The long, hot summer continues. July was a hot month, with half our days here over 100 degrees. August looks like it'll be another scorcher. Price to pay for living in inland California, I guess. 

All last month I found myself doing a lot of experimentation in the kitchen, in part because I had the free time to do it because the mess with my venison book had not yet budged. Manzanita, angelica, some odd experiments with mushrooms, fermenting tomatoes -- I'll write about the successes, but I can tell you they were few. Innovation requires failure, after all. 

Then, one day, I got an email from my former agent. She said she would agree to settle our differences out of court. I was tentative at first, but we got to talking, and lo and behold! We worked it out. At last. 

For those of you for whom this is your first HAGC newsletter, let me fill you in. For several months, my venison book has been in big trouble: The New York publisher who had made me an offer turned out to be a poor fit for this book, and my former agent and I got into a dispute over my plans to self-publish it. Short version is she had, in effect, held the book hostage, but I am happy to say the clouds have cleared. 

That leaves me free to press on with the plan to launch a Kickstarter campaign in October to raise the $40,000 I will need to publish the cookbook. (Yeah, it costs that much to put together a serious, professional cookbook.) If you are not familiar with Kickstarter, it is a "crowdfunding" website where people with an idea can ask the community for help funding their projects. It works a lot like a public radio fund drive, with different contribution levels, each with rewards ranging from a copy of the book to me flying to your house and cooking you and your friends a fancy dinner. I'll give you the details about the campaign soon. 

Resolution also lets me talk a bit more about the venison book, which will be something of a sequel to my last cookbook Duck, Duck, Goose. Only this one will be called Buck, Buck, Moose and will cover venison in all its forms, from tiny Sitka blacktails and Coues deer to moose and elk and everything in between. The book is mostly done. I just need help to make it a reality. Stay tuned. 

Classes and Schools 

Last month I announced several classes and schools I have planned for this fall and winter, and I am happy to say all are almost full. 

In December, I am teaming up with the California Waterfowl Association to host a duck school in Northern California. It will be a three-day school, with two duck hunts, lots of hands-on instruction on how to process your birds, cooking how-to, and great meals served up by yours truly. The school will be the weekend of December 18 and costs $1500, which includes everything. There are only 5 seats left. Email me at scrbblr@hotmail.com I will get you on the list. 

Then, in January 2016, I will be back in Texas with Coastal Wings Outfitters to do the same basic duck school there, only the Texas duck school is a day longer, with three hunts. That school will be the weekend of January 9. Cost for that on is $2250, which again, includes room, food, hunts, class time, etc. There are only 4 seats left for this school. Email me at scrbblr@hotmail.com and I will get you on the list. 

Finally, I am in talks to do some work with the website Craftsy.com, which offers online video courses on all sorts of topics. Many of you have asked me to do more video, and this is one way I am going to do it. The goal with Craftsy is to do a sausage-making and meat curing course. But to test the waters, Craftsy wants me to see how interested you might be in a sampler course, in this case a free course on improving your knife skills. If your response to the knife skills course meets their expectations, they'll give the OK for the sausage and meat curing class. Crossing my fingers...

Out and About

I will be cooking publicly several times this month. On August 16 I will be at Mulvaney's B&L in Sacramento for the third annual Have an Offal Day event.  Several of us will be cooking very special dishes each featuring a different wobbly bit. Which bit will I choose? You'll have to come to the event to find out, but I can tell you it is a dish that will appear in Buck, Buck, Moose. You can buy tickets to the event here. 

And on August 26 and 27, I will be up in Truckee, California working with my friend Chef Jacob Burton to do two pop-up dinners at his restaurant Stella. We're going Italian for this dinner, and it will be a celebration of summer in NorCal, from local farms and from the wild. I will be making handmade pasta, among other things. Seats are limited to this event, so reserve your spot here. 

What's in Season

August is a crazy clash of the end of summer and the beginning of hunting season. I plan on chasing A Zone bucks here in NorCal at the end of this month, and the salmon are still biting outside the Golden Gate. Tuna fishing in Southern California has been insane, and I am hearing reports of good bluefish action in the Mid Atlantic, snapper and grouper in the Gulf, catfish in the rivers and lake trout in the Great Lakes. If you're lucky enough to land a nice laker, here's my recipe for smoked lake trout. 

Gardens are starting to look raggedy by now, and hopefully you are ready to start your fall garden. You need to do it now, or you won't get enough daylight to have big beets or leeks or carrots by Thanksgiving. Our tomatoes are popping, so it's time to make your own estratto, which is to tomato paste what an 18-year-old Scotch is to moonshine. It's simply the best version of tomato paste there is. 

Zucchini are acting like an invasive species, too, so consider this Sicilian technique of drying your zucchini, then sauteing them in olive oil with mint, chiles and lemon. You'll thank me later. 

That's all for now. I am so relieved that I'll get the chance to make Buck, Buck, Moose a reality... or at least give it the old college try. Stay tuned. Meanwhile, enjoy your last month of summer: Get out there and forage, fish and garden -- and don't forget to preserve the summer for cold months to come!

~Hank