Alaska Uncovered Podcast

90 Days of Alaska Native Foods in Sitka with Mary Goddard

• Jennie Thwing Flaming and Jay Flaming

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 Welcome to the Alaska Uncovered Podcast with me, your host, Jennie Thwing Flaming, my occasional co-host and full-time husband, Jay, and I bring you accurate, helpful, and entertaining information about Alaska Travel and life in Alaska.

 Hi everyone. Today I am so excited to welcome Mary Goddard, also known as Alaska Mary. Back to the podcast. She was on the podcast at the beginning of this year also, and we talked all about Alaska. Art and Sitka and all kinds of different wonderful things in that episode. But today she is back to talk about her experience this summer eating exclusively Alaska native food for 90 days, and it was such a fun challenge to follow along.

And I'm so grateful to Mary for joining us to talk about this today. Before we get to that interview, I wanted to remind you that between now and Monday, December 15th, I have added a lot of extra time to my calendar. 30 minute planning sessions. So if you wanna get that done before the holidays, this is the time I'm not going to be offering that, again until the middle of January.

So, take advantage of that. And one other thing I wanted to remind you, if you want to join Jay and I in June. In Alaska for authentic Alaska, the small group tour, we still have two rooms left, so that's room for between two and four people. Depending on whether you're a single or a double.

This week is the last week, so Friday is the last day to pay your deposit and save $150. So I will put in the show notes, the link to where you can learn more about it, and then you can register on that page and I'll send you the deposit link. All right, let's get into this episode with Alaska Mary.

My guest today is Mary Goddard. AKA Alaska. Mary and Mary has been on the podcast before. I, it was about a year ago, Mary, I think the first episode of this year, 2025. And, um, I'm so excited to have you back and talk about this recent project you did. So we'll talk about that in a minute.

But to start off with, can you introduce yourself to everybody again? Just tell us who you are. Absolutely. Well, Jennie, thank you so much for having me on your podcast again. Yes. Um, it's great to be back. You know, my name is Mary Goddard and like you said, um, you know, also known as Alaska Mary, which stems from my business that I have, which is, an Alaska native, art company where it's Alaska Mary Original designs, um, jewelry.

Gifts that you can buy for people. And my other business I have is Midnight Run, and that business is my production company. And so I co I co-own that with, uh, Dave Fed Doki. And,, it's a production company where we film mostly in Alaska. You know, we're an Alaska based company and we do a lot of videos on cultural, um, things and other things that I'm really passionate about.

Um, I guess I also wanna mention that I am, my Tlingit name is Kla. I'm Ton, I'm from the Eagle Moti and from the Brown Bear House and the drum house out of Clock one. Um, I live in Sitka with my husband and our son, Riker. And um, let's see what else. And I'm here to talk about the latest challenge I did called 90 Day Native.

Yes. So we are going to get to that in just a moment. So, um, Mary, can you also tell everybody where clique one is? 

So Kwan is located in Southeast Alaska. You know, I grew up, um, on the tip of Southeast Alaska, which is called the Yakutat, and that's a small fishing village, but my grandmother's family was from the village of Kwan, which is about a 40 minute drive from Haines.

And so you'd have to fly in or boat into Hayes and then drive 40 minutes to clock one. Yeah. Um. And then south of that, so 

Yay. Yeah. Awesome. So yeah, so 90 Day Native, so listeners, Mary did this challenge over the summer where for 90 days she only ate traditional Alaska native foods. And I just, I loved following.

Your journey throughout that time, and I know you're making a documentary about it as well. Yes, 

yes I am. 

Cool. Yeah. So can you, to start with, can you just tell everyone kind of what the challenge was and why you decided to do it? 

Absolutely. So 90 Day Native was a challenge that I created to eat only what I can fish, forge, or hunt for, for 90 consecutive days.

And really what that meant was, you know, no processed foods or foods that came from the grocery store or restaurants unless it adhered strictly to, um, that diet. And so really that meant like. In the morning when I got up, I was not drinking coffee. I was drinking water. Um, at night when we were eating dinner, I am not drinking wine.

