Traditional foods educator teaches berry propagation at Petersburg's Rainforest Festival

On a cold, cloudy Friday at Petersburg's Sandy Beach Park, Vivian Yéilk' Mork poured locally picked red huckleberries and water into a blender. Mork wasn't making a smoothie, though, she was trying to do the opposite.

"Now, you don't want to turn it full on when you do it," Mork explained, gently pulsing the blender as she inspected the pulp inside. "Because you're just wanting to separate the flesh from the seeds."

Mork was teaching a class on berry propagation, a way of growing new plants from their berries. Mork is Tlingit, from a large multicultural family, and has been a traditional foods...