My Father's Smokehouse: Life at Fishcamp in Southeast Alaska

by Vivian Faith Prescott

Filled with stories of family, food, and culture, and interwoven with personal recipes and photographs taken by the author, My Father's Smokehouse folds the reader into a beautiful island landscape.

The smokehouse at Mickey's Fishcamp holds more than fish. It is filled with traditions, memories, and stories of a thriving Southeast Alaskan life--of a family's perseverance, of the wisdom of S�mi and Tlingit cultures, and of respect for Elders and their knowledge of the natural world.

Mickey's Fishcamp is named after three generations of Prescott fishermen who commercially fished the waters of the Inside Passage, and is located near one of the oldest Tlingit settlements in Wrangell, Alaska. Here, next to the rainforest and sea, author Vivian Faith Prescott has found her place in the world. She is a student and teacher of the natural environment--harvesting spruce tips, berries, sea lettuce, and goose tongue and processing salmon, halibut, and hooligan--who combines traditional practices with modern knowledge.

Heartwarming and introspective, My Father's Smokehouse tells one woman's stories of Traditional Knowledge that is learned and passed on, from one generation to the next.

Genres: Cookbooks, Nonfiction, Memoir

243 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 5, 2022

Reviews

[Scholastic Squid]

Alaska, indigenous culture, a view into a family and their life

This was a wholesome and educational book about the author and their family. I enjoyed hearing about their grandchildren and how they included everyone in the berry picking. The fact that the family and the surrounding area is in fact a community that supports one another is amazing. It’s what we all want but they live, breathe, and eat it through fishing, picking, and passing down knowledge.
Although I will unlikely be able to cook many of the recipes in the book, I did enjoy having access and that she so graciously shared it. I wish I had access to the lichen to make the tea she spoke of because that sounds like something I need in my life lol.
Wonderful book, I would recommend.

[Christine]

I was generously given this through a LibraryThing giveaway. Thank you.

I really enjoyed reading about the author's life in Wrangell. The family stories are wonderful, and I enjoyed perusing the recipes she included throughout the book. It's doubtful that I will try any since they include quite obscure ingredients. A lovely read.

[angelofmine1974]

My review of this book can be found on my YouTube Vlog at:

https://youtu.be/TRBY5RoEQc8

Enjoy!

[ManOfLaBook.com]

For more reviews and bookish posts visit: https://www.ManOfLaBook.com

My Father’s Smokehouse: Stories and Recipes from Fishcamp by Vivian Faith Prescott is a memoir by the author of her life in Alaska. Ms. Prescott is an award-winning author and poet from Wrangell, Alaska.

This was a well written book, with interesting family stories, Lingit culture, and a few recipes. The author writes about her life in Alaska, being passed knowledge from her father, and passing it down to her children and grandchildren.

One of the most fascinating aspects of My Father’s Smokehouse by Vivian Faith Prescott was reading about food foraging. The way the author and her family go about to forage everything from spruce tips (the author’s favorite) to sea lettuce and everything in between is fascinating. I have no idea what to eat, and if stuck will probably live on grass or other vegetation I’ll see other animals eat.
Maybe?

The book consists of very short chapters, a few pages at the most. At the end of each chapter the author provides one or two recipes which were mentioned in the short passages. I was looking forward to try a few, but I don’t have access to many of the ingredients mentioned – and I’m not going foraging in Alaska anytime soon, unfortunately. The one recipe I would have tried is smoked salmon, a family favorite, which was not provided because of some family secret.

Learning about the Sámi and Tlingit cultures was another aspect which I found to be very interesting. The short tidbits about it sound fascinating, and I’m going to have to pick up a book or two to learn more.

The book was not what I expected, the short stories were well written and almost poetic. It seemed, however, a book written with future Prescotts in mind, and not necessarily the larger audience. Important as it is for them, and possibly Alaska, it simply did not speak to me.

