The MUNCHIES Guide to Washington: Salmon People

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You're serious. You really are. It was in our way. You really are cutting it down, dude. Let's make a fire! Let's make a fire, man. In Washington, salmon is a culinary staple. You can't really do food in Seattle without salmon. Salmon, salmon, salmon. Salmon for sure. But for the native tribes of the Pacific Northwest, it's even more than that. It's a way of life. It's something that the modern tribes are working hard to protect. The spawning grounds throughout the state have been threatened by decades of logging and overfishing. So salmon hatcheries have cropped up to help combat this problem. I'm headed to a hatchery run by the Suquamish people, a tribe that's been present in this state for more than 10,000 years. Suquamish means people of the clear salt water. And I'm down to get my feet wet and my hands dirty to help them out in their cause. Grovers Creek Salmon Hatcher Poulsbo, Washington. Ben Purser, Grovers Creek Salmon Hatchery. You ready? Yeah. Okay. Well, your gear is right here if you want to get it on. We are a salmon hatchery and we're not killing these fish for consumption. Why do you do this? We do it to enhance the numbers, in a while they are left into their own. Survival rate is only ten to 15%. When we start doing it our survival percentage rate is 95 to 98. So we do fairly well here. So basically like To a degree. Yeah. We call it bucket six here but. I'm about to get in that water right now. Oh boy. Oh! It's definitely chilly. I'm going to give this a try. Whoa, whoa! Oh man, look at the size of the thing! Holy smoke. Set it down. Look at that big guy. A lot of people would consider it a lower-grade meat, but tribal people around here like chum for smoking more than anything else, because they preserve better. Look at the teeth on that guy. You can tell he's a boy because he's got long nose and he's got the really gnarly teeth. Now if you want to hold so you can feel him. You just hold him by the tail and hold him up. Hold him up? All right. Holy smokes man. And then it's done right? You floor right? On the floor okay. Whoa. Kiss him. Go in. Oh that's a big cohoel girl. If you just put your hand right here, you can literally feel, it's packed with eggs. If you want to check and see if she's ready, further on in the season once they start losing rock You can tell that the eggs are but they'll just come shooting out of there if she was ready.. Fairly easy. Females go over there. What we do with the carcasses after we harvest the eggs in the we actually sell it to the public for a dollar a fish, so everything gets used. I like that, man. I like that. We're gonna start egging these fish. All right. Use a knife, its got a rounded, coated tip, so we don't mess the eggs up. Yep. There you go. And take the knife. There you go. Let her rip. Yeah, there's. Whoa! There you go. Yeah. And you rub like this. Right. We call that a shaker. After harvesting thousands of eggs from the females, it's time to move on to the homies. Give him a squeeze. Squeeze and bend. I can't get no drip of water in there or nothing because it won't be viable anymore. That little bit there will fertilize a good four quart muppet. And how many fish you think that probably could be? 6,000. 6,000. That's a population right here. I wanna give this a try. All right just like that watch them teeth though okay. Oh, just wipe his junk off. Pull that fin back, you gotta stroke him right, okay? You gotta stroke him right guys, you gotta get your stroke on. There ya go. I'm about to have 6,000 kids. Oh man. So we're gonna take them inside and to the incubation room. And that's where we start with the bucket sex. Bucket sex guys. What we do is divide these evenly. Two males per one bucket, or one female. We're gonna fertilize these eggs. Alright. You dump yours? You ready? One, two, three, go. Dump it. So we have the water to activate the sperm. All right, here's where the cool part is. Put your hand in there. Stir. Is it frothy? And you're good. So, that's done. I just made 6,000 babies. With just a hand job. Oh, man. After we drain them. We put the eggs in a iodine bath for an hour. What does that do? The iodine kills any bugs, viruses, and it actually helps water harden the eggs. So it seals itself. Once they sit in there for an hour, they go in these troughs. How many salmon you think we have in here right now? 2.4 million. And there's 2.4 million? This is a massive operation. Next thing we do, we transfer them out here to the trays. They sit in here for another 30 to 45 days, depending on the water temperature. And that's when we transfer them out to the rearing pond. And then we release them. They go out in the ocean and they do their own thing, in three to five years, they come back and we repeat the process. Thanks a lot, I appreciate that man. That was a big lesson learned. How do I get out of this. Jus strip them off and we'll get to the boot room. So right now we're headed to go visit John Edward Smith. He's an artist, and a fisherman, and a member of the Skokomish Tribe talk about his connection with salmon, and why the relation with salmon and his tribe is so close. I'm a full-time fisherman that gets to carve. I got my first carving set when I was seven. I carved a canoe in a windowsill that I got my butt just beat for doing, but I did it, and I didn't care, because I grew up to be a canoe builder. You have a lot of connections to the elements, but specifically, the salmon. I'm sorry, but main Staple that's what. The food source. Yeah, Skokomish is basically people of the river. We hold the salmon up real high because it's probably what preserved our existence. What's the possibilities of seeing the team? We can go look at the shop. I got a fish stick that's just about done. We can go out there. Oh work. Yeah you make a couple of cuts on it then you'll be ready to use it. All right cool. Let's check that out man. John's showing me how to make traditional salmon sticks that are used to smoke salmon over an open fire the way people have for thousands was a gift. Yeah. We're using a few modern tools. But at the end of the day, the result's still the same. That's fish stick ready. Fish stick ready. Dude this is cool man. Okay, you know I had to just, I saw that. This is actually, it's a cougar. This is a cougar? Yeah, it;s a cougar hide. It dies of natural causes. Yeah, it's my shop poster, my cougar and my Johnny Cash man, I gotta have that. So the type of wood that we use matters correct? Yeah, yeah, it's got to be alder and a little bit of maple for flavoring. Basically dig a little