It's Gatherin' Time
It had not been the sunniest of summers in the middle Tanana Valley; now that we are well into fall, it looks like we are in for more wet. Which probably means early snow. Which definitely means I've got a lot of work to do to get ready for winter.
I took the first step by buying an upright freezer. After years of going without, I found that just thinking about continuing to make three or four runs to the grocery store each week to keep Mom in the ice cream that she craves was just wearing me out. Add to that, the fact that each time I go into the store I end up buying stuff I have no business eating, and it's no wonder I'm getting more and more obese.
Then I thought about making three runs a week to the grocery store in the dead of winter and suddenly realized that I needed to make some changes.
That's why we have a brand new 14.1 cu ft capacity upright in the back room. Thank you, Sears.
I got out to do some blueberry picking this year. Not a ton, but enough to have a few fresh handfuls and probably enough to try my hand at blueberry marmalade later on. Into the freezer my little blue treasures went.
They have been followed by some veggies from the garden, a few pierce and poke dinners, homemade soups, a half dozen Cornish game hens, and a few store bought bags of hard to grown here veggies.
Now there's salmon.
Of course, there's a story.
This has been a rough year, people have been dying left, right and sideways. On yet another ride to yet another "celebration of life," a chance comment to our driver led to a convo about proxy fishing. Simply put, in Alaska, once you reach 60, you can get a permanent State of Alaska Department of Fish and Game identification card. Free.
This lovely card means never having to pay for a fishing, hunting or trapping license again. And wait, that's not all!
Once you reach 65, you can fill out some paper work that allows someone else to fish, hunt or trap as your proxy.
I actually knew this, but had completely forgotten about it until that convo. Needless to say, I got my 75 year old mother down to Fins and Feathers the next week to do her paperwork, then started looking around for someone who was going out to fish.
A chance convo led to Mom giving her proxy to Uncle Mort last week, which led to some fresh silvers (Coho salmon) arriving at our front door this weekend. I had also bought a back-up silver at the grocery store ($6 a pound, but the kid at the counter filleted it).
There was no way I could cut up the salmon in our messed up kitchen, so it was out to the driveway with: cutting board, fillet knife, chopping knife, cleaning rag, bleach and plastic bucket. I was dressed in rain gear, 'cause of course, it was raining. It was apparently quite a sight to see this short, round, Black woman in the rain, in front a pile of salmon, bucket full of fish heads at her feet. It certainly got the attention of my neighbor's nephew who rolled up in his huge maroon Ford to see what on earth I was doing out there in the rain.
It's been a while since I filleted out a fish, it took me seriously butchering the first one to get back the muscle memory. But eventually I got 'em done, hauled 'em into the house, vacuum sealed (and labeled, for once) and tucked into the freezer.
Today I tackled the bag of salmon roe that Uncle Mort also gave me. Since I've never made caviar before, I was told by two people that I needed to talk to Kathy Irving. I called her today, and apparently the tundra telegraph is working just fine 'cause she not only knew that I had eggs, she had been waiting for my call.
Since her recipe calls for the application of a racquet ball racquet to get the eggs off the skein, an implement I do not own, I ended up sticking them in her recipe for brine, then putting them in hot water - which I should have done first as it made removing the skein a gazillion times easier. It took forever, but eventually I got most of the membrane removed and have about 3 pounds of tiny little red jewels firming up in the fridge. Will can them tomorrow, and put cream cheese on the grocery list.
I still have a lot of work to do: I've got a garden to clean out, lots of garden veggies to put up, more people to talk to about getting more fish, and more bulk shopping. I figure I have about two more weeks to get our freezer stocked to extent that will make things easier. In the meantime, I will be constantly washing dishes, cooking, cleaning and giving the vacuum sealer a work-out.
And sometime, in the depths of February, I will rest comfortably knowing - nope, don't have to go to the store at -40 Below.
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