Wow! It’s been a long time coming, but red salmon are in the river. Today my husband and some friends caught 80 reds in the personal use fishery. He brought home and then cleaned 25 of them. Our family is allotted somewhere near 80, but we usually stop well before then.

Of course, as soon as the salmon was cleaned I fried up a batch. I used a kamut flour and arrowroot mixture to coat the fillets and then fried them in olive oil and grapeseed oil to be tonight’s entrée. As fast as it disappeared, I should have doubled the amount. Oh well, there is always tomorrow.

We’ve decided to can up most of the salmon this year and maybe just freeze a dozen or so. Smoking and then canning is another option, but I don’t know how we’ll get that to fit in our schedule, too.

The forest fire has slowed. Last I heard it was at 20,000 acres. Today has been cloudy with some sprinkles, but not enough to get the ground wet. At least the higher humidity is helping to slow the fire. In addition, Tustumena Lake is huge and the wind pushed the fire that direction. That’s a nice, natural barrier to preventing further expansion.

Till later…