It's Harvest Time!

2010-10-03T22:04:00.005-08:00

Actually it started in August with the ripening blueberries. Then came the currants, the raspberries, highbush cranberries and lingon berries (called lowbush cranberries in Alaska), - each variety becoming ripe in their turn.

There is something supremely satisfying about collecting those colorful orbs of juiciness. Not just collecting, but cleaning and freezing, or canning them, and baking them into delicious breads, cakes, and other goodies. I have to admit I take some pride in the way those jewel-colored jars of jellies and jams line up on my shelves!

While Griz is out hunting moose or caribou in this crisp fall air I am content to sit on a hummocky mound of earth and pick berries. There is a sense that all is right with the world when you can sit amongst such beauty and know that you are also gathering food that will help sustain you through the long winter ahead. It is no wonder that so many obituaries (yeah - I read 'em) - of Alaska Native women list berry picking as one of their favorite activities.

Here's a little bit about some of my berries...

BLUEBERRIES (sp. vaccinium) There are several varieties of blueberries in Alaska - none of them like the big round bushes my relatives have in their Lower 48 backyard. There are bog blueberries, alpine blueberries and a couple of other kinds too. I pick the alpine variety. Now, you would think that with a name like "alpine" I'd have to climb a mountain to find them - and you would be right in some locations. But you can also find alpine plants by going north. It is the cool (ok cold) temperatures that cause the plants to grow low and close to the ground, the leaves turning a brilliant red as the fall progresses. So when I talk about sitting on the ground to pick blueberries - now you know why. Some people use a metal rake-like berry picker, but I have found them to be destructive to the plants, and result in a lot of sticks and leaves in your berry bucket. I prefer to sit quietly and handpick. It may be slower, but it is nicer in so many ways.

Blueberries are good for you! Rich in antioxidants, they are one of the "super foods". They are good for your memory, (I can't remember why), and have anti-cancer properties. I like to eat them raw. I usually eat a lot when I'm out picking and return with the purple stained mouth to prove it! I love fresh blueberries with my homemade yogurt and granola in the morning.

CURRANTS (sp. Ribes triste) The Northern Red Currant is my favorite, and the most plentiful around here, although we also have black currants and bog currants - (all edible). I think ripe currants are beautiful - red, shiny and translucent, hanging in groups - like fish on a stringer. It is easy to pick handfuls at a time. They are pretty tart, but the riper they are, the sweeter they taste. And they make a jelly of the most beautiful color!

RASPBERRIES ( ) We are lucky that we have some wild raspberries growing in sunny spots nearby. The berries themselves are smaller, and not as sweet as the domesticated variety I brought from town. I think the two types are starting to creep into each other's territory though, so we have some weird, (but delicious), hybrid berries. They are ripe when they are a deep, translucent ruby red, and they come off easily when grasped by my fingers. Picking raspberries is a "thorny" issue around here. My raspberry patch is quite overgrown, which means the "pathways" I imagined when I planted it have virtually disappeared. So I scoot in wherever I can find a way to get to every last one of those beautiful bundles of flavor! It is not enough to just stand upright and pick - lots of raspberries hang out under the leaves, and aren't visible until I bend down and look from a different angle. Needless to say, this results in some prickles in some uncomfortable places!

HIGH BUSH CRANBERRIES ( ) The bushes are often mistaken for currants before flowering, but high bush cranberries are actually very different. For one thing, they are quite bitter. The berries don't hang in bunches the way currants do, and they ripen a bit later. Some people actually make jelly out of them, but I usually make a catsup that is good with game meat. It is high bush cranberries that put that "fall" smell in the air here in the north country.

LOW BUSH CRANBERRIES ( ) The actual name is Lingon Berry but I don't know anyone that calls them that. Don't think that these "cranberries" are like those big ones from Massachusetts you buy in plastic bags at the grocery store, although the taste is similiar. These small, deep maroon jewels grow in beautiful green carpets, low to the ground - usually in mossy areas. Sometimes the spruce hens beat me to them, which is always a big disappointment because I love to make cranberry sauce, and cranberry bread, and steamed pudding with cranberries, and..., and...., and.... Oh, so many possibilities!

Stay tuned for my next post of berry recipes!

Where are we and how did we get here?

2010-09-08T22:21:00.006-08:00

It had always been a dream of my husband's and mine to live in remote Alaska, (the bush). Something attracted us to living in a remote and beautiful place, where we had to depend on ourselves for so many day-to-day things. We spent quite a bit of time searching for a place all over the state of Alaska. We looked at the isolated, tree-covered islands of Southeast, at the towering mountains of the Brooks Range, at the windswept Arctic and all over the Interior. Finally we found our spot! It is surrounded by mountains, on a lake, with a big river nearby. Down the river about 25 miles is a small village of about 100 people.

We have neighbors - but most of them are animals. No, really! There are bear and moose and caribou, wolves, foxes, hares, weasels and squirrels. We also have some human neighbors. Not too close by. (In the bush when someone lives 5 miles away they are your neighbors). We love our neighbors, animal and human, and for the sake of all of them I am not going to be any more specific than that about where we live. I hope you understand.

We have been here about 5 years now. Long enough to learn that there is a lot we don't know. But also long enough to have taught us a thing or two, some of which I hope to share here. We have weathered long cold dark nights and brilliant hot and sunny days. We have explored our new surroundings until they feel like home. We love it here and we wouldn't want to be anywhere else.

My Wilderness Life

It's Harvest Time!

Where are we and how did we get here?