To The Bone

Exploration and insights at the intersection of food, hunting, fishing and nature

I am not merely a chef or a recipe writer, although most people know me as such. And Holly is far more than just a fantastic photographer.

We both enjoyed an entire career as a reporter and editor for various newspapers in states ranging from Virginia to Minnesota to California.

And then, for more than 15 years, with Holly’s help, I’ve been running the website Hunter Angler Gardener Cook, and while that space used to be appropriate for writings outside the recipe space, the sad reality is that that time has passed.

And so, for a long while, I just shelved my stories from the field, essays on hunting, cooking, and life in general, as well as tales from the road, here in the United States as well as up in Canada and down in Mexico.

Holly did, too. She once had a wildly successful and thoughtful blog called NorCal Cazadora, where she asked hard questions about hunting, and there the debate was insightful, lively — and vital to helping both of us form our views on the pursuit. She shut that blog down in 2012, unable to devote so much time to something that didn’t help pay the bills.

Now, we’re back.

Substack has become a perfect place for the kind of writing I’ve been itching to do, for years now. It is a place where I need not worry about SEO, Google or keywords. A place where we can be ourselves: A little off-color, sometimes downright raw; analytical, a skill we’ve honed through years as journalists and data geeks; and, hopefully, at least mildly amusing and definitely never boring.

If you subscribe to this newsletter, which I will update often, ideally weekly (although we can’t promise a regular schedule since I travel so much), you will get to see those insights, as well as a look behind the scenes at whatever I am working on, in the kitchen or elsewhere. Set-piece essays yes, but also real-time musings as I have them.

“To The Bone” will be where I discuss matters both comfortable and uncomfortable, some with answers, others without.

Welcome, and thanks for reading,

~ Hank and Holly

POSTSCRIPT: Holly and I split as a couple in early 2023, but I am keeping her work on this site because even though we are no longer together, her work is powerful, and deserves a place to be read.