Hunting and Gathering

Last week, the salmon started running. It's that time of year: time to return to the rivers and streams of their birth to lay eggs and start the cycle anew. You know when it's time for the salmon to run when you see them jumping out of the water. We've seen a lot of this, since we spend almost everyday out on the Sitka Sound. No, those fish are not leaping for joy because it's time to make babies. They are jumping out of the water and slapping down on their sides to break up their egg sacks. A friend recently told me a helpful visualization to understand what's going on here. Think of a bag of frozen peas. The salmon's egg sacks are like bags of frozen peas. When it's time to get cooking, you have to whack the bag against the kitchen counter a few times to break up the ice. Well that's what the salmon are doing.
Every morning (or at least every morning that I'm able to get out of the house a few minutes early) I walk through Totem Park on my way to work so that I can see if the salmon have made it up Indian River. Last week, we noticed that some Pink Salmon were hanging out near the mouth of the river. Skeeter, and many others in the neighborhood, like to go fishing there at low tide because the salmon get really thick in the shallow water. Some people like to use this opportunity to "snag" a few fish. They cast a line and then reel it in very fast to try to snag an unfortunate fish anywhere on the body. A lot of serious fisherman look down on this method. I've seen quite a few salmon swimming by with little chunks missing, a narrow escape from a snagging hook. Skeeter caught a few and cooked some up for us. It was delicious. And not only that, it was probably one of the healthiest meals I've ever had. Wild fish are much healthier than farmed fish; full of Omega-3 fatty acids.
Everyday the salmon get farther up stream. This morning, the river was thick with them. I'm told that it gets even more crowded. And stinky.

Those little gray blurs are salmon!
Also, today was my day off. My coworker Dana and I had planned to kayak out to a "secret spot" to harvest sea asparagus. It looks like tiny asparagus and it tastes salty. I've added it to stir fry and omelets, but I've never harvested it myself. We planned to wake up early and get out there during low tide (8:30 am today.) Alas, the weather was not cooperating this morning. So we went blueberry picking instead!
Here's Dana with her dog Bailey:

 It was raining on and off. We were both wearing rain pants, rain jackets and our Xtra-tuf boots. There's no trail, so we knew we'd get soaking wet walking through the wet bushes and woods. There were loads of blueberries. At one point, Bailey started barking. We backtracked to the car and waited to make sure there wasn't a bear. They have been pretty active lately. The salmonberries did not fruit like they normally do, and the salmon are a little late. They are hungry. Here's a shot of the warning sign posted at Totem Park:

 There has been some bear scat on the trail and a few days ago, someone saw a bear in the park. But this doesn't keep people from walking there dogs, jogging, or passing through. "Relax. This ain't the lower 48."
Bailey came back to us and we didn't see, hear, or smell a bear so we moved on to another spot. We spent a couple hours picking and chatting. It was great. I think that a long time ago, some of my ancient female ancestors were probably doing the same thing: foraging for food and socializing with girlfriends.
When our bags were full, we went back to Dana's. She is freezing her blueberries and when she has 9 lbs, she's going to make blueberry wine. (We went to a wine making class last week.) I decided to make blueberry crumble and save a few for oatmeal and yogurt. I road my bike back home to begin sorting through my berries:

Alison and Dana both warned me that wild blueberries usually get teeny tiny grub worms, so you have to decide: just eat them or soak your berries in water to make the worms come out. I'm not too concerned about eating them; they're full of protein right? I pulled off the ones I could see. And I figure the rest will get sterilized when I bake them in the oven. (Relax. This ain't the lower 48.)
I collected 5 cups of berries, enough to fill an old yogurt container.

 And I used the recipe from the Moosewood Cookbook to make the crumble. I cut the recipe in half:
Put about 2 cups of blueberries in a baking dish and sprinkle with 1/3 cup of sugar
Crumble:
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup oats
1/8 cup brown sugar (I just eyeballed this one)
1/4 cup melted butter (1/2 a stick)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
Put the crumble mixture on top of blueberries and pat down
Bake for about 30 minutes at 375 degrees.
Yummy

Cheers!