From time to time I step back and write essays on why I do what I do, on some of the deeper aspects of the hunt, the pursuit of fish, the tending of a garden and the foraging of nature’s bounty. Here’s where you will find these thoughts.
If you are looking for just plain ole’ storytelling about my time in the field and on the water, here is a compendium of my hunting and fishing stories.
Chasing the Gray Ghost
This is the story of my first-ever whitetail buck: A Coues deer in southern Arizona. It was quite the adventure…
Chasing Lightning
Steelhead are really two fish, hatchery and wild. To catch a hatchery fish is an amusement. To catch a wild steelhead is to catch lightning.
The Things We Do for Mallards
I hunt ducks a lot, but mallards are not part of my normal daily bag. So, a few times a year, I will go to great lengths to have a good mallard hunt.
Hauling Gear
If you ever wanted to know what it’s like aboard a commercial trolling boat, here you go. Hauling gear is deep in my bones, and it is good to get back to it.
Fly Fishing, Fears and Hangups
I am not a fly fisherman. Well, maybe now I am. Getting out of your comfort zone is an important part of life.
That Which Does Not Kill Us…
Hiking into the Canadian Rockies in search of cutthroat trout? Casting a fly for the first time? Sleeping out in a thunderstorm? Check, check, check.
A Grain of Wheat
Considering the overlooked can lead you into unexpected insights. This is what happened when I harvested wheat in my front yard.
The Worm Turned
Bad luck. It happens. Especially to anglers. I’d had an especially long stretch of it this spring. But all things, even slumps, have an end.
Loss, Long Days and Bloody Decks
Tuna fishing can be grueling under the best of circumstances. This was not the best of circumstances.
Oases in the Desert
Life on book tour – or any work – can be a grind. Take the time to savor those moments of rest, or of unexpected fun.
On Being All In
When I get into something, I don’t mess around. In for a penny, in for a pound.
Finding equilibrium is a vital part of any endeavor, and hunting, fishing and gathering is no different. How to respect your freezer and your environs at the same time.
Thrift, Equilibrium and a Full Freezer
In Defense of the Chicken
All chickens are not created equal, and there ought to be wider recognition of the potential greatness of something so simple as a roast chicken — if that chicken was raised in the old ways, not from a factory farm.
Scarcity From Abundance
Scarcity sparks innovation in many things, cooking included. So how do you innovate in a place where abundance surrounds you?
Biting into the Unknown
When you are a forager, the unknown is your constant companion. The real omnivore’s dilemma is knowing what is and is not good to eat. I’ve lived with that dilemma for decades, and so will you if you follow this path.
Timing is Everything
Nature waits for no one. In hunting, fishing and especially foraging, you need to be out there at exactly the right time to reap the full reward of Nature’s bounty.
Limitations
Facing your own limitations is a frightening thing. It can either hurl you into depression, or spark the urge to fight those limitations. I choose to fight.
On Joining
The ranks of new hunters and anglers entering these pursuits in search of honest food has blossomed, and now they make up a substantial part of the hook and bullet community. But I don’t see them joining groups like Pheasants Forever or Trout Unlimited. That needs to change.Â
The Hunter’s Paradox: Loving What You Kill
Most hunters, as well as those who raise livestock for meat, deal with this paradox: We love what we kill. In this modern age, this is a difficult thing to explain to those who live outside our world.Â
On Killing
Hunting season brings with it a flood of emotions. Elation when you succeed, frustration when you do not, and always a deep contemplation about what it means to kill for food. Â
Into the Squirrel Woods
Something about squirrel hunting touches me deeply. Moreso than anything else, hunting squirrels in the Eastern forests takes me back to childhood, to the woods that were my home when as a boy. I miss those days of exploration.Â
An Awful Mercy
Sometimes a hunt is more than a hunt. Sometimes it is a window into the dark reaches of this world, and the next. I came away from my Wyoming antelope hunt with a vision of courage — not by me, but of the animals we pursue. Â
The Lines We Draw
A lot of people think I will eat anything. A lot of people are wrong. A recent news story here in California brought this into focus.
The Imperative of Protein
My life is governed by the near-constant need to process, butcher and store the fish and game we bring home. This is the Imperative of Protein, and while it is indeed hard work, I would not choose to live any other way.
On Breasting Out Birds
I’ve seen a lot of hunters “breast out” a lot of birds, leaving the legs and wings for the coyotes – or even just tossing them in the trash. It pains me to see this. It’s my hope to convince those hunters who do that to change their minds.
Reflections on Catfish
Catfish swim through a murky stream of race, class and regional rivalry. No other fish in North America defines where you stand in this world quite so much as the catfish. Eating one can border on being a political act.
NOMA: Time and Place and Meaning
After months of struggling with NOMA, the cookbook from the Danish restaurant considered to be the best in the world, I finally get it. Food is about time, and place. And meaning.
Living My Life’s Purpose
All my life I’ve wanted to be a teacher, and have been lucky enough to have done so, in many ways, over the years. Last weekend I began a new phase: teaching others how to fish, forage and hunt.
Gardening or Gathering?
Can a forager and gatherer of wild foods also be a competent gardener? Yes, but it ain’t easy: A year spent gathering wild plants puts a life spent gardening in perspective.
A Restless Craftsman
I’ve been restless lately. Unsatisfied. And, after a marathon cooking session in which I cooked doves six ways to Sunday, I am reminded that the path from craftsman to artist continues to evade me.
Lora says
October 30, 2015 at 11:06 amHi there,
I am trying to access two of the web pages and the links take me to a different page no matter how hard I try to get them. It is about: “Killing the unkillable pheasant” and “a meal of a teal”.
Please help
Thanks
Lora
PS: I loooove your blog and especially the recipes. I already used several of them and my family totally likes them. Thanks for posting…
Hank Shaw says
October 31, 2015 at 11:41 amLora: Those posts have been deleted.
Caleb says
November 20, 2017 at 7:12 amMr. Shaw,
I really enjoy your blog, especially the posts that deal with the deeper issues and thoughts that go hand in hand with killing for food. I was recently asked why I pose with my kill after the hunt and I couldn’t articulate a answer that I was satisfied with. I was wandering what your take is on the subject.
Best,
Caleb
Hank Shaw says
November 23, 2017 at 9:51 amCaleb: I actually wrote about this here: https://honest-food.net/hunting-photo-controversy/