The weekend’s music, educational programming and bird watching at the Birdfest & Bluegrass festival at the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge wrapped up with a Chinookan-style salmon bake.
Cooks dug out a long, narrow trench outside of the refuge’s Cathlapotle Plankhouse and piled firewood inside. Alder is preferred, said Vancouver’s Greg Robinson, but any hardwood — outside of cherry, which can produce a toxin — will do the trick.
The style of cooking leaves a tasty, but subtle, note of smoky flavor, he said.
It’s the same wood they’ll use inside the plankhouse, he said.
He’s a member of the Chinook Indian Nation, former manager at the plankhouse and has been making salmon in the more-or-less traditional way for the festival for 10 years.
“We’ve been cooking for tribal events for a long time, so we just stepped into this role,” he said.
The weekend, organized by the Friends of the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge, also included music in downtown, craft markets, canoe trips, flintknapping demonstrations and programs on ethnobotany, bird calls, geology and archaeology. That’s on top of all the birding opportunities.
A local fish market donated chinook salmon, which Robinson and others skewered and placed in cedar slits, butterfly-style beside the fire.
It’s like roasting a marshmallow over the fire, he said.
The chef has to use the radiant heat from the fire, and keep it at the right intensity, while turning the fish toward the heat until the right kind of golden brown.
“It’s always a matter of finding that perfect, radiant spot,” he said.
For a full tribal event, he said, the trench might be 20 feet long, and it’ll take a cord-and-a-half of firewood for the cooking
“It’s a favorite for all the tribal members,” he said.
