Skip navigation

Tag Archives: sunday

Sourdough Sunday: Mr & Mrs Sourdough

I met Joe & Nancy during my stint at Central Peninsula Children’s Advocacy Center. They attended CPCAC’s “Grand Group“, a grandparents raising their grandchildren support group. With their quick wits and genuine care for humanity, especially children, I quickly became a fan.

I was enthralled with their tales of homesteading and operating a general store out in the middle of nowhere, north of Fairbanks. The shear strength of character these two have is that of a respectable sourdough quality even before factoring in the foster parenting part.

Knowing the love and compassion they have for children and the efforts they have gone to over the years is simply based on the miraculous.

Nancy has even written a children’s book titled Elliot the Moose. Moose being my favorite creatures automatically made her a star! 🤩 What’s not to love about these people?

My copy of Elliot the Moose

The Carlson’s closed up shop and moved closer to family. Despite the notion posted in this article, they are still around. I hope to see their next book published soon, chronicling their experiences raising their 25 children.

For me, these two are iconic Alaskan Sourdoughs, of which I’m privileged to have met! And they set the bar high for me!

Sourdough Sunday: Making Do

Can a wood stove classify as a sourdough? If so, this old boy is high on the list. Someone’s handiwork, made of plate steel, it sported a 2″ boiler valve on the backside which we’ve determined was for air intake and long ago plugged off with ash build up. This old stove has kept Dad & his cabin warm for more than 30 years. (The floor was unpainted under the metal disks the legs sat on. I know he painted the floor right before I visited in ’92.)

This stove was repurposed from another location and at the time was a big improvement from what Dad had, which, for a while, was a homemade 55 gal barrel stove . In the true sourdough spirit, you use what you have until you can upgrade. Often those improvements were found, made, repurposed or gifted to you. You just weren’t in the position to go buy a brand new replacement nor able to haul it out easily. And all too often sourdoughs used some awful sketchy wood stove setups!

Besides having a small fire box and just not burning through the night, the old thing was so leaky we always seemed to smoke ourselves right out. Every time you opened the front door of the cabin a big puff of smoke would come out from the middle seam of the stove doors. Even with new gaskets it would still belch out smoke.

The old grumpy honeybee.

It does have the benefit of a cooktop and plenty of space for the water pots. And it’s hell bent for stout. It will have a new purpose to be sure.

Empty stove corner.

We wrestled the heavy old thing out to make room for our new-to-us Earth Stove. I scored this one off Facebook marketplace from a nice fella named Dave. I’ll admit, being able to drive right out with it in the back of our truck made replacing this stove possible. I can’t image trying to pack it in any other way.

Smaller footprint, larger firebox!

There’s just enough room for the two water pots on top of this stove. Or one water pot and the coffee pot. Priorities.

Come spring we’ll pull this stove outside, remove the rust and re-black it. It will look like new! Maybe we’ll paint the floor too.?.?

The old stove will make our new shop nice and warm next winter. That is, if we get it built this summer. 😉 A place where we don’t have to worry about things like smoke leaking out and such. The old boy will go on to warm us for a long while.

Sourdough Sundays

Welcome to my new weekly series about everything Alaskan. Alaskana as the old timers call it around here.

Let’s start with a definition of “sourdough”.

A helpful guide to all words new Alaskans need!

Sourdough is (1) a “yeast-flour & water concoction made, preserved, carried and treasures by Alaska pioneers and prospectors, who needed it to make bread, hotcakes, cake and other baked goods, and who kept it alive by “feeding” it frequently with more flour or milk and making sure it didn’t freeze or dry out; continuing mainstay of many Alaskan kitchens; (2) originally a prospector, now any old-time Alaskan, but particularly one who has spent a lot of time out in the bush.”

Alaska Dictionary and Pronunciation Guide by Jan O’Meara

This series of posts will mainly focus on definition 2 with a surprise post now and then regarding #1.

My main inspiration of a true sourdough was my Dad. I have since met a few characters who embody the spirit of the Alaskan Sourdough. All inspire me to continue my quest for sourdoughness. As a mere cheechacko, I have a long way to go.

Cheechacko

With each passing season and opportunity to do Alaska things I try to feed my inner sourdough. Kayaking Kachemak or Resurrection Bays, halibut fishing, personal use set-net fishing, hiking, foraging, hunting, aurora watching, cabin building… The list goes on and on.

After nearly nine years here and all the experiences that I’ve had the pleasure of, my “to-do” list is still miles long. My bucket list is a 55 gal drum.

A few of those listed items… See Denali, up close, got to Chicken, visit Cordova in the fall, cross the Cook Inlet to explore the other side, go to Seldovia, soak in Chena hot springs, watch the red lantern winner cross the finish line, drive the AlCan, visit Barrow (now officially known as Utqiagvik), tan a hide, catch a yellow eye, pick gallons of blueberries, find gold while panning, dig up fossils, live full time in my cabin.

Do you know a sourdough?

Or are you a sourdough?