A friend of mine recently went fishing and caught 77 salmon. Now he has to buy a freezer. Even so, he's giving away many salmon to all his friends and I'm lucky enough to be high on his friend list. After all, he's the guitar player in the Tanana Highlanders, our band.
I brought home four large freezer bags full of fresh salmon, froze three and have been working away at the fourth. Put those filets in a baking dish with a chunk of butter, season with salt and pepper, or garlic, or dill, or whatever suits your fancy, bake and about thirty minutes later you have the most heavenly meal your mouth or tummy could desire. Eating it fresh makes all the difference in the world, and if you don't live in Alaska or the Northwest, you have no idea what you are missing.
I don't hunt, and I definitely don't fish at the level that my various friends do, but I need to buy a freezer myself, due to the bounty of this land. If a friend gets a moose, I get lots of moose steaks. Same with caribou. I'm hoping to go halibut fishing myself sometime this summer, but if I don't, I have friend who will, and I can look forward to lovely, white halibut as well. Heck, I have venison in my freezer from a hunting trip to Ohio by the same band member.
There are hundreds of moose killed on the highways every year. It's illegal to take them home for yourself. All of those road-kill moose go to charity and feed hungry families.
Share the food around. It's the Alaskan way.
