Bush radio recipes

Lots of yammering on the bush radio tonight. As usual, they were discussing their favorite recipes. I always find that amusing—these big, gruff, Yukon men living in their one-room cabins without running water or telephones, tough as can be, spending their evenings debating the merits of this or that type of shortening.

I’m a bit of an eavesdropper on these conversations. I have no real excuse for needing a bush radio since I’m fully wired with high-speed Internet and telephone, but I do listen sometimes. I bought the radio a few years ago on the advice of a prospector friend of mine. Simon pointed out that in an emergency I can always reach somebody on the radio. I think he meant himself.

Tonight they were comparing wood stove recipes. I rarely use my Blaze King for anything other than straightforward heat, but occasionally I’ll put a pot of water on the stove to humidify the cabin. It’s gets very dry in this part of the world. Even the snow doesn’t have much moisture in it. It takes a whole lot of it to make one cup of water. I know this because when the electricity goes out, I melt a big pot of snow on the Blaze King to make tea. In winter, when the wind gets nasty, or the temps drop to -25 C. (-13 F.) or more, it can knock the electricity out for days at a time.

I think I’ll try Squeaky Bob’s recipe for whole wheat bread. The new Princess makes it easy to regulate the stove’s heat so I’m game for trying. And if I screw up, they’ll never know this woman can’t bake bread as well as they do.