I am drinking water or spruce tip tea or mm-hmm. What other thing I can forage and make. Mm-hmm. Um, so it was, you know, eating a lot of. Fish a lot of, um, the plants that I can forge. Um, hunting season was not open yet. I was able to, um, eat some wild game like venison and moose meat that was gifted. Um, but yeah, it was a pretty, it was a pretty strict diet and pretty challenging.

Yeah, I bet it was, for sure. So how did you. How did you kind of decide what was in and what was out? Was it pretty easy or were there things that felt like kind of a gray area and then like how did you navigate 

that? Yeah, yeah. Really good question. There was one thing that, you know, number one, making the decision to do this challenge.

Was the hardest part. 

Hmm. 

You know, because I knew once I would make that decision, that would really dictate if I, you know, if I did it, like I'm not gonna put something out there or make a commitment to myself and not follow through. And so, you know, I struggled with that for a little bit. Like, oh, can I really do, you know, 90 days, should I make it 30?

You know? And of course I have my. You know, a 10-year-old son and he is like, oh, just do it for a week, mom. And I was, I was like, well, I don't know. Um, but really the, the 90 days came about from like, I wanna see the difference. And you really had to push yourself in order to eat like this for 90 days.

Right. Because it would be easier to do it for a shorter amount of time. Mm-hmm. Um. But I guess the why. You know? The why for me was really personal. Mm-hmm. You know, I think about Mike Lincoln ancestors and how they thrived off this land and. What I've learned is that we've lost a lot of knowledge. Mm. And so for me it was about re trying to recover some of this knowledge.

It was trying to reconnect to our local food system. Mm-hmm. And really discover how is it that my ancestors thrive so well. Mm. And especially in a day and age where, you know, I kind of tell this story where a year ago. Um, I was really trying to figure out like, how can I drop some weight? How can I not, not just drop weight, but how can I feel healthy and feel good?

Mm-hmm. And as I scrolled social media, I just became more and more confused and Yeah. Right. Yeah. 'cause, you know, we get, um, bombarded with all this information, what's healthy and what's not. Yeah. And so I really wanted to just simplify that process and go, okay, what did the food system look like before?

Yeah, people were healthy before. Yeah. Um, what can we do? And so that's, you know, that's the main reason why I went and did this challenge. 

Mm-hmm. Were, did you eat any foods or was it, was it part of the plan to eat other indigenous foods that weren't, weren't necessarily from Tlingit land or, no, it was strictly things that were available on Tlingit land and in the ska area.

Yeah. Well, you know, part of it was, um, you know. I was pulled by my curiosity, like I'm a very curious person. I am, especially when it comes to food and things that we can forge for. Um, it's fascinating to me, like I just can't get enough of it. And so the idea was Alaska food, Alaska native food. Yep. Food from the lands and from our waters.

Yep. And so the idea was no matter where I went in Alaska, I would be able to eat off the land. Mm-hmm. Um, so. You know, I did eat some muck and I ate beluga and uh, and that was amazing and delicious. But that came, that was gifted. That was from, yeah. Up and Barrel sent me that. 

Cool. Can you tell everyone what Muck is?

'cause they might not know. 

Yeah. Good. Okay. Let's see if I can describe this Well, so Muck is the, um, the fat of the whale, but it has the skin and the fat with it. 

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. 

And. It was pretty funny because it was the one thing that my son was like, absolutely in love with and wanted to eat all of it, you know, native Bacon.

And I'm like, no, stay away. This is mine. I need this. 

Like, now wait a minute. These are actually my galleries. 

Yeah, exactly. And he, he loved it. And he, you know, as I did this challenge, he was really into the food and wanting to eat. Um. You know what I was eating as well. 

Yeah, 

that's cool. But yeah. 

Um, so, so as a, you know, there's three people in your household, so how did you navigate that?

Did like, did your husband and your son eat what you were eating or did they, were they like, see you later, Mary. Mom, we're gonna do our own thing. 

They, they love, um, foraging, hunting and fishing as well. Yeah. And so they were really excited to be part of it. The challenge part, you know, my, my 10-year-old was like, man, I just don't wanna give up that nacho cheese.

