Salmon is served many ways at the Alaska Native Medical Center (ANMC) in Anchorage, where the Sodexo/NANA team is led by Executive Chef Amy Foote. Foote is a fan of making salmon an ingredient in something, rather than “this big thing on the plate….it doesn’t have to be a heavy entrée.”

Foote has incorporated salmon into fried rice, salmon quesadillas and breakfast dishes. She’s also been known to half-smoke big sides of the fatty fish, put them up in jars (canning), and then mix it with cream cheese and lemon for a dynamite dip.

This bright pink wildflower grows in the Northwest and is the official flower of the Yukon. Foote turns it into jelly, flavorwise described as “sweet yet tangy, floral yet fruity.” The blossoms are boiled, and the resulting jelly is a gorgeous magenta color.

You read that right: This salsa is made with spruce tips, which you might recognize in nature as those, tender, bright new growths at the end of a branch. Spruce tips are very high in vitamin C and can be added raw to salsas and salads.

Another way to use the bounty where it’s cold much of the year: dried berries of many kinds. These can find their way into muffins, granola, salads and so much more.

Also at ANMC, when berries are in season, the time is right for salads that pop with spring color.

If you work with local farmers or foragers, you might want to ask if edible flowers are growing and when you can snap them up for a super memorable garnish.

In this recipe  by Seafood from Norway, a hearty ratatouille is the inspiration.