Waiting for them to fall

 Another step in the year of food preservation... what excites me almost more than these blueberries? We got a deep freezer! translation = hand picked food for the winter & no more booby traps set as we open our months stuffed small indoor freezer. I recently brought back fish from my month up north and had just about pushed the three shelved wonder out of commission. but no more.

Often I'm asked "how do you like Corvallis?" my response 7 months ago was very different than it is today. It is like a bit of a treasure box. you have to keep your eyes open and that is when you start to find all the secrets. The day I got home T send me out back to our patio and told me to look around..... Nothing other than confusion. "take two steps forward and look down" still confusion. "look harder." what sat there but a small red round ball. "pick it up and eat it" T told me. It was a wee plum. Our tree out back had started to fruit these amazingly tasty little bits of yumminess. About twice a day we go out and are greeted by 10 new plums that are perfectly ripe and sweet which have made their way from the high branches. We look like monkeys outside collecting them. Even the dogs are getting down on the action. We joked last night that we have 5 competitors for the goods. I'm a pretty savvy one, I even monkeyed my way up the tree in my dress and shook the branches until I got so entangled I was forced back to the ground or would have donated my dress to the tree as a peace offering. I guess I'm impatient.

Saturday found C and I at a organic pick your own blueberry patch just a few miles from my house. I'd never seen it before. In 45 minutes we had managed something like 20 lbs of blueberries. The giant berries were literally falling off the bushes. We continued our weekend excursion to a few local wineries. Many out here are family owned and located on a farm of sorts. They are just lovely. We debated trying to visit all the Oregon ones in the next year to come but were quickly shut down by the realization that there are over 450. We'd really be lushes. C picked up a winery tour map and we've compromised our original plan to hitting up a few in each location. A more manageable endeavor. The day continued to a friends house to try their newest home brew experiment. "We gave this one a protein rest" they happily explained. Oh how I love living amongst fellow scientists!

C later helped me sort and clean the berries which Sunday operations turned them into freezer packs, dehydrated berries and jars of goodness. T even put up some heady jars of pickles. We've realized once the canner is up and going we best make the most of it. It turns into quite the kitchen process. The experimental batch; a blueberry, plum and honey compote. I have a gut feeling I will be happy with it come December on waffles. 

For my birthday last year my cousin gave me a book called "the complete book of home preserving." I LOVE this book. It has served as a great reference guide to modern canning. Not only does it cover the basics but it also offers new and fun ideas to putting up everyday fruits and vegis. Highly recommended to my fellow crunchy friends out there. I was blessed with growing up in a family that never put down this art. I can remember from a very young age "beet time." you could tell it was summer when the baskets were full of beets and zucchini from the garden and the kitchen smelled of fresh cut vegis and vinegar. This past time has now followed me into adulthood, my mother donating her canning pot to my Oregon efforts. to those who have a desire to learn- there is nothing better than opening up your own jar of jam on freezing cold day of winter and remembering how warm and lovely it was outside the day you put it up.

Place

Left at Glenallen. The trucks pulling trailers and boats are lined up waiting a turn at the $4.00 a gallon gas pumps. No more gasoline until Tok. The weather has begun to change at a rapid pace over the last month; autumn is here. The sun’s path lower each day in the sky. The air is brisk and dew settles in the early mornings. The birds begin the migration. Life is south. Closing chapters and open new ones. My years scattered with snow and starry nights only to be followed a few months later by dark-less skies. I have never in my life seen the stars more brilliant than at 20 below in the depths of the Eagle River Valley in the dead of winter. The mossy grounds and evergreen trees. Fireweed flowers; did you know they will tell you when summer is over? Bears and native villages. Science and Imagination. Extra tuff boots and down jackets. Boats and bush planes, wild food, sled dogs and beards, mountains that touch the sea, My Alaska.

When autumn comes to the north, the earth takes on a new smell, maybe it is the smell of tired, or maybe just that last kick before rest. This is the smell that comes with the falling of the leaves, of moving salmon, of color change, of berries just after their prime, it is the smell of rain that is at the brink of freezing.

My heart has taken on the consistency of emotional gumbo. Gratitude for the experiences, the places, the people, the lifestyle. Pain for what I am leaving behind and curiosity and anxiety about what lay beyond. Alaska received my whimsical quest for the unknown and proved far from disappointment. Alaska is this (words taken from my leo observer): It is more than a place, it is the giant when you speak to an Alaskan. At the bar, you better leave a stool for Alaska, it takes up a large one. Have not one beer waiting for Alaska, you should always have three. Alaska in not Alaska it is ALASKA. This is the place that you come to visit and never leave. A place so rich in life and wilds that it I hard to imagine being anywhere else. Those actually FROM ALASKA are of rare breed, but some of the best people I will ever meet. As for the rest of us, life is counted in terms of winters. My count is two, I am still a tenderfoot. Up here, only 3 real places exist in the U.S; Alaska, Hawaii and the lower 48. What else would matter? Life is simpler here, maybe a bit slower pace. People walk to their own beat- Where else would your neighbor build a giant Noah’s Ark out of an old fishing boat? Where else do directions only depend upon two roads; the glenn and the seward. Where else do avalanches block every possible road out only to provide the most amazing ski day. Where the northern lights dance in the sky. Where March brings out the show of fur hats, barking dogs, and breaking of ice under sled. There are probably other places that these things happen but not quite like they happen here.
Alaska received my pace of life without challenge, it chewed me up and left me yearning for more. A sense of unfinished. The realization that I could spend a lifetime in a single place and still never truly scratch the surface of my exploration desires; this to me is astounding. A place where meeting another human soul in the woods is startling, yet the presence of eagles or squirrels or bears and birds is nothing but the norm. This is Alaska.
“Change brings tears, but in order to grow we need that change; with it comes heartache and knowledge” Words from my mother. Mothers always seem to know what to say when you need it most. I leave taking with me the importance of this place.

Bitter Wild Blueberry Jam

6 Cups of Wild blueberries

Large Handful of fireweed blossoms, chopped


1 Cup of water


1 Cup of honey


1 Tablespoon of lemon juice


1 Packet of no sugar pectin

In a small pot, combine the water and the honey, warm over the stove until the honey dissolves in the water. do not boil. One all the honey has been added, combine in the fireweed blossoms. Allow the blossoms to infuse into the water mixture for about 5 minutes at a simmer over the stove. Use a spoon to strain out the blossoms. Add the lemon juice to the water mixture.
Wash the blueberries and put them into a good size soup pot. Use a potato masher to crush down the blueberries. Add the pot to the stove and over medium heat add the water/honey mixture to the berries. Give the mixture a good stir. Add the pectin to the pot and increase the heat. Allow the mixture to come to a full rolling boil, stirring constantly for about 3 minutes. Reduce the heat and ladle jam into jars while still hot. Process the jars in a canner if desired or refrigerate.