It’s been a while since I’ve been inspired by a video on food and sustainability, but I stumbled across this video the other day, and I have to say, I was impressed. It’s a perfect mix of humor, philosophy, and knowledge concerning growing/raising one’s own food. The video outlines slaughtering a pig and the products one can make (blood sausage, head cheese, pate, etc) from the offal of the pig. Enjoy.

On The Anatomy Of Thrift: Harvest Day from farmrun on Vimeo.

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I’ve always wondered about making salmon caviar. I love tobiko and other fish eggs on my sushi, and every time I’ve thrown a skein of roe into the river as I cleaned my salmon, I wondered it I was, in fact, throwing away an edible part of the fish.

This year, I met a woman originally from Russia on the banks of the Copper River. She talked to us about making salmon roe caviar and my interest was piqued. Upon further research at home, I discovered that the UAF Cooperative Extension Service actually published a guide to making salmon caviar. I followed their recipe both times I made it, but there are much fancier recipes out there I’d like to try.

Below is the process of making the caviar.

Place a 3/8″ piece of wire mesh over a bowl.

Rub the skein of eggs over the wire mesh. This will separate the individual eggs from the skein tissue.

You’ll be left with a bowl full of eggs and the empty skein. Discard the skein tissue.

Eggs separated the skein.

Add 1/2 cup of salt to 2 cups of water.

Add eggs to the brine for about ten minutes.

Take the eggs out of the brine and rinse with cold water.

Refrigerate. The eggs will keep for about two weeks. They taste fantastic with cream cheese, crackers, and chives. They’re also great on scrambled eggs!

In terms of taste, the eggs are almost entirely tasteless. I would argue they simply taste “salty, fresh, and rich.” More than anything, they  add texture, color and richness to whatever you are serving, and they seem to be very versatile.

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This summer has been a busy one, and while I have many things to write about here, I simply have not been able to slow down long enough to actually write. (Look soon for posts on making birch syrup, making salmon caviar, milling lumber with a chainsaw and more!) In the meantime, I decided to make my first little “how-to” video. I went out with the boys and picked 10 lbs of red currants the other day to make my annual batch of currant-raspberry mead. I was dreading cleaning all those berries, then a simply idea dawned on me. (See video below.)

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