[Mary]

Telling about her experiences learning to live at fish camp, and her family’s stories related to living at fish camp and foraging for local food, this book is not quite a memoir, and not quite an autobiography. Another reviewer said in their review that it seems like this was written for future generations of the author’s family, and I agree. While I read the whole book, it didn’t have a flowing narrative with a connecting thread that kept me engaged. It seemed very piecemeal, with short stories that were surface-level only.

These stories would have meant more to me as a reader if I could share in the emotion and feeling behind them. If I knew what brought the author back to fish camp. If the language wasn’t so plain and almost robotic. If the author shared her own feelings about things, not her observations of the world around her in a detached way. One of the early chapters discussed the Pulse shootings and the author’s sexuality—but did so in a way that left me asking “why was this even included” because it was so bereft of emotion on the pages, and then wasn’t mentioned again. Really unfortunate, as there’s so much potential in sharing these stories and this family’s tradition and heritage.

I enjoyed reading about the native herbs and plants foraged in Southeast Alaska. I’m an herbalist, and am looking forward to trying some of the recipes included. I also loved the enthusiasm for which the author includes spruce tips in everything.

Thank you to Goodreads and the author for a free copy of this book through Goodreads giveaways.

[A]

“A gift of salmon heads shows you you’re loved.”

We follow the author through the seasons as she harvests berries and picks medicinal plants in Southeast Alaska. She shares numerous recipes using the produce of her area, and we learn things like how to recognize, catch, prepare, and eat rainbow smelt. We are exposed to the Tlingit way of life which includes passing traditional knowledge to younger generations, helping the elders, and sharing with the community. There is value is this book for its non-tech knowledge & way of life. They show respect for the land & responsible use of natural resources with an ability to read nature’s signs to signal when and what to harvest. I found it interesting to learn how such knowledge matters for people living closer to the land, and about their different lifestyle. Unfortunately for me, I will never have use for much of the book’s information, and because reading about someone picking berries isn’t always exciting, I ended up skimming through many sections. But I could easily envision the author and her family providing popular half-day (or longer) immersive ‘cultural experiences’ to well-paying tourists.
I won a free copy of this book (thanks to the author & publisher!) and am voluntarily providing an honest review.

[Julia]

Inspiring and educational, Prescott's collection of stories and essays evokes a cozy, back-to-the-earth mood as she describes her family's harvesting, crafting and hunting traditions surrounding her father's fishcamp in Wrangell, Alaska. Despite being a nature enthusiast, I was surprised by how many plant and animals species I'd never heard of, and I eagerly found myself googling many of the unfamiliar species mentioned for further information. I'd love the opportunity to sample some of the recipes provided — I'm a terrible cook, landlocked and unable to source many of the ingredients locally. At minimum, I got the distinct feeling that I'm really missing out on spruce tips! The book was comforting and reassuring that even if the industrialized world implodes, a scenario that feels likelier with every passing day, life will still go on and those who respect and listen to the land will probably be all right.

I received this ARC via LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program.

[Ryan]

Very grateful to have received a copy to review through LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program. My Father's Smokehouse seeks to give readers a real "taste of place" for Southeast Alaska. Author Vivian Faith Prescott brings together stories from her Indigenous heritage with experiences living and growing up at her father's fishcamp. I will certainly be trying any of the recipes here with recipes that can be sources locally to me.

Organized through two seasonal cycles, Prescott takes the reader on a journey through the change of seasons and activities in her Southeastern Alaskan community. While I liked this organization style, the book would benefit from some minor editing (for instance, we don't get a definition of muskeg until almost 200 pages into the book).

Overall, a great read for anyone interested in local and Indigenous foodways.

[Tanya Hansen]

This is a great story about life in Southeast Alaska. I loved that recipes were included in the story using items that the family collects, hunts and fishes for. An insightful story that gives the reader a view into how those native to Alaska view their responsibility to their land, the intertwined lifestyle of those who rely on the land to survive and how the take care of the entire community not just themselves.

[Joan]

Wow, the stories that were told. The recipes shared. This was a really fun read and quite an experience shared with its readers. Thanks for the free book from Librarything!