Of all the wild meats I've eaten, nothing varies in quality as much as black bear. Their flesh, and particularly their body fat, seems to reflect their diet in an almost literal way. Bears that have been eating spawned-out salmon tend to taste and smell like spawned-out salmon; bears that...
Posted March 6, 2011 | 14:56:24 (EST)
As an American hunter, I was raised to be suspicious of what is known as the European system of game management. Under this system, wildlife is owned by whoever owns the land. This contradicts our American system, in which wildlife belongs to "we," the collective people, regardless of whose land...
Posted February 10, 2011 | 14:04:04 (EST)
When I was growing up in rural Western Michigan, I maintained a rather complex relationship to the raccoon. Over the years I kept a number of raccoons as pets; I'd get them really young, before their eyes were open, and then I'd hand-feed them with a bottle until they were...
Posted January 21, 2011 | 15:13:04 (EST)
The primary reason that I hunt is to supply my friends and family with meat that was raised in the wild and slaughtered and butchered with reverence and respect. Beyond that, there are many secondary motivations that bring me into the wild.
I do it for reasons of cultural...
5 Comments | Posted January 6, 2012 | 16:01:16 (EST)