'We are what we eat'

PALMER — Palmer High School students in Linzay McGehee’s Alaskan foods and culture class were treated to an especially Alaskan lesson plan this week.

Jonathan Hale, one of McGehee’s students, was out hunting near Bethel and helped harvest a moose with his family. Hale’s family agreed to donate one quarter of the moose to be processed by McGehee’s two senior level culinary arts classes.

“We are what we eat,” joked PHS Principal Paul Reid.

Reid joined McGehee’s students in separating pieces of meat to be processed into burger and moose roast. As an avid hunter himself, Reid helped McGehee in guiding the students on how to cut along tendons and handle bloodshot meat from the leg where the moose was shot. While less than half of the students in McGehee’s culinary classes had dealt with processing moose meat before, the small handful with experience helped lead the way.

“It was cool because they were helping each other and giving directions. I don’t think I taught the class,” said McGehee. “It was cool to see them all work together.”

McGehee’s two Alaskan foods and culture classes had only two 65-minute class periods to successfully process the massive moose quarter. While McGehee said that students were timid to approach the daunting task on Tuesday, McGehee said that the class were operating like machines by the end of class on Wednesday.

“I think it’s unique in the sense that you can’t buy it in the store and yet, I think we’re surrounded by so many natural resources,” said McGehee. “It was kind of neat because I think for some of the kids it was the first time they’d ever seen it and may be the only time they’ve done it.”

One of McGehee’s more experienced students, Payton Portney, helped lead his classmates in how to prepare the game. Portney has been field dressing moose on hunting trips since he was young and goes through the process nearly every hunting season.

“I was stoked. Haven’t dealt with game in a while, it’s been a bad hunting season for us but it was fun,” said Portney. “It’s actually not very hard to teach someone how to do it you just kind of tell them where to put the knife and have them start cutting because no matter how bad you mess up, you just make it into burger. Put it in the grinder.”

McGehee’s Alaskan foods and culture class is new to the Mat-Su Borough School District this year. During the spring semester of last school year, McGehee approached Reid with the idea and they sought after ways to get a moose for culinary students at PHS. After Chugiak High School and Haines High School were both able to introduce moose into their curriculum, Hale’s donation of moose helped to enhance the educational opportunity for he and his classmates.

“Ms. McGehee pitched the idea to have Alaska cuisine class which teaches about culture and then foods from our state and I think that processing wild game is a really important skill,” said Reid.