Holiday Lit List -- The Salmon Recipes

Wherein we look at some of the local books that have been published this year and give you some ideas of what to get your book-loving friends and family for Hanukkah, Solstice, Festivus, Christmas, Kwanzaa, or just because it's a day ending with "y".

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Don't forget to support your local independent bookstores!

The Salmon Recipes: Stories of Our Endangered North Coast Cuisine

Edited by Luanne Roth

Prince Rupert Environmental Society 

We are all connected. What befalls the land and water and animals in one part of the world has an effect on the health and well-being of those who live elsewhere on the planet. Prince Rupert may seem a far distance from Yaletown and Kits, and you might wonder how a book of recipes and stories about the North Coast fits into our "local" view, but the environmental and ecological disaster that is the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway affects all British Columbians.

This book put together by the Prince Rupert Environmental Society is much more than just a collection of recipes. It's a conversation about tradition and the land and about the food we eat. Each recipe is paired with one or two stories or poems, often ones that relate to the recipe. So Lou Allison's recipe for Maryland Crab Cakes is paired with this brief anecdote from Cameron Hill of the Aayawk, Ha'gwil Iaxhaand, and Ka'gwaays First Nations:

Sweet Smell of Crabs Cooking

There's nothing that makes me feel beter that to have my crab cooking outside of my father's house or my house and to have people walk by and smell it...and...to share what I have.

The recipes include standards such as Cajun Red Snapper and Salmon Burgers to the less conventional, dishes such as Smoked Salmon Pizza and Icelandic Pickled Salmon. The book also includes information on the nutritional aspects of salmon, a description of seafood production, precautions to take when harvesting, and facts about oil tankers.

This book is truly a labour of love, as everything that made its creation possible was produced by volunteers, from the more than 80 contributors to the book designer, the editor to the photographers. The money raised from the sale of the book with go towards the fight to keep our coast oil-tanker free.

Broker we were, better we  ate

by Diedre Brennan, Massett, Haida Gwaii

I have lived my entire life on the west coast of Canada, mostly here on beautiful Haida Gwaii. I raised four children here and even when there wasn't a penny in the bank, we always had food, thanks to the generosity of community members and our own work picking, digging and canning.

We used to joke that the broker we were, the better we ate because that was when our treasures came out: canned fish, clams, deer meat and berries

You can read more about the Prince Rupert Environmental Society and order the book at saveourskeenasalmon.org

Click to read our previous Holiday Lit List suggestions.