Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska What do Alaskans do about vegetables?

Never seen one of those, looks cool.

Lucky our future holds an old horse corral in it, should provide some room without mice issues(plural for moose right... LOL)

Grow what u can, can them pack the rest in your cellar and buy what you can afford

Great summer here is the latest on hay bale garden.

It’s gathering time again!



Salmonberries are on... a bit early this summer. (With enough vitamin C to make an orange blush we are told.)

Single berry on the end of the main stem? Not a bush with multiple berries? That is what it looks like from the photo and it is the more common northerly berry. If so, that is a cloudberry.

They are better than most salmonberries.

‘Cloudberry’ sounds so...............DSMF? I realize that is another name for them, kind of like Washington tells us that ‘Eskimo’ is not a PC term that should be used anymore, but nobody ever uses that name and most folks who pick them by the gallon don’t even know the term ‘cloudberry’. (And why should they not be salmonberries? There is no other berry that so much resembles a cluster of salmon eggs that I am aware of.)

Next, I suppose you’re going to tell me our ‘blackberries’ are ‘crowberries’ or some such? (BTW, what are crows anyway? Can a raven be killed legally if we call them crows? )



Took one elderly lady along last night to a little, well-known berry island 13 miles offshore last night, along with family and other friends. It was the first time for her in her 7 decades of life. Got back just before 2:00 AM; (no wonder it was looking like it wanted to get dark when we got back. ) I doubt our family will make a 10 gallon goal, but we’ve got over 5 now.

Cloudberries and salmonberries are not the same. They taste different and come from different bushes entirely. I was corrected by an elderly lady way back in the '70s. I am not sure which village she was from... but well north.

Two different berries, same family, same colloquial name. Call them cloudberries in any rural area I am familiar with and you’ll get that “you must be a DSMF” look - or they’ll simply have no idea what you’re talking about. Cloudberry is not a name often used in Alaska and is probably best known to urban dwellers, if even them. You can call them whatever you like, but they’re known as salmonberries all over the western tundra.

Now, let’s talk about blackberry akutaq. (Yeah, I thought I was smart one time in pointing out that tundra blackberries - crowberries to some- are not even related to the rosacea family version. )

Yup, many do not know rasp/black/salmon-berries are roses...

and many do not know the facts about deer eating roses...

You two are a huge sources of useless knowledge. LOL. ( I hope you see the smiley intent there...)

I’m fine with useless, just don’t call me Ulysses ......

I must make one more comment about our berries; our’s, in fact, are superior if you believe heterosexual foods are ‘more better’. Those other kind, the bush variety, they’re kind of into bisexual stuff.



As for other ‘vegetables’ out in the boonies, ask some of the older people about plants and you’ll likely get a whole encyclopedia of info about which plants, when, and how to procure and process them. Readily available potatoes, carrots, apples, onions, and a few other things in many local stores - if you’re willing to pay the prices- has made gathering a ‘lesser’ activity for many of the younger generations.

Thats cool. Just shredded on by gallons and gallons of grapes today again. Makes me wonder if life would ever slow enough to be able to use whats out there.

In the meantime the deer love the grapes anyway.

Do what every pothead does. An indoor grow room. Hydroponic or raised beds, heated concrete floor, skylights or LED grow lights on a timer to conserve electricity and some fertilizer. Basically a modified green house for Alaska.