Eating on the King Salmon

Patrick with his catch!

I have just returned from a month of doing archaeology with the Alutiiq Museum on the King Salmon River in Alaska. Could you eat locally on the King Salmon River, you ask? There is a reason this river got its name: the runs of king (or Chinook) that pass through here on their way to spawn each year. While the runs were small, dig director Patrick Saltonstall was able to catch some for several meals as a fresh alternative to the camp food we normally enjoyed. Patrick cooked the filets on our Coleman stove with Old Bay Seasoning, which made for a delicious treat. Trust me, this ain't your grocery store salmon.

Enjoying king salmon on the King Salmon!

The people who lived on this site more than 1000 years ago probably fished for salmon, captured migrating birds and caribou, and also made use of local plant life. Thanks to Discovering Wild Plants, we were able to identify many usable plants on our landscape. While we were a bit early to eat the abundant cloud berries, we did nibble on fireweed shoots, beach lovage, and watermelon berry leaves, and enjoyed the strong scent of Labrador tea as we walked through the muskeg around camp. I was too afraid to make it into tea after I found out the potential side effects, but it is also quite popular for throwing on the steamy rocks in the banya.

Collecting Labrador tea. It smells like pine and rosemary.

Dr. West in action. Note the "summer" outfit.

Kodiak, Alaska is an amazing place to take advantage of local food sources, but most of these come through subsistence activities: hunting deer, elk, and goat, gathering berries, fishing for halibut and salmon, and storing these foods for the winter. Betty Odell supplied our camp with homemade salmonberry jelly and her very own smoked salmon, which were produced by the berries and fish she and her family harvest on the island. Patrick keeps a lovely garden that flourishes in the short growing season, since local veggies are impossible to buy in the grocery store, and he is a skilled and committed hunter. Enjoying Kodiak elk roast and halibut filets in our Massachusetts kitchen brings a whole new dimension to our local eating pledge!

The beautiful chocolate lily - named for its color, not its taste.
The root can be boiled and ground into a paste or flour, I believe.