I really am enjoying reading all the canning info. In my years in rural Alaska, I never canned a single fish. Here are a couple of photos of one of my fish camps I set up on the lower Yukon River, not too far up stream from the mouth. I was commerical fishing for Kings this summer and put up some eating fish for the winter.
I favored living in a wall tent in the summres, when possible. Actually very comfortable, with a wood stove inside, cots, etc.
The sheet of plastic was just to throw over the fish and my smoke fire, if it started to rain, as rain will ruin the fish. Another way to preserve the fish, was used especially for the heads, was to go down by the water and dig a hole about 12 to 18 inches deep, but above the river water level, and line the hole with goose grass. Then add a layer of fish heads, more grass, till it was full. More holes if you needed more fish preserved. Leave to ferment for a month or more. When hungry just run your hand down through the top layer of sand and grass and pull out a couple of "stinky heads", rinse them in the river and with some pilot crackers, lunch was served. Diffidently an acquired taste, as with some strong cheeses.
The locals had done it this way for thousands of years and survived. Now a few did get sick and I suspect died in the past from botulism.
After I moved to Nenana and became a city slicker, I just used a large home freezer.
The Yukon is probably close to a mile wide down this far. My wife took this photo of me running my drift net. I had borrowed this fishing spot from a good local friend as he was using a different site that summer. The drift was about a couple of miles and when fishing 24 hours a day, it was hard to stay awake. So I would hire one of the older boys in the near by village to ride along with me and wake me up at the bottom of the drift. Then take the kings out of the net. and run back upstream to set the net again and repeat the process.
I also borrowed a few dogs from my buddy, to tie out back of my camp to be bear warning devices and to protect my fish. They sounded the alarm several times, but the bears high tailed it out of there, before I had to deal with them. I provided the dogs with room and board for the summer, and the owner let me keep them for free. Almost a Huck Finn type story. Very few bears are interested in tangling with some Eskimo sled dogs that are half domesticated and weigh about 100 lbs each. LOL
I favored living in a wall tent in the summres, when possible. Actually very comfortable, with a wood stove inside, cots, etc.
The sheet of plastic was just to throw over the fish and my smoke fire, if it started to rain, as rain will ruin the fish. Another way to preserve the fish, was used especially for the heads, was to go down by the water and dig a hole about 12 to 18 inches deep, but above the river water level, and line the hole with goose grass. Then add a layer of fish heads, more grass, till it was full. More holes if you needed more fish preserved. Leave to ferment for a month or more. When hungry just run your hand down through the top layer of sand and grass and pull out a couple of "stinky heads", rinse them in the river and with some pilot crackers, lunch was served. Diffidently an acquired taste, as with some strong cheeses.
The locals had done it this way for thousands of years and survived. Now a few did get sick and I suspect died in the past from botulism.
After I moved to Nenana and became a city slicker, I just used a large home freezer.
The Yukon is probably close to a mile wide down this far. My wife took this photo of me running my drift net. I had borrowed this fishing spot from a good local friend as he was using a different site that summer. The drift was about a couple of miles and when fishing 24 hours a day, it was hard to stay awake. So I would hire one of the older boys in the near by village to ride along with me and wake me up at the bottom of the drift. Then take the kings out of the net. and run back upstream to set the net again and repeat the process.
I also borrowed a few dogs from my buddy, to tie out back of my camp to be bear warning devices and to protect my fish. They sounded the alarm several times, but the bears high tailed it out of there, before I had to deal with them. I provided the dogs with room and board for the summer, and the owner let me keep them for free. Almost a Huck Finn type story. Very few bears are interested in tangling with some Eskimo sled dogs that are half domesticated and weigh about 100 lbs each. LOL
