Hoodoo Voodoo! A Fishing Adventure off the Farm!

One day a little hockey player woke up and said "I wanna go fishing!"  Seriously though both my boys have always loved fishing - not just liked it - LOVED fishing! As much or more than hockey even.  Reed has fished in the summer, winter, fall and spring.  He has tied flies, made spoons, and I have had a house full of fishing gear to go with the hockey and hunting gear for years and years. You get used to it and just work around it and - yes, once in a while throw a fit and demand one of the chairs in the living room be kept free of hunting, hockey and fishing gear!  Im sure Im not the only mom who has had this problem.  Pretty sure Colton Conners mom had the same problem too - at least!  Colton Conner is the owner of Drifterz Paradise Fishing Charters and he gave Reed his start in the fishing guiding arena.

Reed got his Merchant Mariners certificate at age 16  - it was a fun adventure because the Homeland security people thought I was trying to enlist my son in the Coast Guard underage!  Once we explained that he just wanted to fish they warmed up to us a little.

Inflatable "glass bottom" canoe and a great lake trout.

It really is a pretty long process to get those credentials and to do all the paperwork and classes to become a registered licensed guide in the State of Alaska - especially since he was not old enough to sign "grown up" paperwork at the time.

Fishing in Alaska is a treasure and a treat!  There is so much fishing to be had all over the place!  Multiple types of salmon, lots of trout, grayling, char, pike, to name a few and these are just some of the fresh water fish!  The oceans yield a plethora of fish as well.

Creek fishing with Uncle Adam - Not sure who the guide is in this shot since Uncle appears to be doing the work!

Yes!  Riley fishes as well. She is Reeds girlfriend and a good sport about fishing no matter what the weather.  I think she secretly loves fishing as much as he does!

Even in the rain!

Drifterz Paradise boat behind Reeds truck.

Fish on!

So this year has not been a great fishing year in the Mat Su Valley.  The King Salmon season was closed so Reed didn't have work for that month starting his season off.  Fortunately, he was busy with try outs for hockey that kept him busy, and his boss Colton Conner went out to guide at a place called "Hoodoo River Lodge".  Colton Conner is also a teacher at the high school so in the fall when Hoodoo called him back to guide for the final part of the season, he wasn't able to commit to that.  Instead he said "I got a guy"!  So Reed went off on a fishing adventure this time!

I always take a picture of Reedo before he begins each adventure.  He isn't a fan always of the picture taking, but he humors me for the sake of his own sanity (basically so I don't drive him crazy)!

Hoodoo is in the Bristol Bay Region of Alaska.  Remote and Beautiful.  Off the grid as well!  

Its fly in only there but surrounded by beauty and of course fish!  Hoodoo boasts 5 variety of salmon, as well as grayling, char, pike and trout.    Reed got to take some very famous people fishing (think Iron Chef), as well as some really nice regular people and caught fish left and right!

This little Mink wanted to hitch a ride with the fishing guides too.  Wildlife abounds at Hoodoo.  Reed had many bear encounters as well.  "No Mom!  I did NOT take pictures!  I was too busy making sure my client was safe!"  Yes!  I did ask!  My bad!

The "Braids" portion of the river with mountains in the background.  Unending beauty.

The Hoodoo is off grid enough that there isn't really any cell service and internet only works late at night (like 2:00 am).  Lights and other services are solar and generator driven so care is taken to not overuse resources.  He was only able to call or send pictures occasionally, and of course, didn't take any of himself.  The point here though is, with no internet or wifi, the only entertainment besides fish guide jokes are DVD movies and tying up new gear (fly tying)!

This is his "at home" fly tying gear and below his table set up.  The fish on the Hoodoo tear up the gear something fierce and the guides have to tie new or replace gear all the time.  Reed spends hours working to rebuild his inventory.

Below is a little something Reed called the "Pikeslayer" back in the day!

He replenished his stock after he got home at a shop called "Mossy's Fly Shop".   It's a really cool little store in Anchorage Alaska and has everything a fly fisher could dream up, including an owner who knows all the hot spots for fishing and what everyone is catching! 

Mom - STOP taking pictures of me shopping!  It's ridiculous!

So I just moved back a little so you could get the full effect of shopping in this great store!  I even found some really cool stuff in there.  You could embellish a lot of fun things with stuff in Mossy's!  Reed says it's not intended for "bedazzeling" things(teenage eye roll here), but I think I could really do some cools stuff with someone I know's coffee cup!  Oh wait!  The kids do that! Story for another blog.

The other thing that fishing guiding creates is lots of laundry!  I know I harp on the laundry all the time - but Reed actually did his own!

