Fending for Ourselves

Part of the mentality of living in Alaska, even in Anchorage, is that you not only can but should depend on the land for part of your food. The most frequently seen manifestation of this is state residents who take advantage of their right to catch up to (depending on the stock) 20 salmon per member of the household using a dipnet. Think pulling goldfish outof the bait tank with an aquarium net, but big salmon from a river with a 42" net. People use this limit to catch enough salmon to eat all year round.

While some fishing has been done by members of this household (nonresident limits are stricter, licenses more expensive, and we have to use poles), we have been enjoying the gathering component of Alaska's fend-for-yourself culture. Kirsten and Soren have become avid berry pickers. Unlike in New England, where we wouldn't feel comfortable harvesting from public land, the expectation in Alaska is that you will harvest (for personal consumption) from public berry bushes. There's even a part of a trail at a local state park known as Blueberry Hill where you can see lots of folks with buckets.

A couple weeks ago, we took a local wild berry learning tour. We learned to identify raspberries, blueberries, highbush cranberries, red currants, and watermelon berries (watermelon-shaped red berries that taste like watermelon), as well as some berries you don't want want to pick.

Our best resource is a medium-sized patch of raspberries along a little-used access path to the heavily used Coastal Trail bike path that is only a block from our house. Kirsten has cruised down there many evenings and filled a yogurt container for use with dessert. Soren has learned to pick them, too, and cannot pass by the path without heading to the patch for some berries. He actually can identify the berries and pull them off the plant...it's funny to watch his clumsy fingers grasping the delicate berries. Unfortunately, he's less discriminating about finding the ones that are actually ripe (and, in other places, he goes for any red berry, including those he shouldn't eat).

We're up to half a fish, a cup of blueberries and about eight quarts of raspberries, all of which have been delicious.