Right? And uh, and my husband was like, you are gonna need all the food we can fish and forge for, right? And so when you think about the amount of food we eat, it's actually pretty remarkable. Um, and so. I felt like, you know, I spent quite a bit of time foraging and fishing. Yeah. And, and getting outside and gathering.

Um, and I actually put up a ton of food and realized, wow, I actually eat a lot of food. 

When you're actually thinking about it, I'm sure it's like, oh yeah, this is quite a bit. Yeah. Yeah. And listeners, I, I think if you didn't catch this before, like Mary, you. You were already, and we talked about this in the previous episode, where you were, you joined us, like you were already someone who does a lot of foraging, 

right?

So it wasn't like you went from eating canned beans exclusively or, and Oreos or something to the like. Like, I know it was still challenging, but you did have a lot of skills and experience that sort of made it, I assume, was what kind of made it possible for you to do this. Yeah. 

Yeah. Really good point.

So like, coming into this challenge, you know, um, I thought, well, I actually off the land quite a bit, um, because I, we do a lot of subsistence, um, harvesting. Yeah. And what I realized was we, um. We fill in the gaps with subsistence food. Um, but even some of the food that have, have access to, I didn't really incorporate that well.

Like, oh, you know, we have seal fat and we rendered oil. And before the challenge there was a lot of seal oil in my fridge that, you know, um. I thought, well, I'll, I'll have it, but not today. We'll have it, but not today. 

Mm-hmm. 

So what this challenge really did was force me to really, uh, rediscover some of the foods from my childhood.

Mm. And um, even new foods, right? Like, maybe I wouldn't force myself to go out and find, um, enough greens to eat for dinner, but for this challenge, I really had to. 

Yeah. 

And so. That really opened my eyes up to even more plants that I was not utilizing and utilizing 'em in different ways as well. Mm-hmm. Um, it was, it was a lot of fun for me, whereas, um, I think maybe someone who's not into harvesting or subsistence living or has no base knowledge, it could be probably even a bigger challenge.

Definitely. Yeah. 

For sure. So how did you, so you had a quite a bit of knowledge already, but you're also talking about how like what I was already doing wasn't remotely enough. Like what were some of the ways that you learned more or like who helped you along the way, or what helped you along the way with figuring out like, Ooh, I need more than one way to prepare something or.

Um, like new things that you didn't know could be part of your diet? Like how did you, how did you learn that? 

Yeah, good question. A lot of it was experimenting, but for this challenge, I enlisted the help of three mentors and um, the three different mentors were Steve Johnson, who's known as like a super harvester here in Sitka.

Cool. 

He's mostly who like fishing. Um, you know, he owns a company called Tradit Fish. Which is smoked salmon, that he's is shelf stable. Mm-hmm. And then, um, Rob Canine, who is, um, known as the Tlingit chef. Yeah. And he travels around quite a bit, working for Natives, which is, um, a nonprofit on indigenous food ways.

And then Naomi Michelson out of Kechika, and she is, um, uh. Like she knows about plants, you know, more than I do. And so when I needed proper identification on a plant that maybe I haven't harvested before, I would give Naomi a call. Um, and then, you know, with Rob, it was like some of the food ideas like, oh, what can I do?

Um, and you know, he talked about like, if you're doing this challenge, have that food readily available, you know, get it prepped, put it in the, the fridge, you know, um, you know, so I did some food prep like that. And then Steve Johnson was a, a tremendous help because, um, I don't have a boat. We don't have a boat in our family.

Yeah. So having a boat gives you access to so much more food. And so, yeah. You know, Hugh took me out, seaweed harvesting herring, egg harvesting, dip netting. Um. And so, uh, you know, so I, I enlisted a lot of help and it was pretty incredible. You know, in the beginning I wasn't sure if I wanted to put this out on social media and share the challenge, uh, you know, for several different reasons.

