Fall Ponderings

CANNERS UNITE. After my story of panic, an unbelievable number of you wrote in with similar anecdotes, most ending in victory, of canning everything from apricots to salmon. Who knew?!? Sue in Chicago. Brad in San Fran. Jade in Hood River. Karen back from Europe. Rachael about to be married. All of you and more share the common bond of forcing mashed food into cylinders to eat another day! And it appears that you LOVE it! I am honored and somewhat skeptical to be joining this diverse and dedicated crew. Honestly though, thank you for your inspiration... Look out high bush cranberries, I'm a canner.

AUTUMN. Is here. Complete with falling leaves, pumpkin donuts at the Moose is Loose, fireweed whispies, and cool, crisp days. As some of you might remember from the blog last year around this time, autumn in our parts is pretty short lived; Alaska likes to showcase summer and winter, and then fall and spring get the short end of the stick. So unlike New Hampshire and Oregon where you get plenty of time to admire the foliage and visit various u-pick gourd farms, we have about 2 weeks to pack in the fall festivities and then it's time to bust out the snowshoes and the Christmas lights. Here are some glimpses into our attempt to live it up while we can!

No snow on the trail, yet.

Where's the snow? (Don't worry, he found some...)

High alpine color.

Fireweed seeds!

A good one!

Not a good one (but boy is it pretty!).

Couldn't help but collect a few 'shrooms on my ride! It's an addiction.

The epically fun game of leaf catching.

Sunset fishing (not catching) for Silver salmon on the Kenai.

Fresh-picked raspberry muffin making.

A really good deal - the neighbors took advantage!

MEAT. Today I had the following conversation with my dad on the phone:

"Guess what we had for dinner last night, Dad."

"Salmon?"

"No. Think a little higher on the food chain..."

"King Crab?"

"Umm, I think that's lower on the food chain. Well, I guess it depends on how you think about it... Anyway, we had black bear."

"Good God! (pause) What was it like?"

I went on to explain how we'd gotten the bear meat from our neighbor; he had just returned from a week-long moose hunting venture and, finding no one at his home, stopped by our house to share in his excitement. He had successfully gotten a moose, but had also gotten a black bear. Apparently his little family hunting cabin closer to the mountains has frequent bear visitors, so he was smart and tried for  both a moose tag and a bear tag on the off chance that he would get super lucky. ("Stayed up all night to get lucky..." Gotta love a little Daft Punk amidst a hunting story.) FYI, a tag is the hunting license one needs to legally take down a particular animal. There is a lottery for geographic areas with a limited number of tags given out for a season. Well, super lucky he was. And a few hours later he knocked on the door again with a bag full of meat - a "filet mignon" cut of bear. Wow. Our dear neighbors back in Oregon would deliver vegan cupcakes... this was different.

I've found myself thinking really hard about black bears since the meal, more than I've ever thought about a cow or a chicken or a fish. Mind you, our family used to celebrate "Vegan Wednesdays" when we ate no animal products on that day of the week for more than a year. J and I figured that if our family of three did that, it was almost like we were half a vegan! It was an eco-friendly, ethical-friendly choice. But also hypocritical - "Bacon Saturday" and "Butter Thursday through Tuesday" pretty much canceled out the deal. So I guess you could consider us food agnostics; we are aware of the choices out there but have yet to settle on the best one for us.

Back to the bear... This animal was wild and alive two days ago. A big mammal, like me, exploring the forest and getting ready for winter. The times that I have seen a bear in the wild it has taken my breath away. Something about knowing that our natural places can still support such large animals... that there are still the wild spaces and intact food webs and genetic hardiness to handle our changing world. Amazing. And in stark contrast with this wonder is the fact that I ate one. Like I said, I'm still thinking about it quite a bit. I am thankful to have moments like this to give me pause. To make me excruciatingly mindful of something so simple as eating a meal. To make me consider my place in the world and my actions. And as I sit and think, black bear "left overs" sit in our fridge. What an odd thing.