To The Bone
Exploration and insights at the intersection of food, travel hunting, fishing and nature
I am not merely a chef or a recipe writer, although most people know me as such.
My former partner Holly Heyser and I both enjoyed careers as reporters and editors for various newspapers in states ranging from Virginia to Minnesota to California.
And then, for more than 17 years, with Holly’s help fopr most of those years, 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 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 I can be myself: A little off-color, sometimes downright raw; analytical, a skill both Holly and I 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 I 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
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.
Hi Hank
It looks like you had a great trip to Alaska with Tyler. Fun stuff and congrats on the grouse slam. I was looking back through Pheasant, Quail, Cottontail on your hanging birds vs. plucking and gutting. I am going to do several ~10ish day trip through mid/eastern Montana this season with an antelope tag, a deer tag and a new bird dog for upland and waterfowl. I will largely be moteling it in an older Suburban. How would you suggest handling the storage of the waterfowl and the upland birds (huns, sharpies and pheasant)? Leave whole to age in bags on ice in the cooler or pluck and gut and bag before putting on ice? I guess breaking down the birds and icing would be an option, but I'd miss out on the aging benefits, but I'm not really able to hang them on the road. I will have a least one Yeti like coolers with me (70 quart). Every 10 days or so I will head back to our home on Rock Creek in Clinton, MT near Missoula. I may utilize a game processor in those areas for the deer and antelope if I am successful. I am newly retired and looking to do a lot of hunting this season. Apologies if this is the wrong forum for the questions. I am a To The Bone subscriber and have enjoyed the work.
Thanks - Joe York