Literary treasures in the Fjord Oyster Bank Vault

There’s a new book stop on the Hood Canal, the Vault, located in the Fjord Oyster Bank Café, Hoodsport. This unique shopping experience is situated within the retired vault of a bank – what once held gold bars and financial capital, now keeps literary treasures and intellectual wealth. Carefully curated to provide bookish stimulus to the visiting traveler, the local coffee hound and the gourmand exploring the unique canal experience.

Saluting the wet coast ecology that is Hoodsport, there are many volumes on the local flora, fauna, and fungi. The Vault has classic guidebooks such as: Pojar and Mackinnon’s essential Plants of the Pacific Northwest (1994) as well as new favorites like Deur’s Pacific Northwest Foraging (2014) – which aids the reader in identification of edible forest delights from huckleberries to nodding onions.

For the mycologist in our midst, the Vault has essential titles on local fungi identification, harvesting and safe consumption. Do not judge Arora’s All the Rain Promises and More (1991) by its zany cover, this book is a well-researched necessary to anyone

interested in mushrooms and identifying these delicious morsels. For those more interested in the global impact of fungi, Paul Stamets’ Mycellium Running (2005) is an illuminating read. Made up of both thoughtful scientific analysis and personal observations, this book offers a compelling case for fungi as the key to human survival. A world class mycologist, Paul Stamets is passionate about growing and understanding fungi and is a well-known unique character of the Pacific Northwest. He is the founder of Shelton’s own Fungi Perfecti (fungi.com) and was featured in Louie Schwartzberg’s 2019 film Fabulous Fungi (available on Netflix).

If you are interested in understanding more about the traditional cultural-botanical heritage of the Olympic Peninsula, Gifted Earth: the Ethnobotany of the Quinault and Neighboring Tribes (2021) presents a fresh and innovative approach. Gifted Earth was created in partnership between Deur and the Knowledge-Holders of the Quinault Indian Nation. Although the Quinault are located on the west coast of the Olympic Peninsula the Knowledge-Holders have familial connections throughout the penin-

sula and many of the plants discussed may be found along Hood Canal. Gifted Earth could be described as a guidebook, but it is much more – it delves into the fascinating intersections of indigenous ways of doing and being and the plant-world. It includes Indigenous plant names next to the English and Latin and careful descriptions about harvest, sustainable management, and the medicinal and cultural role each plant plays. This book makes an excellent more localized companion to Kimmerer’s internationally recognized Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants (2013).

Stewart’s Cedar: Tree of Life to the Northwest Coast Indians (1995) is a favorite at the Vault. Although outdated in some of its terminology (i.e., Indian), Stewart’s illustrations and careful explanation of Indigenous traditional methods of harvesting and using cedar products is engaging. Cedar bark, roots and timber were worked with only stone, bone, and shell tools or fire by Native Americans to create nearly

everything necessary to flourish on the west coast including clothing, rope, kitchen ware, canoes, and housing.

The photographs and the well-researched stories of From the Hands of a Weaver: Olympic Peninsula Basketry through Time (2014) (edited by Jacilee Wray) make an excellent introduction to the traditional weavers of the Olympic Peninsula. Each chapter is contributed by a leading expert in the field. Covering issues such as the rise of the basket collector trade and the poaching of bear grass and other weaving materials to close analyses of weavers and their weaving techniques– this volume is a great primer to both the interested amateur and the dedicated researcher. Anthropologists Thompson and Marr provide the chapter on the Hood Canal’s Native American weavers: The heritage of Twana basket making. This book is a great adjunct to a viewing of the beautiful and intricate basketry on display at the Skokomish Tribal Community Center (located on Highway 101).

If you are looking for fewer pictures and more words, The Vault has plenty of local novels to give you literary escape. Ken Kesey, Tom Robins and Jack Hodgins secured the Pacific Northwest as a mecca of Magic Realism and Port Townsend’s own Jack Caddy, (and winner of Nebula, Phillip K. Dick, World Fantasy, and the Bram Stoker awards!) just provides more concretion to that fact. The Hauntings of Hood Canal (2001) is an uncanny novel set in a small fictional town on the Hood Canal. With revenge, murder cover-ups and a supernatural force in the canal that demands retribution – this book is magic realism with a dash of horror.

Jim Lynch’s 2006 The Highest Tide is a lyrical coming of age story about the difficulties of growing up geek and the solace of the ever-changing tidal flats. Packed with detailed descriptions of sea life as important metaphor to the changes in the life of the protagonist, (Miles O'Malley) this book is one of those gems that you want to highlight and save.

If mystery is more your thing, Olsen’s new thriller Lying Next To Me (2023) is sure to please. Set on the Hood Canal, there are elements of Flynn’s Gone Girl (2012) as a husband witnesses the abduction of his wife and their fragile marriage and private life are put under investigation.

Next up, no self-respecting Pacific Northwest bookstore would be complete without a copy of the iconic and enduring memoir of M. Wylie Blanchet, The Curve of Time (1962). Canadian travel writer Blanchet presents vignettes of summertime boating excursions with her five children (and sometimes dog) up the Inside Passage of British Columbia during the 1920s and 1930s. Not simply a travelogue, Blanchet describes the book as "neither a story nor a log; it is just an account of many long sunny summer months, during many years when the children were young and old enough to take on camping holidays up the coast of British Columbia.” As a single mother widowed in 1926 when her husband was mysteriously lost at sea, the adventures in this book are a remarkable testament to overcoming grief. However, grief is not what colors the passages – instead wonder in the natural beauty of the coast is the undercurrent that drives the writing. This book is lauded as a great literary maritime masterpiece, and it is perfect to be read when you are on your own Northwest adventure.

Above is only a taste of the books loved at the Vault. Oh yes, they have quite a TASTE for seafood cookbooks and oyster manuals too at the Vault – but those did not make this review. Additionally, beautiful children’s books (Maurice Sendak anyone?) and philosophies are also available – but you’ll have to come look for yourself! Embrace the rain and enjoy a book.