On eating things

One of the things I love about living in Alaska is the opportunity to gather foods from the wild, or to engage in "subsistence activities," the term used to describe various hunting and gathering activities of Native and rural Alaskans. I haven't gotten into it nearly as much as I've wanted to, although I was downright giddy last fall when we went berry picking. 

The breathtakingly beautiful Monashka Bay

Rainbow and her new favorite possession--a dessicated starfish

More recently, I became aware that fiddleheads, the curled up fronds of young spring plants, are edible. So a couple of weeks ago, on what was pretty much our first warm sunny day in Kodiak, I collected some fiddleheads during a hike at Monashka Bay. I had just enough for a side dish at dinner and yes, it was somewhat time-consuming to wash them, and no, my toddler didn't really eat any, but I felt very proud of myself for providing an interesting--and free!--component to the evening's meal.

I also have grand plans for harvesting seaweed and plan on some serious gathering of salmonberries, blueberries, cranberries, and maybe even mossberries (a.k.a. crowberries). 

More significantly, I have recently made the decision to eat fish. This is a big, big deal for me. I have been vegetarian since I was 12 years old. But I had a freezer filled with salmon and halibut caught my father-in-law in Alaska, a husband willing and able to catch more fish, and a toddler who demonstrated willingness to eat fish, and I had to make a decision. A couple of weeks ago, when we took a trip to the mainland, my husband caught three halibut, and I have to admit I am experiencing an intense sense of satisfaction at the thought that my freezer is full of sustainable, healthy, and hypoallergic (oh, yeah--we also discovered last week that Rainbow has a bunch of food allergies) protein. 

I've never lived any place before where sustainable gathering of wild foods was so possible and common. It was a bit of a surprise that I should come to Alaska--it's the land of igloos, and dog sleds, right? (ha, ha)--for that to happen.