But I didn't know how people would take it, if it would be a distraction or a help. Um. But it was a huge help. And people would send in ideas or questions or, Hey, have you thought about eating this part of the animal? You know, are you eating the liver? Are you getting all the nutrients you need? And, and it was amazing to see people's not only support, but like their caring concern of, well, you really getting the nutrients you need.

, Which leads me to the point that throughout the whole challenge. Um, you know, I was , having doctor's visits and doing blood draws and making sure that, um, I was healthy and safe throughout the whole challenge.

Yeah, I would. That's the next thing I was gonna ask you is like, how did you make sure you were okay? Which is, which is really funny because like, I know, do you remember that documentary from, I don't know, it's probably 20 years ago, the Supersize Me documentary? Yes. Where the guy just ate fast food or.

Did he just ate fast food or he um, or he always, always got the, he always got did the upsell whenever it was offered or, yes. Something like that. The time it was 

offered, he had to 

Yes. Also, like do you decide 

he would have to say yes. 

Yeah, and he also like got monitored. Ooh, by a physician, kind of for safety.

Yeah. Oh my gosh. 

I, it makes a lot of sense. But you know, it's funny because like, if you're just eating whatever you buy at the grocery store, no one ever says like, oh, Mary, are you checking your blood work every week to make sure you're getting the nutrients you need? You know? Exactly. But as soon as we're doing something different, it's like, ooh.

Yeah. Yeah. You know? 

Yeah. Yeah. So, no, that was pretty, it was pretty fascinating to, you know, track that and, um, yeah, and, and, uh, to feel, I, I think about it like eating this lifestyle compared to like, this supersize me, I would imagine how terrible he must have felt. Right. And this diet, even though I had moments of, you know, going through ketosis and being a little, like a little hangry and a little like, Hmm.

I wanna really have a cup of coffee. 

Yeah. Um, 

physically I felt good. Mm-hmm. Physically, you know, I had my moments of being tired, but I look at it, I'm like, whether I ate that way or not, I would be tired because I like to go pretty hard. I like to, you know. Yeah. Um, and then doing this diet, you know, I'd stay up till like a 10:11 PM at night processing food and then get up and do my work and or be out, you know, harvesting and, yeah, cooking not only for myself, but cooking for my husband and my son.

Completely different meals, so, 

right. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, wow. Yeah. So. What, what was the most challenging thing about it for you? Like now as you look back on it, you're like, this was really the thing that was the most difficult or the most challenging. 

Yeah. You know, I think the thing that was most challenging is that social aspect.

Yeah. So like, even though I had, you know, social media and this social aspect of doing this challenge. It's really different going to somebody's house and saying, well, I can't have, you know, I'm Celiac so I can't have gluten. That's already hard enough. But going to someone's house and saying, I'll just have some water and Do you mind I brought my own food to cook.

Yeah. 

And so I think we're, you know, we're. Born to be social creatures. And if somebody is doing something, you just naturally kind of glob onto it and yeah, do that because it feels comfortable, right? Like, oh, you're drinking a latte. Well, I'll drink a latte. 

Yeah. 

If you're doing this, I'm going to, you know, do that.

And so, um, the social aspect was definitely the most challenging. 

Yeah. I can imagine. That makes a lot of sense. 'cause like you said, humans are social and food is so social and Yeah. Community oriented. Mm-hmm. Yeah, definitely. Okay. What was your, what was your favorite food out of this challenge? Either one that you already knew you loved, and you're like, turns out I didn't get tired of that.

Or something new that you discovered that you hadn't tried before. 

You know, I think the one that really stands out to me is, um, sour Doc. You know, with this big, just delicious green, um, easy to get. Just has this nice like lemony flavor to it. Um, but it was not only the greens cooked up, it's like you can toast it and it tastes amazing.

Mm. Um, my favorite were the seeds, you know, like gathering the seeds and toasting them up and adding them to things. Gave that little crunch and that little like, lemony flavor. Um, so that one was the most, like, I don't know, just joy filled for me. Um, but then of course, salmon. I mean, I ate salmon day in, day out.

Never got tired of it. Still am not tired of it. Um, another fun one, I guess would be like sea cucumber. 

Mm. 

