I grew up imbued with the flavors of two cultures (Colombian and Jewish) in which the task of nourishment was the unofficial honor and onus of the matriarchs — recipes and rituals of the kitchen whispered from mothers to daughters like a currency of sweet and savory secrets. It was only when I married Arron (our founder + CEO) and joined the Kallenberg family — one proudly built on three generations of Bristol Bay sockeye fisherman — that I began to include fathers and sons in my perception/understanding of what it means to feed.
After all, it was Grandpa Robert C. Kallenberg, my own childrens' late pioneering great-grandfather who led the charge, asail on his wooden boat the Polly K, as not only a fisherman of the glorious Alaskan red salmon (as sockeye salmon is also known), but also academically with regard to the species's critical conservation. A man who revolutionized for his family the concept of bringing home the bacon by instead bringing to it fish. Wild-caught, nutrient-dense fish that was more than just food or fuel — a fish that also became the mythical axis of the Kallenberg home. Whole lives planned around the fishing seasons, so many meals crafted from the bounties of the runs.
So vital was the presence of sockeye salmon in the heart of the Kallenberg home that Grandpa Kallenberg's second son Walt — Arron's dad — also got hooked (pun intended) on fishing for it every summer, as a matter of equal parts pleasure, profession and personal duty. With Grandpa Kallenberg's expertise and help, Walt —an engineer — designed and built the Mary K, the family's second vessel, upon which he, and later his son Arron, would spend the hours of their summers gillnetting salmon commercially. And so it was that wild Alaskan salmon became more than just a provision, but also a maker of purpose, a symbol of the cycles that in Alaska, their motherland (and fatherland, as it were), are forever in motion.
That all said, you can imagine the inherent joy that I feel when faced with the privilege of nourishing several generations of Kallenberg men. Of being able to serve them the very fish that they so nobly and lovingly spent most of their lives harvesting. And of being able to throw my own hat into the full circle of this sacred life cycle, adding my own efforts, flavor and mostly love.
Here's to celebrating fathers and father figures today and always.
Live wild,
Monica
P.S. To cap off the long weekend with a little Juneteenth celebration in the kitchen, I’m inspired by the punchy red sauce spooned all over this Pacific halibut recipe. The sauce is a sweet and sour escabeche made from red bell peppers and a medley of summer herbs — a wonderful way to observe the color of Juneteenth with a bit of seasonal flair. You can make the recipe as written with Pacific halibut steaks (our current Member Special, until they sell out!), or adapt it with seared Pacific halibut fillets.
Pictured above: Grandpa Walt and his son (our founder + CEO) Arron Kallenberg, sitting in the Homer cabin with Arron's son and daughter just before a weeknight meal of miso-maple glazed salmon, asparagus and sweet potatoes.
