To an Alaskan, abundance is a full freezer. Many of us live a subsistence lifestyle, which means that all or most of our food comes from the natural world around us. That’s how to survive when the closest grocery store is many miles away, or just too expensive to rely on in rural villages. To give you an example, last year in Utqiagvik, a gallon of milk cost $13.50 versus less than $2 in most of the Lower 48 states.
We provide food for ourselves and our families by fishing, hunting, berry picking, and/or gathering plants. The fish, meat, or plants depend on whether it’s on the tundra, coast, or forest. Even more urban Alaskans can do a little fishing, hunting, or berry picking during the season to supplement our diets. If we don’t fish ourselves, we might support a local fishing coop which sells batches of frozen fish. Many of us add to our foods by gardening, too.
I didn’t garden or pick berries as much as usual this year, due to other commitments. But I still have frozen greens, raspberries, and several kinds of fish in the freezer. It makes me happy to see all those packages waiting for us to use through the cold winter. And every time I taste those berries or bite into a salmon filet, it will remind me of the long days of summer. I feel rich when I have food in the freezer. I am so thankful for the abundance.
I hope you find abundance in your life, in whatever form that means for you. When do you feel rich?
Lynn Lovegreen has lived in Alaska for over fifty years. After twenty years in the classroom, she retired to make more time for writing. She enjoys her friends and family, reading, and volunteering at her local library. Her young adult historical romance is set in Alaska, a great place for drama, romance, and independent characters. See her website at www.lynnlovegreen.com. You can also find her on Facebook and Instagram.
6 comments:
Lynn, I remember making salmonberry jam and syrup when we lived in Alaska. We used to call it "summer in a jar," :-) And our freezer was full of elk, venison, and halibut. It was a lovely feeling to have that freezer full for the winter!
Now I feel rich when I thank God for a beautiful sunset, Zoom with friends, celebrate birthdays and holidays, write a new story, hug my husband, do a good deed. My life is abundant and very blessed.
Great post!
Great answer, Sarah. I love that phrase "summer in a jar" too!
I feel rich every evening when we sit on the deck and watch the sky turn orange and red! I try not to miss seeing a sunset. When different animals wander in to our yard I feel blessed to see them. Deer, turkeys , quail , rabbits and lots of birds. I feel rich when I see family. They are all closer since we moved to CA, but still 1/2 hr to 4 hrs away. Blessed season too!!
I love reading about your life in Alaska, Lynn. It is so very different from mine. I did visit Alaska once in the late 1990s. I flew into Fairbanks and then drove several hours to stay with a friend in Tok for a week. My friend had a cabin in the middle of nowhere, raised chickens for eggs and another bird I don't remember for meat. He fished in a nearby lake, and also worked part-time as an online instructor for the University of Alaska. I don't know if he hunted as we didn't talk about it, but I suspect he did. He also had a small garden and did canning.
I was there in July so it was light most of the time and it all seemed very beautiful and easy going. However, he did talk about the times it wasn't so easy and the hard work and the dark winters. Though I admired all he had done, I knew it wasn't a life for me. But the abundance of beauty all around was striking.
Our son lives in Alaska and our daughter and her family lived there nearly twenty years while her husband was in the Coast Guard. We visited mostly in the fall and winter as that was the time my husband could get off. It is beautiful up there and my daughter loved the fishing and our son loves the hunting. But it is cold and dark too much of the time for me. I loved your post about the abundance of food. That is true!
I spent ten days in Juneau with cousins, out halibut fishing on their boat. It was fantastic and I shipped 50 pounds of flash frozen halibut home to Florida. So good. Now that was an abundance.
But to me, abundance is enjoying my life, my home and family, and my garden that has critters like Diana's does. Great post.
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