Fun & Food for Every Season
(Page 3 of 3)
April/May 2007
By Amy Grisak
Grouse are common in this area, and when we ride by them on horseback, they tend to fly up and spook the horses. In September, it’s time to turn the tables and go hunting. In the evenings, we walk the trails or roads where we’ve seen them during the summer. Ruffed grouse are wary, making them more of a challenge to take, but Franklin’s grouse (also called spruce grouse) aren’t as flighty, probably why they have earned the nickname “fool’s hen.”
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At the end of October we fill the freezer with venison. We harvest a doe or two at a friend’s farm where they battle whitetail deer in their gardens all summer. If one of us is lucky enough to draw a cow elk tag for the Missouri Breaks National Monument, we’ll spend a few days camping over on the east side of the mountains. It’s always an adventure; at that time of year it may be well below zero in the morning — cold enough for my contacts to freeze in their case.
By fall, the garden is wrapping up, and I gather the last potatoes, onions, squash, root vegetables and green tomatoes and store them in our insulated garage to enjoy over the winter.
Enjoying Icy Winters
Wintertime activities slow to suit the season. Our menu varies depending on what I have preserved through canning, drying or freezing. Some of my kitchen experiments are well-received, such as huckleberry jam or applesauce made with honey. Others, such as my pickled crab apples, tend to come out only when we’re searching for something different. Winter is the perfect time for me to try new recipes, and I spend a lot of time in the kitchen.
Once the ice on the lakes is thick enough to walk on — about 4 to 6 inches to support an adult — we load the icehouse in the back of the truck, and head out for a day of catching perch or pike. When Grant first built the “perch palace,” I was a bit skeptical. It’s an ominous-looking, black-painted wooden box that is 4 feet on each side, with a door on one side and small sliding window on the other. But once inside, it’s lovely. The holes we drill through the ice are completely illuminated by the sun, and it’s a treat to watch the fish come in to take the bait. Grant rigs up a small propane heater to keep us toasty warm.
Whether it’s wild food we’ve hunted or gathered, or fruits and vegetables we’ve grown ourselves, we enjoy eating what we harvest. No two winters, or summers, are ever quite alike, so every experience is fresh. Then the seasons change, and there’s always something new right around the corner.
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