Harvesting Nature

Justin, Collin, Ara, and Brad talk all things dove hunting and dove cooking. They chat about dove hunting stories, their

Wood ducks are not only admired for their colors and beauty, but they are also one of the best tasting waterfowl. I love eating ducks as much as I love hunting them. My typical go to recipes includes either gumbo or seared blackened duck, but I wanted to add some smoke flavor to these delicious little birds and any fruity/tangy chutney always compliments the flavor of duck.

A bear season in New Jersey may be back on and just around the corner. It only needs the signatures of the two biggest opponents. Learn how you can act to help save the season.

I’m perched on the cool edge of southern Idaho’s Boise River on a hot August afternoon, at a rocky river spot I call Medicine Bank. Medicine Bank is named for the rich variety of medicinal summer plants I’ve found here on its shore: wild mint sun-warm to the touch on the water’s edge, St. John’s Wort glowing gold, and bright evening primrose opening and clasping shut in faithful rhythm with the light-play of each passing day. My husband Forrest stands beside me with our border heeler River. We’re after fish today.

“Fish on!” Forrest shouts into the silence. Before his voice can finish echoing across the valley, he reels in the rainbow trout du jour, a large mature fish with gorgeous markings.

This trout is our harvest, our “keeper”. We toast to our success with gratitude for the trout’s life, place him carefully on ice in our cooler, and spend some long hours fishing at that stony shore. We catch and release several smaller, less mature rainbows before heading homeward, gleefully quiet, sated by the river’s-edge memories and the promise of fresh-caught dinner.

While I had a conventional introduction to hunting and fishing in my younger years, it wasn’t until the last three or four years that my interest, involvement, and identification with hunting really took shape. I’ve also begun to learn that this relationship with the outdoors will likely always be evolving and adapting and that an individual’s hunting or fishing “ethos” is perhaps one of the most personal things; built and shaped by one’s experiences, mixed with opinions and localized social norms, and perhaps more contentious than even politics.