Wild Harvest
How to Make Birch Syrup
With winter quickly melting away, the trees are just beginning to swell in preparation for spring. That can only mean one thing: time to make birch syrup.
We made birch syrup for the first time last year and tapped 10 …
Reflections from the trapline
The woods after the first snowfall have a distinctive sound. The world becomes quieter, and any remaining sound is muffled, as though filtered through cotton. It’s in this new silence that I find myself snowshoeing through the trees. My headlight …
Thoughts on the gardening season (2013)
We just pulled the last of the potatoes and carrots out of the garden today, and I figure its time to reflect on this year’s growing season. 2013 was one of the nicest summers in recent memory. We received a …
An inspiring video
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 …
How to Make Salmon Roe Caviar
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 …
Caribou Summer Sausage
My brother and I had a terrific hunt last fall where we were both lucky enough to harvest a caribou. Because we harvested big bulls, and it was after the rut, we decided to make most of the meat into …
A hunt to remember
This past weekend my brother Mark and I traveled 250 miles north to hunt caribou. We haven’t been hunting on a multi-day trip since high school, so it was fortunate that we were able to hunt together after many years. Below is the …
Spring Greens
A harvest from the garden is still a while off, but we’ve been eating fresh greens for about twoweeks now. Fireweed is edible when it’s young. Harvest the plants right after they emerge from the ground when they still look …
Moose summer sausage
This weekend my brother and I made 55 lbs of moose summer sausage. Below are my notes and a little bit about the process:
We made two batches of summer sausage. The first was mixed 50/50 with pork shoulder. The second …