You know, 'cause prior to this challenge, like, I don't know if you've seen a sea cucumber being cut open and cleaned out. I haven't. It doesn't look like something you want to eat. 

Yeah. I can see, I mean, I've definitely seen lots of sea cucumbers, but not in a food way.

Yeah. And they're, and they're delicious. They're so good. And then, um, you know, you know, I'll go back to the sea oil. Uh, I was so nervous about cooking with it, using it. Um, but um, I would crave something fatty and crunchy at night. Yeah. And so toasting up black seaweed and seal oil was. Like my treat. Cool.

That's awesome. So good. 

Love it. So how, how did your body do with this challenge? I know you said you felt good. Yeah. Like when you went to see your doctor, like how often were you going and were there any concerns that came up along the way? Or was it just all green lights? 

Yeah. You know, um. I went in about every two weeks to do, uh, lab work.

Mm-hmm. And, um, you know, my cholesterol levels dropped. Everything looked good. I think the only concern was a couple of times my blood, um, blood cell count was down and they didn't, was, you know, because of the diet or something else. Um, so they were following me closely. Uh, they were worried about how much weight I was losing, like how quickly.

Yeah. 

You know, um, I. Something that was new to me before this challenge, or, you know, before this challenge was, uh, your body entering a ketosis state. I didn't really understand what ketosis was. Mm-hmm. Um, I, you know, you heard of like the keto flu, like you feel flu and 

Sure 

is going through changes, so.

Yep. Um. I, you know, entered ketosis and was in it for quite a while. Mm-hmm. Um, probably until, um, I was introduced to birch syrup up north. Mm-hmm. Like a hundred percent pure birch syrup. Mm-hmm. And that really changed the game for me. That was like, oh, I got a little bit of a sugar. Um, yeah, that's something sweet, you know, 'cause we are so bitter.

Um, but that was the biggest issue was the, the, the amount of weight loss and how quickly I was losing weight. 

Yeah. 

Um, and at the very end that became probably the biggest concern. Mm-hmm. I think the lightest I was at the very end, uh, was 35 pounds lighter than I was the year before. 

Yeah. 

But that's a big difference.

Um, 

yeah, it really is. And it sounds like your doctor was still. Comfortable with that, but maybe barely. 

Yeah. They were like, it's good you're about to end this diet. Yeah. You don't have to worry about it anymore. Yeah. You know, I think it's really interesting because, um, with the doctors, you know, they're learning more and more about rapid, uh, weight loss due to drugs like ozempic, right?

Yeah. So you see like drastic weight loss in people, um, that are being monitored because of ozempic. Before there was not as much, um, research done there. 

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So Mary, I'd love to hear about what happened after. Right? So just to kind of put this in context, we're recording this in November, and listeners are going to hear this in December.

And you wrapped up this challenge at the end of September, right? Yeah. So it's been a couple months now. Yeah. So first of all, I wanna know about day 91. What happened on day 91? Oh my God. Like I'm gonna have coffee or, uh, I'm gonna have, what, what were you like? Okay, I'm adding this back in immediately.

Well, immediately was coffee. Mm-hmm. I was like, man, the first thing I do when I get up, I'm going to have a cup of coffee and I want a big bite of vanilla ice cream. Hmm. Because it just, you know what, on this diet, there's absolutely no dairy. You know, we don't have Yeah, right. No, right cheese, no milk, no ice cream, no sour cream, any of that.

And, um, no 

fish milk. I'm kidding. 

No fish. That's not a thing. Yeah. And not a thing. Um, but yeah, so it was, it was exciting. It was a, you know, um. My son, Riker was all excited too. 'cause he was like, oh, you're having ice cream. Well do I get some ice cream? And I'm like, sure you can have some ice cream in the morning with me.

So we ate, I drank a cup of coffee and had, I was just going to have one bite of vanilla ice cream to slow the ease into it. And I probably had a good four bites of, it wasn't even vanilla, it was like a, I don't know, a caramel chocolate swirl ice cream that was. Pretty divine, so I 

love that. That's, that's amazing.

