Neither Mountain Nor River: Fathers, Sons and an Unsettled Faith
By Mike Freeman (Riddle Brook Publishing; $16)
The blurb: Mike Freeman was raised with a passion for nature, a passion that came from his father, a man who could name a bird from its call and explain the life cycle of dragonflies.
While unraveling a lifetime of fishing, birding, hunting and trapping with his father, he realizes how fortifying the outdoors are to all relationships. Now, having spent most of his life in the natural environments of Pennsylvania, Vermont and Alaska, Mike suddenly finds himself a stay-at-home father. Unsure of himself as a parent, he reflects upon both his own upbringing and adulthood in this memoir.
Excerpt: Over the years I occasionally heard Lee speak, but rarely even half-understood his murmurings. He had a mythology of his own, most of which sounded within earshot of truth. Like most Vietnam veterans, no one other than himself can really say what he did over there, but stories range from more than a few Special Forces tours, to dead-eye sniper abilities, to classified missions across the border. For all I know, he played cards in Da Nang the whole time, but I doubt it. What is known is that he just showed up in Yakutat one day, belted with an enormous knife and quick to throw a punch. He survived a gut stabbing and, according to majority remembrance, beat the stabber senseless. Not long after he arrived, people said, he lived in Yakutat Bay for three years on an uninhabited island, purging combat memories while thriving on seal meat. Whatever is or isn't true, he had a talent for sport fishing and started guiding, and became particularly known for his steelhead aptitude.
I knew less of Hank, or at least less was whispered of him.
If Lee rarely spoke, Hank never stopped, and you didn't really want him to. From what I could tell, he came up from Oregon in his early 20s to work a logging camp and never left, siring some kids while building a new career guiding for bear and fish. He trapped, too, but dropped it when fur prices crashed in the 1980s. Clients loved him. He built fires on the banks and told bawdish jokes, and was every bit as adept as Lee at catching his people fish.
My part boss, all friend Gordie came to Yakutat a few years after Hank and Lee. He'd worked the Situk and had more than a few Hank stories. Once, Gordie floated a canoe with another employee, trying to verify chinook abundance. The sky had opened, fouling the count, and rounding a bend they drifted by Hank on a sand spit trying to fan a fading fire while a few guys kept half dry beneath a tarp.
"He was telling the 'Two Tickets to Pittsburgh' joke," Gordie said. "We've all heard it a thousand times, but you'd think Hank invented it, and those guys hung on every word. He was swearing at the dwindling coals the whole time, squatting down, blowing, tossing soaked twigs on, all the while hitting each line just right. Half the reason guys vacation in Alaska is to hide from their wives for a while, and when Hank nailed the punch line, he added his own twist, and those guys got everything they paid for right there. Me and my partner had to pull the canoe over we were laughing so hard."
The Boreal Feast: A Culinary Journey Through the North
By Michele Genest (Harbour Publishing, $28.95)
The blurb: From North America to Scandinavia, "The Boreal Feast" celebrates wild ingredients and northern traditions. From the author of "The Boreal Gourmet" comes another irresistible tribute to foods of the North, and this time she devotes special attention to feasts. The spreads cover the whole spectrum -- for small groups or large, extensively planned or spontaneous, as elaborate as a 12-course tasting menu or as simple and satisfying as a pot of Labrador tea and a piece of bannock on a hillside during a berry-picking expedition.
Genest takes the reader on a journey to Norway, Finland and Sweden to discover what other northern peoples do with the same wild ingredients that live and grow in the North American boreal forest. Part travelogue, the book includes stories of hunting for cloudberries on the Dempster Highway through the Yukon and Northwest Territories, throwing a birthday party on the Kaskawulsh Glacier and harvesting trumpet chanterelles in the Nordland region of Norway. Featuring prized northern ingredients, like morel mushrooms, birch syrup, coho salmon, spruce tips and blueberries, "The Boreal Feast" is a celebration of boreal food. With creations like Solstice-Cured Lake Trout, Gravlad Lax and Birch Syrup Panna Cotta with Rhubarb Compote, northern and southern dwellers alike will be inspired.
Excerpt: A walk through the boreal forest is a walk through a living feast. Getting to know the plants, berries, flowers and trees in this most beautiful of biomes is a lifelong pleasure. When building a boreal pantry there are many stages along the way: learning about habitat, harvesting, cleaning, storing, preparing and finally (hooray!) eating and celebrating. It can be hard work, but every stage has its particular reward. You develop a different way of seeing. You learn to be patient. You learn not to take anything for granted, to share the bounty, to leave some for the birds and animals, and to be grateful for everything the forest gives you, whether it's a windy picnic with your girlfriend, soft moss under your knees among the spruce trees, or freezing fingers in the September dusk because you can't stop picking cranberries. Then, it's so satisfying to open the cupboard and survey jars full of the boreal foods you have gathered yourself and turned into syrups, jams, vinegars or liqueurs. Every jar and every bottle tells a story: the people you were with that day, the late August swim in the lake by the border, the outspoken raven in the spruce tree, the bear spied on the distant ridge. It's all there. You've brought it home with you, and you will again. When you eat the forest, you love the forest. And when you love the forest, you help to protect and preserve it.