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Welcome to my personal blog. To those of you who know me, I also blog for my day job. But this site is for me, for my avocation, not my vocation. Here’s where I hope to tell you about the foods you can’t get at the supermarket (mostly), foods you must grow or hunt or catch or gather yourself. I live near Sacramento, California, and spend much of my free time collecting good things to eat, cooking them (or pickling them or freezing them or drying them), as well as learning about what we’ve lost in this modern world. Our diets were once far more diverse than they are today: Look at an old cookbook or a restaurant menu from the 19th century and you will see. Muskrat was served at Delmonico’s in New York. I have an 18th century cookbook with a dozen recipes for salsify. And our ancestors knew what to do with a quince or a chestnut or a brace of hares.
My hope is for this site to be a resource for those who hunt, fish, grow unusual vegetables or gather wild plants. I am planning to post recipes for everything and share with you my enjoyment of a meal unbought. Thanks for reading!
Hey Hank – The Lahontan cut-throat bite is on at Pyramid Lake; we caught a bunch of nice ones yesterday. Lemme know if you wanna go fishing someday. Best, Tom K. (Sac Bee – friend of Amy Pyle’s)
My favorite part of the webpage on salsify that you linked:
“A note of caution: salsify may cause gas, sometimes volcanic.”
hey hank
great idea for a blog! i really look forward to seeing what you’re going to post. I write something along similar lines, but mainly based in the UK.
best wishes
SBW
https://suburbanbushwacker.blogspot.com/2007/05/why.html
Thanks, Niskie! I will post up a few Teutonic venison recipes soon. I have quite a few in my collection…you want something roasted, stewed, or something else?
Looking good, Hank! I would very much invite you to explore Austria and Germany for recipes that pertain to venison. I recently shot a 200-pound whitetail (field-dressed) and would like simple recipes on fixing it.
Also, I have become an expert on brining wild fowl, such as turkeys and ducks, if you ever need some thoughts/help in that regard.
Thinking back to the tall, tall rows of exotic vegetables Hank grew in Virginia, which I’m sure he’s growing in California now … And all his dishes dashed with his spunky character! What? This blog is gowna be great!
I’m looking forward to adding some flavor to my wild diet. Thanks for taking the time to share. Fish on!
Can’t wait to see what you write up! =)
Welcome to the personal blogshere, brother Hank!
I’d like to tell everyone that this all started with a musty, old cookbook of Mom’s that had recipes for squirrel, and some boisterous clam digging on Block Island… How were WE to know that it would have this effect?? I can’t wait to see where it all leads. Looking forward to recipes for non-sentient beings soon!
Thanks, and Happy Thanksgiving to you! Will let you know how Wasifee the turkey turns out. (We named him for the head of the anti-corruption task force who got him for us).
Nice-looking blog, by the way!
Why yes, Soraya, you can indeed eat the bird on day of slaughter! In general, red meat critters (deer, beef, lambs, etc) benefit from aging. Some game birds, too, like pheasants. Enjoy, and Happy Thanksgiving!
Mr. Shaw, I have a question that 10 hungry ex-pat American guests are dying to get the answer to before we chow down this Thanksgiving Day in Kabul. If you slaughter a turkey, can you cook it the same day? I hope the answer is yes!