Grounding In Springtime

Even though Stickleback Fish Company was established in 2024, you could say that we started years ago, when I decided that I wanted my life and work to change with the seasons. Here in Homer, Alaska, our world changes so much from season to season, and our products reflect those changes.

Now it’s Spring, and it’s sapping season, on of my all-time favorite times, when we go out into the birch grove with our friends and harvest the sap running up those most-beautiful trees. Yesterday we harvested in inches of fresh snow, and it was a delight watching the light crystals floating in the canopy and tasting the clear, delicious “Ent water”. Birch syrup is a crucial flavor in our smoked black cod and smoked black cod dip, and its fun eating black cod and drinking birch water together. A couple weeks ago, when the weather was warmer, I cleaned out our bee hives to prepare for the push of pollen from our willow, alder, and all the other early food supplies. Local honey is part of the secret sauce in our smoked salmon and smoked salmon dips.

Spring is an exciting and overwhelming time. It’s time to repair my fishing nets from last year, and do a few minor repairs on the hull of my boat, F/V Kustatan. It’s time to make sure all the systems are working on the boat, to smoke all the winter’s Black Cod in the freezers, to make room for the salmon we will be bringing in in June. Most of all though, I’m feeling it is a time of smiling joy, as we climb out of winter into the brightness of warm sunshine and fresh green buds on the trees.