OMG - why is there so much laundry?  Because it's three weeks worth that you are trying to do in one load!  I did have to do some load ratio coaching here but he did the hardest part and didn't even make me fold!

We are still hearing things about his great adventure to the Hoodoo!

I am so happy that he had the courage to say "YES"!  Yes to the adventure.  Yes to going to a new place he's never been before.  Yes to working for people he has never even met before, and YES to all the goofy pictures mom wants to take!

I hope you have a grand adventure in your future and that you take lots of pictures!

Stay tuned for the next one!  Blessed be!

A bevy of bright beauties - tomatoes that is!

Oh how we love tomatoes here at the Farm!  We grow as many as we can fit into the greenhouse, and sometimes outside too!  You read last week about my Aunties greenhouse and the 37 tomato plants that I brought home from her house (see that post here).  I also planted a few varieties of my own as well, but this week we will talk about the ones we loved and maybe the ones that didn't work so well!

This is the cheery cherry variety "Cherry Punch".  It grows quarter sized tomatoes like giant grapes on vines and the flavor is amazing! 

Strings and strings of them!  Very few of them make it out of the greenhouse (I have a "one for the bucket, one for me rule")!

Here is a partially ripe string of "Cherry Punch".  They go all the way up the plant that way and they are on an indeterminate plant so it gets quite tall!  The finished tomato is a deep red like cherry Koolaid. The "Cherry Punch" grow sort of on top of the string - rather than below it.  The plants are strong and I don''t usually need to support the tomato stems at all.  This is the second year we have grown this variety from Auntie and it is a keeper.  We will grow this again.

 

Above variety is the "Sun Gold" cherry tomato,  I have previewed them before on here (read about it here) and this is a huge favorite of all of ours.  I have grown this variety for about 5 years now and they seem to do well indoors or out.  They end up being a golden orange color when ripe, they grow like grapes on the vines, almost the same size as grapes,  and the only drawback is that they will split if you let them hang too long.  This is a keeper as well and will be grown forever as far as I'm concerned!

This is the "Parks Whopper" started at Snowfire Gardens and it is a great tomato.  The flavor is very good, and it is a beautiful color ad gets good sized - probably 8 ounces.  It is more of a bush tomato - doesn't get too tall and spindly.  Texture is great for the BLT sandwich and for a slicer or salad dice.  Only one drawback is that it doesnt produce very many tomatoes.  We got maybe 6 off of this plant all summer.  I would probably grow this one again if it was given to me.  Flavor is key here.

Above is a shot of "San Marzano" a paste or sauce tomato.  Yum-o!  I would grow this again every year as well.    It produces a plethora of lovely pear shaped tomatoes all up and down the bushy plant.  The texture is a little bit pithy for an every day eating tomato but for sauce it is bomb.  This one came from Aunties as well.  We actually grew two sauce tomatoes from her - "Bella Rosa" and this one.  "Bella Rosa" is a good one as well and it works for an every day eater as well as sauce.  It doesn't produce as prolifically as "San Marzano" but its uses are a little broader.  I didn't get a picture of that one - sorry! 

We also grew "Better Bush" which is a good hanging basket tomato and is a keeper - good flavor and a decent slicer with good texture.  

Early Girl is also a favorite here - it lives up to its name - comes on early in the season and produces right through fall.  Good slicer, with great texture and flavor.

I started Cherokee Purple and Black Krim - both are old varieties and we like them a lot.  I will grow them again even though they arent very prolific producers, the color, flavor and texture more than make up for the lack of production, and I think if I had got them started earlier (I didn't get mie planted until end of April) we would have got more 'maters!  Great slicers both as well.

Those are all of the ones that are really notable from the varieties that we grew this summer.  We had a big huge greenhouse full andit was wonderful.  Really fun to see all the varieties and try the new ones.  I encourage you to try as many as you can!

Tub of bright beauties of all varieties!

Fresh Roasted Pasta Sauce

3-4 pounds of ripe tomatoes diced into about 1" cubes- any variety ( I like to mix them up)

10 cloves of garlic - sliced or quartered

1 large onion sliced thin and halved (I like white for this)

1/2 C Olive oil - light preferable

Mix all together in a bowl and spread onto a baking sheet with an edge, or a 9x13 glass dish.  Sprinkle with sea salt (we like smoked) and fresh ground pepper.  Sprinkle with a little (1/2 tsp) red pepper flake and a little (1/2 tsp) cayenne pepper or Chipotle if you like a little heat (which we do).

Bake at 400 in the middle of the oven for 40-45 minutes.