You know, it's funny, I was just thinking while you were sharing that, Mary, I was thinking about something that Jay, my husband, and he's sometimes the co-host here, is people have heard him and his background is as an archeologist, and so one of the things that he. He has talked about when it comes to food is that humans can adapt to a lot of different diets.

Right? And, and like, depending, you know, now we can go to the store and get whatever, but like if you were a person living in the Arctic like 8,000 years ago. Yeah, you would only have what's available in the Arctic, which is very different from what's available in Southeast Alaska. Yeah. Or in Sub-Saharan Africa or South America.

So it's just so interesting to think about like your diet that you had for those 90 days, how different it would've been if you were in a different place too. 

Absolutely. Yeah, I thought about that a lot. 'cause I thought, man, what if I did this in Hawaii? All the fruit, I would be eating so much fruit. Yeah.

You know, so you are right. I mean, absolutely. And, and I think that is part of like, um, a bigger message of 90 day native is, you know, what is local to you? Yeah. What is indigenous to the area that you're in. Mm-hmm. Explore that. You know, really get involved with that food, um, because it probably has everything you need there.

Yeah. Um, you know, years ago I watched a documentary and I, and I wish I knew the title of this 'cause I would love to re-watch it, but essentially it was, um, a documentary on, in some indigenous people in Russia. 

Mm-hmm. 

And. This tribe only ate seal meat and seal fat. Mm-hmm. Only ate seal. And they tested their, you know, their blood and they tested their nutrition and their health and they found that, um, they got everything they needed just from eating the seal.

That's wild. So I thought that was pretty fascinating and, you know, yeah. Um, documentaries like that have served to inspire me to do my own food challenge and journey. 

Yeah. Yeah. That is so, that's so fascinating. Okay, so in the last couple months, Mary, how, like, how has this experience changed you or impacted your life?

Maybe in general? And I'd also love to know. What, if there are any things that you took from it that you're making sort of part of your on going diet, either things that you are eating that you didn't before, or things that you did eat before and you've decided not to go back to. I'm, I'm really curious about both of those.

Yeah. You know, when I first finished this challenge, I thought, I'm not gonna eat white rice. I'm not gonna eat this much sugar. I'm not gonna do this. I've had my moments of like, oh my gosh, this ice cream is so good. Yeah. But you know, kind of the big takeaway is less carbs and less processed food. Yeah.

You know, like what is, um, the food that we have access to here. Yeah. Um, you know, and I think of, uh, more serious issues as well. I mean, um, I think Jennie, you knew me when I was doing the, um, regional catalyst for regenerative tourism. Yes. You know, and I, I spoke a lot about like, how do we make our tourism and the sector regenerative?

Um, but a lot of times it brought me back to the food systems. Yeah. And, and if we're truly gonna be regenerative, we have to be, we have to be part of this, our ecosystem. We have to be part of it. We have to be in good relationship with it. And, you know, food is such a huge factor in that. . And so, you know, , what has really done for me is just pushed into that further.

Mm-hmm. 

, I talk about. Alaska native cultures and how we have this subsistence lifestyle. But the truth is, is as much as we have this subsistence lifestyle, we also have this lifestyle that is incorporating highly processed foods. Um, you know, you think about Alaska in particular, 90.

Oh, I think it's like 95% of her food is shipped in. 

Yeah. 

And so when you're thinking about. You know, how, how does that affect the environment? How does it affect our health? Yeah. We are getting food that's lower grade food nutrition wise because it's being barged. 

Yeah. 

Um, you know, here, whereas if you go right outside and you can get the freshest, most nutrient dense food possible Yeah.

Then it's better for your overall health as well. Yeah. And I mean, and then you think about your physical health. Think about how much physical movement and activity it required for me to live this lifestyle. 

Yeah. 

And um, you know, speaking of other documentaries, there was another one on Blue Zones and how people in Blue Zones are healthier.

Mm-hmm. But it really boils down to they're connected to their food system. They're either gardening or they're fishing, or they're doing some physical movement to get their food. Yeah. So, yeah, it, it's, it's got me thinking about all kinds of things. I 

bet. Yeah. 

