacos!


Heating tortillas and beans:


Pan-frying the fish (this is cod, but I also do this with rockfish and halibut):


Oh dang I never photographed our actual tacos. Oh well.

OK here is moosey noodle soup with collard greens:


Here are crabcakes!


We had crab legs for DL's birthday dinner, and the Best Thing in the World to do with leftover crab is crabcakes! I thought of the perfect thing to go with crabcakes; this potato salad that has green beans!


A perfect meal!


Here are roast veggies, from the least exciting veggies from our CSA: red beets, yellow beets, and kohlrabi. I added olive oil, salt, and thyme from my garden:


They came out... okay. How exciting can roast veggies be?


A fine thyme was had by all.

This is chicken and peanut stew:


The recipe hails from Ghana. I learned about it on the underside of a peanut butter jar. I had forgotten that it calls for sweet potatoes, so didn't buy any. I substituted yellow potatoes and carrots. It is topped liberally with cilantro:


It's absolutely delicious, and it inspired me to order a Ghana cookbook. I wonder what else they eat in Ghana!

Dessert

My rhubarb is going nuts, as usual, so I got some strawberries to make a classic strawberry rhubarb pie. That combination is just so magical. The syrup that comes out is like ambrosia. Well, I got lazy and didn't feel like making a pie, so I stewed the berries and rhubarb with sugar and lemon juice to make a simple compote:


It had the same magical flavor as a pie filling, without me having to make a pie!


Here is an obligatory photo of my faithful kitchen supervisors:


The fireweed is juuuuuuust starting to bloom. They don't look so vivid pink in the rain:

Notes from here and there

So far, the weather this summer has been lovely. Not too hot, not too cool; sunny days alternating with rainy days; and not many fires and clean, crisp air. I'm very grateful!

Blueberries are appearing now, and they are huge and brilliant blue! But I sampled a few, and they are still sour. The sugar will develop in a week or so.

These raspberries are ripe though, and they grow wild in our yard!


Every dog has her comfy. Cricket loves to sunbathe:


Thistle prefers to hang out inside, so she gets squozen:


Here I am pulling pin bones out of a salmon fillet with needle-nosed pliers!


I am wearing a kuskpuk, an Alaska Native garment that is very practical, with a huge front pocket and a hood. Traditionally, these were made with marine mammal gut and worn over a parka in wintertime to keep the parka clean. Nowadays, they are made of light cotton and nice in summertime as a bug shield. The hood has quite a bit of overhang over your face, so it’s very effective! I also used to wear a kuspuk on airplanes before covid came along and I quit going on airplanes. The hood is a defense mechanism from chatty seatmates, and the pocket is perfect for your boarding pass, a packet of tissues, a hanky, hand sanitizer, a lip balm, and a small bottle of hand lotion since airports are so dry! Now it’s a good garment for a post-covid world. You can pull the hood over your head to protect against potential sneeze juices, and keep hand sanitizer in the front pocket. Then it’s easy to pull off and throw right into the laundry hamper when you get home.

Thistle supervises fishy handlings very closely! She has not yet learned that she doesn’t get raw fishy! She only gets cooked fishy!


Speaking of laundry, we quit going to the laundromat since the ‘Rona, and I handwash clothes in a tub. I used to stand in the tub and wash clothes with my feet (like ancient Greeks making wine, said MK). But then I found this thing at Samson's Hardware, which is a very old-fashioned hardware store here in Fairbanks. They are the only place you can find things like an old-fashioned manual clothes agitator, stovetop pressure cookers, hand-forged tools, giant cast iron dutch ovens, and other things of that nature.


My current leisure reading is very Of the Moment:

The most miniscule of things

bumblebees on delphiniums!

I was only trying to photograph the bumblebees, but look how lovely the delphiniums look in this light!







Here is a kerflop photo:


And a wolfing-down-their-supper photo:


Sweet Thistle:

Bees!

Like gardening and keeping chickens, beekeeping seems to be a growing hobby nowadays, not just in Fairbanks but all over the U.S. I have several neighbors who keep bees, and it's always a pleasant surprise to see honeybees in my yard.

Honeybees are not native to Fairbanks, and most people who keep bees expect them to die every fall when temperatures drop. This is not as heartbreaking as it sounds; apparently bees don't in general live very long. UAF has done some research on whether it's possible to overwinter bees, but I'm not sure the status of that project now.

Our only native bees are big fuzzy bumbles, which I love!

Yesterday, I caught this one on the delphiniums, with a friend:


Does anyone know what the one on the left is? It has a fuzzy sweatshirt on and no pants, just like a honeybee, but it is colorblock yellow and black instead of stripes!

Here are more photos of the delphiniums, which are wild. Domesticated delphiniums also do well here, and are more beautiful. But these wild ones are worth all of the effort I put in to grow them, which is none.




Queen Thistle surveying her domain:


Here is a great article on the bear dogs that are keeping the firefighters safe from bears!

Also, also! Look at this Schweetie. Newtok, a beloved neighborhood dog, is getting more and more pets and visits as his cancer progresses. Go gently, Newtok.