Once out of the oven, let cool for a few minutes and then sprinkle with some fresh Basil leaves chopped finely.  Put the whole lot in a bowl and mix well.  Some folks like to puree with a hand blender, but I prefer to mash mine with a wire whisk or a spud masher.  It is awesome as a chunky pasta sauce and it cans and freezes well too if you have enough tomatoes you can easily double or triple the recipe.  

We serve over spaghetti noodles with chunks of roasted chicken or some Italian Sausage.

Enjoy! 

I covet this Greenhouse!

I have an aunt who is a master grower and gardener.  Of course, she is family!  I am from a whole family of growers and gardeners back as many generations as we can account for - at least 7.  Its really amazing to see how the knowledge is passed down from generation to generation. I remember working in my grandparents gardens - both sets of grandparents.  My dads family had 11 children, and my moms had 3.  Both families grew enough to store and grew some to share as well.  We all learned how to test and try, and how to work hard to get things to grow and work.  Gardening and growing isn't for folks who dont know how to work hard - that's for sure!

My Aunt Cinny (one of the Aunties from previous blogs) has some of the best growing systems I have ever seen.  She has a giant garden - I mean giant - and then she also has this wonderful greenhouse!   It is about 24' x 30'.   I covet this greenhouse - for real!

These pictures were taken April 29th of this year.  Look how huge her plants are in the greenhouse.  you can see through the windows that the grass in her yard beyond the greenhouse hasnt even greened up yet!  We had a very cold spring remember.

She has natural gas heat so she does have a little heat in the greenhouse.  She also has a big water tank that becomes a heat sink for the room.  She has a partition system so she is only heating the potting part until the seedlings get big enough and need to be repotted into big pots or resale pots.  What you are seeing here are mostly tomatoes with the cucumbers growing up in the back of the room.  She also has pepper plants up in the rafters that are beautiful, but I couldnt get a good pic of them.  She puts them up there because they love the heat that rises up there and it makes it harder for the aphids (which love peppers) to find them.

Tomatoes are blooming already - in April!  Her greenhouse is built of wood framing and has the plastic "P-tex" type covering on the roof and also has some glass windows.  She has french doors like my greenhouse for bringing in loads of dirt and taking out loads of plants.

She has a cucumber ready to pick already!  In fact she and Uncle shared the first picked cuke with me that day.  It is tradition for them to pick it together and share it together.  Such romantic cuties!

So how in the world does she keep track of what she has?  She makes it look easy!

Here are her lists of what she planted and describes each variety based on what they are for; canning, cherry, regular, etc.  Yes it is typed and easy to read!  She also has each plant clearly marked for variety and the date that she planted it as well.  She had two different planting dates this year - both in March - one early and one later in the month.

Of course she grows some to share as well!  Below is the list of what I brought home for myself and my friend who just got her greenhouse going again after a long no grow spell.  Some of the varieties she started to see how well they would do here and if we would like to grow that variety again.

Yes - I brought home at least 37 tomato plants!  My van was full to the brim!

Stay tuned for a future post shortly that will detail which plants were our favorites, which ones we will grow again and which ones didn't quite measure up.  You have all winter to dream about what you will grow and where it might grow!  Dream big!

Cheery cherries!

I have been trying to grow fruit of any kind out here at Wicked Raven Farm for years... as you have probably read in my previous blogs!  Apples, cherries, berries and even a russian pear tree were all getting mowed down by the moose until we were finally able to do the fencing surrounds around them.  (Read about that here).  This year (actually last year also) we finally got some fruit - Cherries! Besides the one apple that we got last year we ended up with about 14 cherries. 

This is the Bali/Evans cherry tree - yes still in its surround - not taking any chances with it this time!  My trees came from Snowfire Gardens stock, my parents place.  They have a large variety of fruit trees and theirs produce every year.  I also have some Carmine Jewel Cherry trees but they are just babies still.

This view I took from underneath the tree looking up through the branches - yes that is sun you see causing the fog on the picture - but the rosy glowing orbs are Cherries!!!  I have two of these trees and they are each about 13 years old.  They have finally gotten big enough and been protected enough that they are able to produce!  I know that is sad - I'm not sure if I'm crazy for still trying with these or just tenacious!?

I had to prop up the branches all around the bottom so they could get good air circulation and so the bees could get to the blossoms more easily - we were a little short on bees this spring.

Lovely cherries in ziplock bag all ready to make a pie with!  Yes, only one bag full but we more than doubled our production this year and if that happens next year we will be in good shape - at least cherry wise!  Now if we can make the apples do the same.... stay tuned - 8 months from now we will have another summer and Ill keep you posted on how we do!

Blessed harvest!  Happy Fall!