Figuring out first-hand food
Ah, spring! The weather warms, the robins return, the crocuses poke their little heads up through the soil. The cycle of life begins anew and all thoughts turn to … hunting ethics. I blame Tovar. He started it, in a post at A Mindful Carnivore about wounding animals. Every hunter I know believes it is [...]
The essence of hunting, I’m beginning to think, is figuring out how animals know you’re trying to kill them. Leave the house without a gun, and the creatures of the earth ignore you. They go about their creature business without regard for your proximity, noise, or smell. Go out with a firearm and murderous intent, [...]
There are just about two weeks left in duck season and, after that, hunting opportunities are limited to things like crows and squirrels. Over the weekend, I did some serious groveling, trying to get an experienced duck hunter to take me along. While my groveling may pay off before the season’s out, I just couldn’t [...]
Deer hunting season has been over for three hours now, and we have to chalk this year up to experience. No deer, but something of an education. We learned about how, where, and when to look for deer, and what we should smell like while we’re doing it. We learned about deer blinds and tree [...]
There are only twelve days of the year when you can take a shotgun into the woods and shoot a deer. Ten of them, as of sunset this evening, are over. We hunted six of those ten days, including a sojourn to the National Seashore yesterday, and saw nary a deer. We assume we’re making [...]
I ask forbearance from those of you who are tired of, put off by, or simply uninterested in deer hunting. The season ends this coming Saturday, and then I promise I’ll be back to chickens, shellfish, vegetables, and variety. In the meantime, though, it’s all deer all the time. When I signed up for my [...]
After our first fruitless, deerless day, we changed the plan. Cape Cod has a military base called the Massachusetts Military Reserve, a 22,000-acre tract. Every year, they open about half of it to deer hunters. You have to register in advance, which I’d done, and they let in up to 500 hunters each day. Because [...]
I won’t keep you in suspense. I didn’t shoot a deer. I didn’t see a deer, I didn’t hear a deer, I didn’t even step in deer shit. It was a relentlessly deerless day. Basically, we made a mistake. Like real estate, the first three rules of deer hunting are location, location, location. If you [...]
Deer season opens on Monday. Or rather, that’s when the shotgun season starts. Archery season is already open, but I’m not even close to being able to go out with a bow and arrow. Unfortunately, I don’t even feel close to going out with a shotgun. My shotgun is a 20 gauge Remington 870 with [...]
Our timing could be better. Kevin and I are no spring chickens. We’re much closer to doddering antiquity than robust youth, and middle age is not the best time to adopt a lifestyle that requires both A) learning and B) physical exertion. The older you get, the harder those two things become. The physical exertion [...]
Tamar Haspel has been writing about food and health for over a decade. She recently moved from Manhattan to Cape Cod. She’s adjusting well. [Read More …]
TwitteringThis 
by 
hosted by 
, secured by 
© Tamar Haspel, 2010. See linking policies .
Recent Comments