And pushing into that stuff a lot more. 

Yeah.

So it sounds like one big takeaway you had that that is super, super relevant to anyone is to like get to know your local food system and, and what you can source wherever you live. Um, awesome. Whatever that is. It sounds like that's definitely one thing that all of us can do. Yeah. 

You know, like I've been really processing since the challenge in writing and journaling and, you know, one thing that really sticks with me is if we can change what, and the way we eat our food, we can change the world.

That's beautiful. And, and I, and I say that with confidence because. We have already changed the world by changing our food systems. Yeah. And maybe some of that was not for the better. Some of it was for, you know, the good, but when you think about how our food is industrialized and it's um Right. You know, it becomes more of this commodity.

Yeah. But if we can really think about our food systems as a relationship Yeah. And if we get in good relationship with that, then we are gonna have healthier bodies, healthier minds, and a healthier world. 

Yeah. Yeah. I love that. That is so cool. And that's such a good point that like we already changed the world, not always in good ways with our food systems.

So Yeah. I mean, everyone needs to eat, right? 

Yeah. Yep. Everyone needs to eat, for sure. Yeah. And you think about it, it really wasn't that long ago that our food systems changed. 

Mm-hmm. 

You know, like late 18 hundreds. Um, and for some of these other remote areas in the world, maybe even later. Yeah. You know, 

so, 

yeah.

Um, okay. So Mary, what about visitors coming to Alaska? Mm-hmm. Who are like, Ooh, I, I wanna, like, while I'm there, I wanna get to know some local food, some, some indigenous food. And of course some of the things that you ate on your diet visitors wouldn't have access to you because they're not in restaurants or stores, or you could only harvest them as subsistence, which a visitor is not doing that of course.

But what are some things like. What is either some general advice you have about that for visitors or some specific foods that you think people should try if they get the chance? 

Yeah, I would say, you know, number one, like one of the values of um, I guess indigenous cultures or Alaska native cultures is curiosity, right?

Mm-hmm. And so, like, number one, first be curious. Come in, be willing to try something new. Um, you know, I would first point to the seafood. Seafood is like our main source of protein. Um, and it is the most easily accessible in Alaska because they're seafood producers. Mm-hmm. So you have the opportunity, um, you have the opportunity to have fresh seafood or even like, um, jarred smoked salmon or like, uh, the shelf stable, um, smoked salmon by traditional fish, you know?

Fish is the, I think the easiest and foremost way to Yeah. Um, try something new. Yep. There's companies that have seaweed in them, like barnacle, um, but there's also other companies that sell dried seaweed. Any chance you get try, I think, you know, something that's locally harvested. Yeah. Produced. 

Yeah. 

And when it comes to food production in Alaska. We have a long way to go. Um, you know, we've grown quite a bit, especially with like the Mariculture initiatives going on. Um, but we still have a long way to go. I mean, people are living subsistence, but then the time and energy to be able to, um, produce the food.

Mm-hmm. Uh, we would need more people, you know, we would need Yeah. Would need more support. 

Yeah. 

Yeah, absolutely. But I think part of like, I was just gonna say part of sharing that curiosity and if there's more of a need and a hunger for it, I think bigger companies will take that mm-hmm. Into account and be able to support some of the smaller companies doing this.

Yeah. And I, the summer, um, actually during the challenge, I was on Alaska Dream Cruise, which was amazing. And. They actually, most of their food that they have on board is all, um, from local producers. So from like seafood producers to That's 

awesome. 

You know, and so, so it can be done and it, it just, um, needs the, the backing and the support of some companies that can support it.

Yeah. Yep. Yeah, absolutely. Um, so Mary, before we move towards wrapping up, is there anything else you, oh, actually, can you tell everybody about the documentary that you're making based off this experience? And like, I know you don't know exactly, but like roughly when will people be able to watch it and then how do they watch it?

Yeah, absolutely. Um, our goal is to have it done by, next September. Mm-hmm. So 2026. Mm-hmm. And that's gonna depend on funding. Yeah. Um, you know, we, this was a passion project, which just means that, , myself, my husband, and, uh, my business partner Dave, put our own time and energy into this. 

