It's time to put the garden in Hunter Angler Gardener Cook.
April is when most of us start gardening in earnest. Here in NorCal, Tax Day is when you put in peppers and tomatoes. In the north, it is about the first time you can plant cool-weather crops like peas and lettuce.
So, what am I talking about when I am talking about smart gardening? Simple. Plant not only what you eat, but, more importantly, what you can't get at the supermarket or the local farmer's market.
If you follow this, your produce options explode.
Think about how many varieties of corn, or beans, or tomatoes, or peppers are out there. Why on earth would you want to plant those you can buy in the store?
This is especially true with herbs. I almost never grow herbs that I can buy easily. I use a lot of esoteric herbs in my cooking, and in many cases they are not available in any other way. Lovage, angelica, epazote, culantro, pipicha, are just some of what I am talking about.
Do you cook a lot of "ethnic" food? (I put that in quotes because, well, we are all ethnic in some way.) Well, chances are you will need to grow those special plants that make that cuisine unique.
I do a lot of Mexican cooking, so I will be growing hoja santa, culantro, which tastes like cilantro but likes hot weather, a raft of esoteric chiles, desert tepary beans, and a couple quelites, which is a Mexican term for wild greens. Mine are huazontle, a kind of red amaranth, and a cousin of spinach that's like a big-leafed lamb's quarters.
I can hear you: OK, then. How do I get those seeds?
There is no one place. You have to use the interwebz. But here are some places I have been buying from:
- Southern Exposure seed exchange. The absolute best place for Southern crops like okra and corn for grits or hominy.
- Native Seed Search. This is where you get your seeds for the desert Southwest. I love these guys.
- Seeds from Italy. Ditto, only for Italian stuff. They even have agretti, which is almost impossible to find.
- Kitazawa Seeds. You guessed it, this is the source for Asian seeds.
- The Chile Woman. This lady from Indiana is God's gift to esoteric chile seedlings. You name it, she has it.
I am teaming up once again with Coastal Wings for two more culinary hunts.
The first is in September. This one will be primarily a teal hunt in Southeast Texas, but there are some cool add-ons I am looking forward to.
The school will take place around the Angleton area, just south of Galveston. You'll arrive on 9/15 , and hunt teal the mornings of 9/16 through 9/19. As always, we'll work on processing and cooking your ducks, with a special emphasis on teal and cooking ducks in hot weather. Cost is $2300/person which includes 4 nights of lodging, 4 morning teal hunts (instead of the usual three), meals, the school and a signed book.
An exciting twist to this school is adding on your own alligator hunt! If you want to hunt gators, let me know and we can work it out. It is an additional cost.
Another option is an afternoon of bay fishing, with a guide, for redfish, speckled trout and the like. It is $600 for the boat, which you can divide among up to three people. I am especially looking forward to this one.
There are only 2 spots left.
The second hunt will be in November near Frederick, Oklahoma. We will be focusing on sandhill cranes, which many call the ribeye in the sky. The focus is cranes, but ducks and geese will be around, too.
This hunt will be three days. You'd arrive the afternoon of 11/12 and hunt until that Sunday morning, departing around midday 11/15.
Cost for the crane school is $2300, and that includes all meals - dinners cooked by me - 3 days of hunting, lodging, game processing, cooking classes and a signed copy of one of my books.
There are 11 spots left for this hunt.
Want in? Email me at scrbblr@hotmail.com
I have a favor to ask.
My request: Hunter Angler Gardener Cook lives and dies by the Almighty Google. One of the things that can help me out a lot is to post a review of a recipe you have made on the site; you do that in the
comments section. Be honest, and tell me how you liked the recipe -- and only review a recipe if you have actually made it.
Thanks in advance for doing this, it really helps me out!
Ah, April. I love this month. It's the end of early spring in California, and the beginning of early spring in many other places.
Fishing has been good in the Gulf, with pompano, sheepshead and drum heating up. April brings tautog and mackerel and stripers in the mid-Atlantic states, and rockfish season has just started here in the Pacific.
Inland, crappie action is where it's at. Most ice fishing is done, and people are waiting for ice out. Trout has started in many places.
Foraging is beginning to return, with morels this month. Lots of green things to go look for, too. Some ideas for you:
Hunting? Turkeys, duh. Turkey season is open in most states. Good luck out there this spring, and here are some recipes to try once you get your gobbler.
Have fun this spring! ~ Hank
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Follow Me on social media
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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Wild onions of any kind, from the little garlicky lawn onions to ramps, three cornered leeks and yes, store-bought green onions, are fantastic mixed into these Chinese scallion pancakes. Only, they're not pancakes. They are flatbreads, and are addictive.
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Trout seasons are starting. When you catch a nice one, too large for the pan, broiling is a great way to cook your trout. Here are tips and tricks on broiling all fish, not just trout.
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Many of you already have your copy of Pheasant, Quail, Cottontail. If you haven't, you can buy a signed copy directly from me here, or order it at your local bookstore anywhere in the
US or Canada. 100,000 thank yous for your support!
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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