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Prince Rupert Environmental Society launches book of recipes and North Coast stories

The Prince Rupert Environmental Society launched The Salmon Recipes: Stories of Our Endangered North Coast Cuisine on Friday night.
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Carol Brown and Shannon Vanderheide of the Prince Rupert Environmental Society sell four copies of The Salmonn Recipes to Kathy Larsen.

While the title The Salmon Recipes: Stories of Our Endangered North Coast Cuisine may convey a simple cook book, the book launched by the Prince Rupert Environment Society on Nov. 16 is much more than that.

Mixed in with the recipes over the 120 full-colour pages are the stories of people who live on the North Coast and the important role the environment plays in their life. All told there were 80 contributors from community like Kitkatla, Hartley Bay, Metlakatla, Haida Gwaii, Prince Rupert, Oona River who stepped forward with recipes, stories, poems and photographs to make the publication a reality.

The idea for the book came from the Enbridge Northern Gateway Hearings held in Prince Rupert earlier this year, and were sparked when Gerald Stewart stood up at the end of the sessions, banged his drum and asked, “So is this all?”

“At the Enbridge hearings there were so many good stories told. I thought, and a lot of people though, that those stories needed to go further. People needed to hear these stories and it will affect them... To speak at the hearings people had to register 60 days in advance, so they spent a lot of time working on these stories and were happy to share them so more people could hear what is at stake,” explained Luanne Roth, one of the book's editors.

“The idea is to be able to offer salmon recipes, which is something that people will want, and salmon represent a real connection to the area. People around the world know of and eat pacific salmon.”

With a very limited budget, the photography, design and editing of the book were all done by volunteers. The result is something Roth said everyone should be very proud of.

“A lot of us have seen the Enbridge ads that have been running – This is going to be our ad, this is going to tell our story and we are here tonight to send it off,” she told a packed crowd at the Museum of Northern BC during the launch.

For more information on the book, or to purchase it visit www.saveourskeenasalmon.org