Yeah. 

So we filmed, even though the challenge was for, 90 days, we filmed starting in April.

Mm-hmm. Um, with the beginning of the herring harvest. And so, yeah. The documentary is gonna showcase different foods,, mostly in Sitka that were harvested Yeah. And assessed and, eaten. And so we still have, we have some master interviews still to film, which would be with some of the doctors and some of the other, experts and Yep.

The field to really showcase that. 

Yeah. Cool. 

So, yeah, so we're looking for funding, we're looking for grants. We're looking for any kind of support that would really help us get, you know, across the finish line so we can put the, yeah, I think a really important, um, documentary out there. 

Yeah. I, I can't wait to watch it.

It's gonna be so cool and I'll make sure to tell we, I'll put the link for it in the show notes. Um, if people wanna support this project, you can definitely do that. And also, I know you'll tell me when it's out there and how people can watch it, so I'll report that back to everyone. 

Yeah, and, and you know, for listeners out there, if you, were not connected to social media and didn't get to see the weekly updates, if you go to either my website, Alaska mary.com or to the Alaska Mary, YouTube page, you can watch the weekly updates that we posted.

And so you can kind of see from the very first. Video to the end. The change I think, in my skin and my appearance as well as seeing kind of all the exciting, um, food. Foraging fishing and things that happened during all kinds of cool stuff. Yeah. Love that. 

Yay. Okay, and we'll have that. It's Alaska mary.com.

I'll put that in the show notes as well. Okay, Mary, one more thing that I wanted to tell everybody slash talk to you about is that Mary also has a podcast and that you started. This year. So can you tell everyone just kind of, and it's wonderful by the way, so you should all listen to it. 

Thank, 

um, can you tell everybody a little bit about like what your vision is for that and kind of where you're going with it?

Absolutely. So, um, my podcast is titled Connect Culture Cause and, you know, as an Alaska native owned business, um. Actually with both my businesses, the passion behind it is sharing out culture in a respectful way. And you know, I think there's a lot of, um, people that are really curious about Alaska native cultures.

And I really wanted to share out this podcast to bring more attention to that and showcase different people that, um, are connected to their culture and to their community. And the reason behind it, like, um, you know, there's connect. How, how do you connect to your culture, um, connect culture? What is your culture?

You know, um, so far everyone I've, um, been doing the podcast with has been Alaska native. And then Cause why are you connecting to your culture through that way? Mm-hmm. Um, an example is we did a, I did a podcast with Lance Twitchell, who's a Tlingit language instructor. And, um, why is he passionate about Tlingit culture or the Tlingit language?

Excuse me. Yeah. And so just going into that, um, I think is really interesting. So the podcast serves as, um, sharing out that information. 

Yeah. 

And, and it was exciting 'cause I remember speaking to you about the podcast and you were like, yes, go for it. 

I like, yes. I was like, oh Mary, you gotta do it. And then you did and made me so happy 

and I love it.

It's so much fun. 

So fun. 

You know, so far having a 

podcast is the best. 

It is. It's like great conversations and you know, you get to speak with interesting people and Yeah. Um, things that align with your passions and your vision and, uh, totally. 

And you get, and one thing that I love about it that I think applies to your podcast as well is you get to bring other people in to like tell their story or their mm-hmm.

Mostly their story. Right? And, and get to share that with other people. That is just such a privilege to be able to do that. I love that. 

Thanks. Yeah. Pretty excited. We have, I have a pretty good lineup and, uh, more people that I will be, um. You know, having great conversations with on. Yay. So, yeah, and I don't know if I told you this, Jennie, it's also played on um, KCAW, which is our local radio station.

You did tell me that. Yes. I love that. That's so cool. So that's really fun. Well, Mary, thank you so much for coming back and sharing about this challenge and about this journey and sharing your work with everyone. 

Absolutely. Yeah, thanks for having me on, Jennie, and  📍 I look forward to our next conversation.

Me too.





 





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Jennie Thwing Flaming

Host
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Jay Flaming

Co-host