I’ve mentioned before that while I don’t hunt myself, I’ve grown up around and live surrounded by hunters. One stands out in my mind, not in a good way, and this column brought it back. I ran into him and he bragged that he’d gotten deer permits for himself, kids and wife…and shot four bucks himself, then tagged them w the above mentioned permits. He was heading out for a fifth. I still dislike that man. Thank you for writing this!❤️
I’ve never killed an animal in my life. But, what I buy, I eat - down to the last scrap. I was also brought up w a waste not want to mentality and, despite the fact that I can afford to throw food out, morally I can not and I’m so proud to be like that.
That is just lovely. I live since about a year back in a very small house on the river (270 square feet but with all the amenities) and although I’m expanding in May the space won’t necessarily fit a chest freezer. Because of obvious space issues in the building as is I now have a single under bench freezer which really makes you think about what and how to fit things. When planning a green house you need to think about methods to preserve produce that mostly doesn’t involve the freezer because that space needs to be reserved for the meat and fish of the coking season. When having a good morning on the geese more often than not I have to rein it in and really fight the mink in a henhouse urge to keep shooting. The thing that makes that reining in possible is the limited space in my life. Another is that other thing that you touch on (and to which you’ve contributed for sure) which is being able and knowledgeable enough to use more of what is harvested. Limitation forces creativity and productivity and there can be quite a joy in being limited because of that.
Well said. Sometimes having a bountiful harvest creates challenging cooking options. After a recent trip to a Georgia quail plantation I have several coveys of quail in our freezer. Some recipes such as Hoisen quail and quail poppers call for using only the breasts and I have been experimenting with ideas to use the tenderloins and legs. The tenderloins go into quail wontons and the legs are pan fried with spicy sauces. Both great wild appetizers. No waste.
Well said! A butcher I’ve followed for years, Brandon The farmstead meatsmith calls it the burden of abundance. Our small farm and my occasional successful hunt provides all of the protein we need and much of what our married kids need. It’s still a burden to care for the bounty properly. Thanks for your thought provoking writing. Cheers.
Had this convo with my partner this week. In a house of 2 adults, how long will our current meat last? A successful archery and rifle season means there are 2 cow elk, good bird hunting means a pile of waterfowl and pheasant, a fishing trip to Kodiak Island means a great offering of multiple fish species. And like many, we share the hell out of it. Since we are in Montana, our greatest friends get fish, friends that didn't have successful hunts get some of our success. I supply jerky from bird breasts for snowmobile trips,everyone gets some. Coming to our house for dinner? You'll be asked if you eat wild game before you get asked about allergies. If you are spending the night, bear sausage is on the breakfast menu ahead of bacon.
Both of us suffer from "do we have enough", "more is better". Both of us hate food waste, and while neither of us has gone hungry, both had lean times in our upbringings. I ate roadkilled whitetail as a kid, and "shorts" from my fisherman father in addition to what we could grow or raise. While we KNOW we are incredibly blessed, the fine line of enough vs abundance vs too much is fuzzy at best.
Beautifully written. I offered to smoke some trout to some young people that were catching their trout limits. (No catch & release - must keep). I could tell they were more in it for the sport, as there was no talk of cleaning & cooking them at this big camp out I was at. It was my first time cutting & cleaning a trout. I was bawling the entire time. Even though at the time it was traumatic to be cleaning a fish, I would have done it in a heartbeat if those fish were going to be “wasted.”
Someone overheard my offer, and immediately several men were over talking to the young folks about stewardship.
We are all in this together & we learn from each other, including this written piece. Thank you.
How beautiful. As a lot commercially raised meat makes me ill, I have come to cherish every bit of that which I can eat. Through the process I have learned the unique nutritional benefits of the oft discarded parts. Thank you Hank for your many recipes which expand our palates from that designed to enable profits based upon animal suffering and poor nutrition.
Well said Hank. Your ethics and recipes have helped me with the nose to tail use of the animals I take. One of my long standing rules is I can’t have any particular species in my freezer when when the next season is about to open. For example, no last year’s salmon in the freezer before opening day this year. You know out here that it would be so easy to catch way more rockfish than you could use.
I’m hoping for a call for a road kill “harvest“ this year as, we were unsuccessful to be sated. And, I will definitely use every salvageable piece to fill my freezer!
