In this time of COVID-19, I am spending a lot of time outdoors. We are surely blessed with one of the greatest systems of hiking and walking trails, and they’ve become my daily go-to. This is where the idea for a Hometown Alaska program on foraging came from, and also from spotting a gardener and plant enthusiast’s Facebook image of spruce tips she had gathered. They are beautiful.
I asked Elizabeth if she knew local people who’d be willing to talk about foraging for wild plants. She gave me two names, and those two gave me more sources and more names. So today, we welcome you to a visit with enthusiasts and practitioners of wild harvesting.
The goal of today’s show is introductory. Some of our guests have foraged their entire life, some are new to it. We have a botanist, an artist, a doctor, and a longtime student and blogger about wild foods. Three are Alaska Native, one is from Sitka and three are from Southcentral. We welcome them all.
And we welcome your comments and questions throughout the program. In addition, we’ve assembled a resource list for listeners who want to dig in. Thank you to our guests for help compiling this list. All four have social media presence or blogs where they share their learning, recipes and more.
HOST: Kathleen McCoy
GUESTS:
- Dr. Jeanne Osnas, botanist and plant ecologist, co-author of the blog “A Botanist in the Kitchen”
- Karen Denise McIntyre, artist and lifelong forager, sharing her fish skin harvesting and creations on her Facebook page, Creative Native
- Mary and Lucas Goddard, foragers and co-authors of Forest Fresh, a forest-to-table cooking blog, writing in Sitka
- Dr. Allison Kelliher, medical doctor and experienced as an Alaska Native healer
LINKS
- Wild Edible and Poisonous Plants of Alaska, Cooperative Extension pamphlet
- Alaska’s Poisonous Plants, a website list and photographs of 11 poisonous plants, Alaska Public Lands Information Center website.
- Boreal Herbal, by Beverley Gray, book and website
- Discovering Wild Plants, Alaska, Western Canada, The Northwest, large format book by Janice Schofield, 1989.
- Alaska Wild Plants, a field guide by Janice Schofield, 2003.
- Alaska Wilderness Medicines, book by Eleanor Viereck, 1987. Free copy available here through UAF
- Plants That We Eat, Nauriat Niginaqtaut, by Anore Jones, easy-to-use guide “drawing on centuries of knowledge that have kept the Inupiat people healthy, organized by season,” 2010
- Medicinal Flora of the Alaska Natives by Ann Garibaldo, a collection of wisdom from Aleut, Alutiiq, Athabascan, Eyak, Haida, Inupiat, Tlingit, Tsimshian and Yupik traditional healing methods using plants, FREE PDF available through the Alaska Center for Conservation Science, 200 pages.
- USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service plant database
- Morel Mushroom Hunting After Swan Lake Fire 5/12/20 You Tube video, 1 hour, 9 minutes
- Turnagain Arm Mycological Society website
- Alaska Mushrooms, byu Gary Laursen, a wide-ranging guide 2016
- Alaska Native Plant Society, website
- Alaska Center for Conservation Science, UAA Herbarium, website; Justin Fulkerson at the UAA Herbarium will do 5 free plant IDs per year, more for a fee
- Harvesting Seaweed in Alaska, Dec 2015 Alaska Fish & Wildlife News, Alaska Department of Fish & Game
- Common Edible Seaweeds in the Gulf of Alaska, by Dolly Garza, Alaska Sea Grant Program, downloadable PDF here from UAF
- Flora of Alaska Project website
- Flora of Alaska and Neighboring Territories, Community by Eric Hulten
- Forest Fresh, a forest-to-table cooking blog, by Mary and Lucas Goddard, Sitka
- The Botanist in the Kitchen, where botany meets the cutting board, blog by Jeanne Olnas and Katherine Preston
- Snow Creek Medicine, coming blog by Dr. Allison Kelliher
- Creative Native, artist Karen McIntyre’s Facebook page where she shares her learning and processing of fish skin for art projects
PARTICIPATE:
- Call 550-8433 (Anchorage) or 1-888-353-5752 (statewide) during the live broadcast (2:00 – 3:00pm)
- Send e-mail to hometown@alaskapublic.org before, during or after the live broadcast (e-mails may be read on air)
- Post your comment or question below (comments may be read on air
- LIVE: Monday, June 22, 2020 at 2:00 p.m
- RE-AIR: Monday, June 22, 2020 at 8:00 p.m.
- PODCAST: at alaskapublic.org/hometown for free future public access
