Here in Beautiful British Columbia we get a lot of immigrants from all over the world. Sure it’s Canada, the “melting pot” and all that, but here in BC it’s especially common to run into people, products and flavours from far off places. It’s one of the things that I love the most about the West coast. Sometimes though, adding some new spice into the pot can be disruptive. A brief story to illustrate:
Once upon a time an immigrant came to the Northwestern Coast of BC. Read More
Summer breeze. Green leaves part. Glowing droplets of sunlight.
I was on my way home from work a couple days ago and I’d stopped to pick some Salmonberries. As I stretched up my go-go-gadget arms towards the gently swaying gems it occurred to me that I had no idea why they were called “Salmon”-berries. Was it the reddish colour? Kind of looks like salmon flesh, I guess. Early summer Sockeye runs are starting soon and the berries are ripening… Maybe that’s it. I wonder if they taste good with grilled salmon?
Then I noticed some of the berries had been really clumsily torn from their pedicels, or roughly smashed and left dangling from the stalk. As if someone with thick awkward fingers and long gnashing teeth had gone to work on ‘em. But that’s nuts, these bushes are massive. Whoever did it would have to be, like seven feet tall… And what’s with the smell?
Like a tanker passing close to shore, a massive black bear glided through the forest scrub thirty feet from where I stood… Whoa.
Wait, bears eat salmon, and they really seem to dig these berries. Maybe that’s why they’re called Salmonberries! What else do bears eat? Hmmmmm… It was definitely time for me to get on home. Read More
The word “Grace” is defined in a lot of different ways:
I’ve been thinking a lot about grace lately, ever since my Uncle Wayne passed away. It kind of bubbles away on my mind’s back burner while I type, but don’t get bummed, this isn’t a story about that. Even though other events may frame it, this is about rambling in the forest with friends (old and new) picking weeds and accidentally getting a nasty rash. Read More
Since man first cast nets into the frigid oceans for food, his survival depended on knowing when fish would be most plentiful and accessible. The changing seasons brought great frothing multitudes of fish into the nearby shoals to feed, spawn and die. Coastal communities likewise lived and died by the season’s harvest, and each new arrival would be met with celebration. To these early fishermen (and their ancestors to come) the most prized of all the migratory fish were the herring. Read More
For anyone out there on the West coast who wants to bushwack the hell out of some indigenous ingredients, but doesn’t quite know where to begin… May I suggest going to the source. Read More