Love this, obviously. Wasting ANY kind of food feels terrible to me, but wasting food that a creature died to give us feels like it brings down a kind of curse. When Dex & I started our policy of only eating meat we hunt ourselves, we basically had to accept that it would be YEARS before we had even a small freezer full -- with the result that animal protein has transformed for us into a very special and wonderful treat, something to happily hoard and plan special menus around, as other people do with truffles or caviar. We eat a lot of good vegetarian cuisine, and then the occasional wild duck breast or braised turkey gizzard or squirrel stew feels like an absolute feast. The fact that we can't stuff our freezer full IS what makes it feel so exciting and special when we do eat it.
We haven't been able to hunt at all since we lost the house last year, and once or twice I've been tempted into buying meat because I felt sorry for myself about missing out on all those good treats -- and I've regretted it totally each time. After five years of thinking up exquisite things to do with half a tiny duck, bringing home pounds of anonymous protein is way more of a letdown than I expected. Dex is doing your deer hunt this winter, and my palms get sweaty - sweaty! - with excitement just THINKING about what I'm going to do with all that beautiful venison. I've never eaten tongue, or neck, or so many other parts of a large animal -- I can't wait to try them, and it should give us a year of splendid special meals at LEAST. I will happily eat plants the rest of the time to keep that pleasure & excitement feeling so sharp and bright.
I also strive to utilize almost all of any animal whose life I take.........to do less than that would be wrong. I do have a big chest freezer that is sometimes pretty full, because we (my wife, me, and two grandsons that are frequently at our house) eat mostly wild game meat and wild fish (plus some grass-fed beef and lamb bought from a local farmer). Nothing lasts long enough in there to get freezer-burned.......virtually all of the venison will be gone by October, for example, when next year's archery deer season starts. I was fortunate to acquire most of a wild hog from a friend last week, and we are enjoying that meat now......and it will be gone within a month or two.
When I was a child, my family sometimes had meat when we otherwise would have had little to no food if it were not for generous hunters who gave us the deer they did not need for their own families. I know they hunted extras for us over the years, knowing our need and many mouths to feed. I know a lot of food banks are also happy to get venison. So I would say that "taking" more than you need is not the same as "keeping" more than you need. If you are generous and community minded, it may be beneficial to continue to hunt past your own need in order to supply what your neighbors lack.
I’ve mentioned before that while I don’t hunt myself, I’ve grown up around and live surrounded by hunters. One stands out in my mind, not in a good way, and this column brought it back. I ran into him and he bragged that he’d gotten deer permits for himself, kids and wife…and shot four bucks himself, then tagged them w the above mentioned permits. He was heading out for a fifth. I still dislike that man. Thank you for writing this!❤️
I’ve never killed an animal in my life. But, what I buy, I eat - down to the last scrap. I was also brought up w a waste not want to mentality and, despite the fact that I can afford to throw food out, morally I can not and I’m so proud to be like that.
That is just lovely. I live since about a year back in a very small house on the river (270 square feet but with all the amenities) and although I’m expanding in May the space won’t necessarily fit a chest freezer. Because of obvious space issues in the building as is I now have a single under bench freezer which really makes you think about what and how to fit things. When planning a green house you need to think about methods to preserve produce that mostly doesn’t involve the freezer because that space needs to be reserved for the meat and fish of the coking season. When having a good morning on the geese more often than not I have to rein it in and really fight the mink in a henhouse urge to keep shooting. The thing that makes that reining in possible is the limited space in my life. Another is that other thing that you touch on (and to which you’ve contributed for sure) which is being able and knowledgeable enough to use more of what is harvested. Limitation forces creativity and productivity and there can be quite a joy in being limited because of that.
Dayenu
Well said. Sometimes having a bountiful harvest creates challenging cooking options. After a recent trip to a Georgia quail plantation I have several coveys of quail in our freezer. Some recipes such as Hoisen quail and quail poppers call for using only the breasts and I have been experimenting with ideas to use the tenderloins and legs. The tenderloins go into quail wontons and the legs are pan fried with spicy sauces. Both great wild appetizers. No waste.
Well said! A butcher I’ve followed for years, Brandon The farmstead meatsmith calls it the burden of abundance. Our small farm and my occasional successful hunt provides all of the protein we need and much of what our married kids need. It’s still a burden to care for the bounty properly. Thanks for your thought provoking writing. Cheers.