hole. These are the kitchen tools for the day. Bang to the bang bang. Bang chitty bang bang, and yeah. Is there anything form of a ceremony like this at all? Oh, there can be. There's some things that we just kind of keep out of the public eye. Like that. I totally respect that dude. See I won't rub the sticks together cuz that, we're not allowed to show that to you. Fire it up. Fire it up. While we waited for the fire we were joined by a neighbor bearing a gift of his homemade smoked salmon. Look at that dude. My name is Tarik. Kevin. Kevin, how are you doing Sir? This is smoked salmon that we got here? Yeah. Look at that color. We got that on fire three days constantly. Wos, still has that nice salmon. Jake put that nice, that subtle smoke that's so good. I'm going to have to try to take me this whole thing home. So it looks like that fire, it looks like it's starting to go. So the next step is the fish, getting the fish ready correct? Yeah. All right. Cave man you be good. So what kind of fish are we doing? We have silver coho. All cut like last week. We're going to turn it into a butterfly. Man, look at that color, man. What do we do with that? Usually, if the smoker was going, you would head that, gut it, head it and then just smoke that, and then eat it. Little snack. Private stash. Okay so you want me to grab the fish stick? Yeah I need to to grab both of them. Okay. Take one. Actually need to wire these. Use a straight up coat hanger. Heck yeah. Everybody thinks this stuff went away and it just all got shipped to the res. This just wrap around it basically, so it don't split. Split, yeah. Take your fish. Mm-hm, Lay it tail towards you. Right, okay. And you open. Open it up. Yeah, probably a couple fingers or whatever. Okay. And you put, underneath, We're just sandwiching it together. Yeah, yeah. That's what we're doing. See, we gotta put some in here. Right over the top. Okay. How's that look brother? If it don't look good bro. You need some practice. You're getting there. A young padawan. There we go. That is that. Holy smokes, man. Just going to go with plain old salt and pepper. Work. Lot of people season up salmon, and it's. Eighty million ingredients? Yeah, and it kind of ruins it. Salt and pepper, right? It's the best way. All right, so. The fun part. We could take this over now? All right. We've got some people coming over to help eat it. Why we doing the wall there brother? To keep the heat. Keep the heat, okay. Not losing it. Okay. You just making a little. Pilot hole. Pilot hole. Okay, get the stake in there. Alrighty. There it goes. And that's pretty much, that's it's yeah? Yup. And so how long we gonna let this go for? About three hours to bake it. That's it. Awe man. I think I want to try this in my house. Yeah, it's the cheapest barbequer I ever seen. Right. Heavenly Father, I ask you, Lord, to have mercy upon us on this day. That you strengthen each heart and mind, Lord God, that comes to you and looks to you, Heavenly Father. Each one that walks in this home, Heavenly Father, will have your guidance and your protection. The food will give the strength, the courage, the understanding we need to carry on our lives in the best way. I ask you my God to have mercy upon each and everyone of us look to you, thanking you for all things that you do for us. And I ask this prayer in your holy and blessed name. [FOREIGN Thank you lord. All right. Time to eat. Oh yeah. What we got going on here? There's some beans and ham. Were the beans cooked on the fire too? Yeah. I barbecued them. I barbecued them individually. This salmon's on point, brother. When it really comes down to it, there's nothing like good old fashioned salt and pepper. Yep, that just. That's all it needs. And that way you just taste fish. Taste just fish, right? How intricate is the salmon with your tribe? According to our culture, it saved us. Our creator gifted us with the salmon. We hold it dearly to our heart. Every day, it's always been here. We used to have salmon year-round that we'd always go after. But nowadays it's getting so bad that we're losing. As we ate John and his family started talking about how their way of life has been under attack. Over the years, increased land development has impacted local salmon populations, and restricted their access to the river. This has led to conflict between these natives and the new neighbors. I've had my net cut in pieces, boat shot up, boat cut loose. be fishing in the river, you hear a car go by, you hear, river niggers, river rat. What? We're not gonna go away. We're not gonna stop doing what we're doing just cause they don't like us. Then you've got all the logging and everything ruining the salmon beds. We try to watch the river and see what we can do. We fish out of the canoes now and we're bringing some old tradition back while we still have the opportunity. Eating at the house is a family ordeal where we all just get together. It's part of a tribal, because if we have a meal and a person should happen to walk in, they're more than welcome to stay. Especially when Yeah so, sit down and eat and you gotta sit down and eat or you can run out the door. What exactly is an elder? An elder is an earned position. It's a position that when you do become one, it's somebody that you look for help. Being old doesn't mean you're an elder. Right. So some people are just old folks. Can you guess which ointment it is? That was amazing. I got like history, life lesson, a ridiculous meal. My brother man. Thank you man. This is just one fraction of how beautiful Washington is. Yes, there's nothing in here. This is pure juice. It's funny, like some of the smells of some of these are just. Woo! This is what you would call a hand mixer on steroids. I need Elk, I need Elk in my life. When you get done with your shift you get to hit the slopes. Oh man. That stopping thing is crazy.
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Channel: Munchies
Views: 1,787,080
Rating: 4.8798957 out of 5
Keywords: salmon, washington, munchies, vice, grovers creek salmon hatchery, how to, cooking, Munchies, Munchiestv, food, drinks, eating, chef, restaurant, VICE, girl eats food, al-kee-hol, VICE eats, being frank, chef's night out, action bronson, documentary, documentaries, interview, interviews, culture, wild, world, exclusive, independent, underground, travel, funny, journalism, vice guide, vice presents, vice.com, vice mag, vice videos, vicevideos, healthy food, Fish, Smoked Salmon, River, Eggs
Id: IVpGBXaOsYQ
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Length: 16min 24sec (984 seconds)
Published: Thu Aug 27 2015
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