"alaska" news and stories

Jessica Vassar, age 11, had the same dream as many little girls: she wanted a horse. Her parents were both experienced horse-people who gave up their horses when they had their children. They had a 2-stall barn on their property and told Jessica that if she could raise enough money for a horse, they would let her get one.

So, Jessica started baking.

With wheat that she ground herself, she baked and sold bread priced at $3.50 per loaf and cinnamon rolls at $10 a dozen. In just under two years, she raised $1,000 and picked up a horse named Pete from the local Alaska Equine Rescue. Pete only cost $500 and the rest was used to buy a trailer to transport him. Pete may not be the horse that dreams are made out of, with 15 years of life as a pack horse in a national park in his past, but with the help of Jessica's mother, he is turning out to be the horse of Jessica's dreams.

She is still baking away, not only to keep her loyal customers happy, but to finance what she hopes will be a successful season on the local show circuit.

Source

From mid-May to mid-June, Pacific Northwesterners get to eat the famed Copper River salmon thanks to the millions of fish that spawn up the Copper River in south-central Alaska and the thousands of fishermen that catch them.

To be in Seattle right when Copper River salmon are in season is like visiting Pamplona right when the bulls are running, or showing up in Rio just in time for Carneval, or visiting France when there isn't a strike.

Connoisseurs of Copper River Salmon say that what distinguishes it from regular salmon is its rich, nutty flavor. But I think it has more to do with the fact that it is available for two months out of the year. It's like Beaujolais Nouveau --- if the wine world's answer to Kool-Aid were available year-round, probably no one would ever drink it.

Unavailability, after all, makes things taste good.

We have some facts and figures about general drinking trends, but what about just beer? Here are a few fun bits of beer trivia, from Here's to Beer and other randomly collected factoids, to quiz your buddies when you're all relaxing over a brew and a game after work:

• According to the Canadian Ace Brewing Co., there are 6,998 drops in a 12-ounce bottle of beer.
• St. Arnold is recognized by the Catholic Church as the patron saint of brewing beer.
• A 12-ounce beer has fewer calories than two slices of standard, sliced bread.
• In Fairbanks, Alaska, it is illegal to give beer to a moose.
• The country with the most brands of beer - 400 - is Belgium.
• In Germany, you can buy beer popsicles.
• Cenosillicaphobia is the fear of an empty [beer] glass

For more refreshing beer info, check out Slashfood's beer archives!

In Nome, Alaska, ordering a pizza is easy. Just call up Airport Pizza, which delivers free of charge, by plane. Population in the western Alaska town is 3,500, but Airport Pizza delivers to almost a dozen sub-arctic villages via Frontier Flying Service, which provides the delivery free of charge, even as far away as 500 miles to a small island in the Bering Sea.

But that doesn't make a pizza meal cheap. A small cheese pizza starts at $16, and can go up to $32 for a large specialty. Fuel costs keep the the cost of getting ingredients like garlic, red and green bell peppers, and sun-dried tomatoes. These are rare ingredients in Nome, Alaska. However, reindeer sausage is not.

Over at suvalley news are various articles on reindeer and their roles in teaching, tourist attractions, clothing, shelter, and yes, food. It is a traditional food of the Alaskan natives. Some examples of fine reindeer delicacies include sausage, meatballs, stew, and simply filets. Would you be willing to eat reindeer (or caribou, as it is called when wild in North America)? And, if you've eaten it before, what do you think of it?