Great read Hank! Thanks
Had this convo with my partner this week. In a house of 2 adults, how long will our current meat last? A successful archery and rifle season means there are 2 cow elk, good bird hunting means a pile of waterfowl and pheasant, a fishing trip to Kodiak Island means a great offering of multiple fish species. And like many, we share the hell out of it. Since we are in Montana, our greatest friends get fish, friends that didn't have successful hunts get some of our success. I supply jerky from bird breasts for snowmobile trips,everyone gets some. Coming to our house for dinner? You'll be asked if you eat wild game before you get asked about allergies. If you are spending the night, bear sausage is on the breakfast menu ahead of bacon.
Both of us suffer from "do we have enough", "more is better". Both of us hate food waste, and while neither of us has gone hungry, both had lean times in our upbringings. I ate roadkilled whitetail as a kid, and "shorts" from my fisherman father in addition to what we could grow or raise. While we KNOW we are incredibly blessed, the fine line of enough vs abundance vs too much is fuzzy at best.
Beautifully written. I offered to smoke some trout to some young people that were catching their trout limits. (No catch & release - must keep). I could tell they were more in it for the sport, as there was no talk of cleaning & cooking them at this big camp out I was at. It was my first time cutting & cleaning a trout. I was bawling the entire time. Even though at the time it was traumatic to be cleaning a fish, I would have done it in a heartbeat if those fish were going to be “wasted.”
Someone overheard my offer, and immediately several men were over talking to the young folks about stewardship.
We are all in this together & we learn from each other, including this written piece. Thank you.
How beautiful. As a lot commercially raised meat makes me ill, I have come to cherish every bit of that which I can eat. Through the process I have learned the unique nutritional benefits of the oft discarded parts. Thank you Hank for your many recipes which expand our palates from that designed to enable profits based upon animal suffering and poor nutrition.
Well said Hank. Your ethics and recipes have helped me with the nose to tail use of the animals I take. One of my long standing rules is I can’t have any particular species in my freezer when when the next season is about to open. For example, no last year’s salmon in the freezer before opening day this year. You know out here that it would be so easy to catch way more rockfish than you could use.
I’m hoping for a call for a road kill “harvest“ this year as, we were unsuccessful to be sated. And, I will definitely use every salvageable piece to fill my freezer!
Love this, obviously. Wasting ANY kind of food feels terrible to me, but wasting food that a creature died to give us feels like it brings down a kind of curse. When Dex & I started our policy of only eating meat we hunt ourselves, we basically had to accept that it would be YEARS before we had even a small freezer full -- with the result that animal protein has transformed for us into a very special and wonderful treat, something to happily hoard and plan special menus around, as other people do with truffles or caviar. We eat a lot of good vegetarian cuisine, and then the occasional wild duck breast or braised turkey gizzard or squirrel stew feels like an absolute feast. The fact that we can't stuff our freezer full IS what makes it feel so exciting and special when we do eat it.
We haven't been able to hunt at all since we lost the house last year, and once or twice I've been tempted into buying meat because I felt sorry for myself about missing out on all those good treats -- and I've regretted it totally each time. After five years of thinking up exquisite things to do with half a tiny duck, bringing home pounds of anonymous protein is way more of a letdown than I expected. Dex is doing your deer hunt this winter, and my palms get sweaty - sweaty! - with excitement just THINKING about what I'm going to do with all that beautiful venison. I've never eaten tongue, or neck, or so many other parts of a large animal -- I can't wait to try them, and it should give us a year of splendid special meals at LEAST. I will happily eat plants the rest of the time to keep that pleasure & excitement feeling so sharp and bright.
I also strive to utilize almost all of any animal whose life I take.........to do less than that would be wrong. I do have a big chest freezer that is sometimes pretty full, because we (my wife, me, and two grandsons that are frequently at our house) eat mostly wild game meat and wild fish (plus some grass-fed beef and lamb bought from a local farmer). Nothing lasts long enough in there to get freezer-burned.......virtually all of the venison will be gone by October, for example, when next year's archery deer season starts. I was fortunate to acquire most of a wild hog from a friend last week, and we are enjoying that meat now......and it will be gone within a month or two.
When I was a child, my family sometimes had meat when we otherwise would have had little to no food if it were not for generous hunters who gave us the deer they did not need for their own families. I know they hunted extras for us over the years, knowing our need and many mouths to feed. I know a lot of food banks are also happy to get venison. So I would say that "taking" more than you need is not the same as "keeping" more than you need. If you are generous and community minded, it may be beneficial to continue to hunt past your own need in order to supply what your neighbors lack.
Thoughtful. Beautiful!