It’s spring and spruce tips are out. You can use them in jelly, spring tonics, gin and tonics, spruce salt, spruce sugar, spruce bud infused vinegar and pickled spruce buds. Captain Cook, the original maritime health blogger, had his men brew spruce beer to prevent scurvy. Charlie Papazian gives a […]
Yearly Archives: 2018
52 posts
“I’d like to know how my meat became cooked, how it was processed, who cut it up.” Kotzebue middle school student, from ‘Eating Alaska’ Sitka film maker Ellen Frankenstein’s documentary Eating Alaska* cuts right to the core of how we think, and don’t think, about where our food comes from; […]
“I saw a wino eating grapes. I was like, “Dude! You got to wait.”” Mitch Hedberg In the official world of disaster planning getting a buzz on just doesn’t show up on the agenda. In the most hammered country in the history of the world you’d think it would be […]
Here are two seasonal breads that are always welcome at a solstice potluck or as drive-by gifts. Both include sourdough which gives a subtle flavor and changes consistency in a way that’s hard to describe but noticeable. I made them for years without sourdough so no worries if you don’t […]
A Christmas present arrived at our house a few years ago in early December. It wasn’t a package, it was a phone call from my brother who said, “You’ve got to watch this movie. It changed the way I think about Christmas.” I did watch that movie and I tell […]
Dies Natalis Solis Invictus “Birthday of the Unconquered Sun.” December 21st is the shortest day of the year in the north. Tonight’s an auspicious one, with a full moon and meteor showers. In Juneau we’ll get 6 hours, 22 minutes of daylight. At 1:22 p.m. there’s a celestial pause then […]
… a car stops and the rich mill owner’s lazy wife leans out and whines: “Giveya two bits for that ol tree.” Ordinarily my friend is afraid of saying no; but on this occasion she promptly shakes her head: “We wouldn’t take a dollar.” The mill owner’s wife persists.” A […]
I originally wrote Plant a Week as a resource for children and parents of the Juneau Community Charter School. Generally we’d have a sample of the weekly plant and talk about it in class on Fridays. That afternoon the write-up went home with the kids in the school newsletter. They […]
“It’s so easy to dream, of the days gone by, it’s so hard to think of the times to come. But the grace to accept each moment as a gift, is a gift that is given to some.” Thanksgiving Eve by Bob Franke.* On the fourth Wednesday in November […]
When was the last time you went a whole day without hearing or seeing anything negative? What would it be like to move unhurried with no ‘breaking news’ at all for weeks or months on end and trace a thousand mile arc where, most of the time, you were your […]
Cases of canned fish and a full freezer are wonderful things in fall but spring, being the season of renewal, is a time to draw down the larder in anticipation of re-stocking with fresh salmon. We try to pace our supply to run out in early June. In years when […]
Remember a few years ago when one of the local chain stores in Juneau tried selling Atlantic farmed salmon from down south? Oh, the hue and cry of public outrage. So they stopped. We should marshal that activism to put the brakes on firewood that comes from Outside. Forests all […]