Hey all, Welcome to summer. Hopefully everyone's been out there fishing or foraging, and those of you Down Under have been hunting. It's a busy time. Fish to catch, gardens to tend, mushrooms to hunt, berries to pick. Alas, I am going to miss a lot of it this year, as the book tour takes me throughout Canada and the US this summer. More on that in a bit. I am happy to say I appear to be as good as I am going to get after my terrible bout of pneumonia; I only feel the scar
tissue in my lungs now when I am exercising really hard. I am grateful to be back, and have taken this illness as a wake-up call. On to other news. First, a huge thank you to the South! My Southern tour was all kinds of fun. I saw some old friends, met some new ones, did a ton of fishing and picked up a lot of inspiration for new dishes. In Alabama, I managed to catch a nice, 15-pound tripletail, a trophy 4+ pound sheepshead, and two excellent red snapper -- the biggest was almost 18 pounds! We also caught speckled trout more or less at will. In Louisiana, we caught lots of redfish, a few black drum, and a nice ditch pickle (largemouth bass). I managed to bring the meat home from Alabama, so you'll see some new recipes for these Gulf fish soon on HAGC. I also came home with a load of Gulf shrimp, so you'll see some shrimp recipes here, too. Tropical Storm Alberto kept me in New Orleans for a few extra days... I know, horrible,
right? I ate my way through that great city, and picked up a ton of inspiration from the dishes I saw. Stay tuned for some more Creole and Cajun food. As I mentioned, most of this summer will be spent on book tour. Up next is
Canada. I've been wanting to tour Canada again since the last time I was there in 2011. This time I have a full tour schedule set. - June 29 - I will be speaking and signing books at the Filson sporting goods store in Vancouver. This is a free event, but they'd like you to RSVP so they know how much beer to buy! You can RSVP here.
- July 3 - Last Best Brewing in Calgary. I'll be teaming up with Backcountry Hunters & Anglers for a book dinner. Everyone who comes gets a book. You can RSVP here.
- July 4 - Local
Omnivore in Edmonton. This is another collaboration with BHA, but this is a bit more casual. Stop by, get some great food and a signed book. You can RSVP for a book here.
- July 6 and 7 - I'll be joining with the Manitoba Wildlife Federation at Trans Canada Brewing in Winnipeg. Friday night is a book dinner, and Saturday afternoon is a cooking demo and small game seminar, where you'll learn how to get more out of your upland birds and small game. Details on the events are here.
- July 9 - Book dinner at Antler. This is the wild game restaurant the vegans are protesting. You might have seen it in the news. Should be a fun night whatever happens, eh? This will be a sellout dinner, so contact the restaurant ASAP to reserve your spot! Details here.
- July 10 - Another book signing at Filson, only this time in Toronto. This is also a free event, but they'd like you to RSVP so they know how much beer to buy! You can RSVP
here.
After that, it's back to the States! - July 12 - Buffalo, NY. I'll be returning to Black Sheep for another wild book dinner. Last time was amazing, and it sold out in days. There are still a few seats left for this dinner, so get them while you can via this link!
- July 18 - Boston. Another old favorite, I'll be back with James Beard Award-winning Chef Tony Maws at Kirkland Tap & Trotter for another book dinner. This is my ONLY New England tour stop, so you won't want to miss it! You can get your reservation here.
August will take me to Texas, Alaska and Utah, so stay tuned... Many of you already have your copy of Pheasant, Quail, Cottontail. If you haven't, you can buy one on Amazon or order it at your
local bookstore anywhere in the US or Canada. 100,000 thank yous for your support! My request: I'd be super grateful if, once you've read the book, you could post a review to Amazon. Believe it or not, reviews really do drive sales on Amazon -- the more a book gets, the more Amazon's computer bots say, "hey, this is a great book,
we're going to feature it!" Thanks in advance for doing this -- it really helps me out!
Summertime, and the livin' is easy...
June and July are big months for both foraging and fishing, and in the pig hunting parts of the world, June is a great month to chase hogs before it gets too damn hot.
Just about any fish worth chasing is in season right now,
from king salmon in the Pacific Northwest to walleyes in the Upper Midwest, crappies in the South, bluefish, stripers and black seabass in the Northeast. Trout are biting in the mountains, and catfish are stirring in the big rivers. These are the months to wet a line.
Foraging. Lots to talk about. Let's start with elderflowers, which are blooming all over the place. Start with elderflower
cordial, a flower syrup great in cocktails or as a soda base, or on pancakes or as a base for sorbet.
Wild plums are ripening all over, too. Here's a primer on finding
them and using them. If you get a lot, make some Chinese plum sauce. Pro Tip: Fill a Mason jar full of plums, cover in vodka and set aside in a dark place until the holidays. You're welcome...
Mulberries are in
season, too, and while I mostly eat them straight or with heavy cream, try a mulberry sorbet.
For the Californians out there, manzanita berries will be perfect for manzanita cider. If you haven't made this, go for it. You will be surprised how good it is.
For everyone else, summer is chanterelle mushroom season, which has already started in the South. Here are all my chanterelle recipes for when you find some!
I could go on, but that should get you started.
Have fun this summer, and I hope to see as many of you as I can on the road this year! For those of you in the Midwest, Pacific Northwest and the Northeast, visit my book tour schedule to see when I'll be near you. See you soon! |
I am on the road a lot, often in wild places in search of fish, game or wild edible plants and mushrooms. If you want to keep up with what I am chasing at the moment -- and this will give you a good,
real-time indicator of what's in season where I happen to be -- follow me on Instagram. My handle there is @huntgathercook Instagram is
often the only social media account I update when I am out and about. I am of course also on Twitter as @hank_shaw and Facebook as /huntgathercook as well. Day in and day out, however, most of my online interaction is on Hunter Angler
Gardener Cook, or in a Facebook forum I run called Hunt Gather Cook. It's a closed site, so I have to let you in, but just let me know you are a newsletter subscriber when you answer the entry questions and yer in. Hope to see you
there! |
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Patties made with "spoon meat," meat scraped off a carcass with a spoon, grilled and served either in a bun or with a salad. I do this with salmon, but really any large fish will work here. |
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These flavor bombs are indispensable in my kitchen. Roasted to blacken and peel the skins, I then smoke jalapenos and preserve them in oil and vinegar. Smoky, spicy and tart, they're great on tacos or in a sandwich. |
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Pheasant, Quail, Cottontail is the most comprehensive, lushly photographed and illustrated cookbook covering upland birds and small game ever produced. At 336 pages, with more than 100 color photos and 125 recipes for everything from pheasants, quail, rabbits and grouse to woodcock, hares, squirrels, partridges - you name
it! What's more, every purchase helps habitat: I am donating a portion of the proceeds of every book sold to Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever to restore, maintain and expand habitat for all upland birds. |
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