Wild Fish and Game Podcast Harvesting Nature

Camping food is one of my favorites. I love a poorly roasted hot dog from a stick over the fire. Usually, the middle is not even warm and the ends are black. 
Served over a cold bun and dressed in lukewarm Hormel chili with a little shredded cheddar cheese on top, maybe a few slivers of onion, and dinner is served. 
I’m really not mocking it and am serious when I say I love that meal; however, I have also come to appreciate that camping food is also a great opportunity for switching things up a bit and trying out some new recipes.
A little creative planning and some ingredient preparation can lead to some phenomenal camp meals. Some of the best fish dinners I have experienced were just foil-wrapped catch-of-the-day trout but paired with the simple addition of fresh rosemary or tarragon. The same goes for this pineapple and bear camp burger which is also very easy to make while camping. The sauce can be prepared at home, so there is no need to take mayonnaise, vinegar, and chipotle peppers on the camping trip. The patties could also be mixed, formed, and packed grill-ready in Ziploc bags and the pineapple comes conveniently canned. 
The rest of the ingredients are easy to pack and quickly cook over the grill.
A little imagination and preparation groundwork at home allows for a gourmet, restaurant-quality burger under the stars. Enjoy!
Read the written version of this recipe as prepared by Lindsey Bartosh
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About Pineapples
Pineapples have played a surprising role in history as not only a food, but as a symbol. After hearing this podcast, you may start to notice pineapple symbolism in weird and curious places. 
Let’s get into it. 
To start off, let’s discuss what a pineapple actually is… I mean, we all know what one looks like, but where and how do they grow?
Pineapples are in the bromeliad family and grow as a perennial small shrub with tough agave-like leaves, growing about 4 feet tall. Individual scarlet flowers, about 200 on an average plant, form small fruits, which fuse together to form a multiple fruit. That’s right, every pineapple you see is a collection of 200 individual fruits! Other examples of multiple fruits are figs, breadfruit, and mulberries. Though the main fruit is grown on a short, thick stem, suckers may grow, causing fruit to grow off the sides of the plant. 
The wild pineapple originated not in Hawaii, but in Southern Brazil, near the current border with Paraguay. There, the Tupi peoples enjoyed the fruit, calling it nanas, or ‘excellent fruit’. The Tupi also used the pineapple to ferment a type of wine, create medicines, and even craft poison arrows. 
Tupi and Carib peoples traded and raided, eventually spreading the fruit to the Amazon delta, up through Central America and into the Caribbean.  
When our favourite guy, Christopher Colombus landed on current-day Guadeloupe in 1493 on his second voyage, he encountered pineapples growing and being eaten by the inhabitants of the island. He took some pineapples with him across the ocean after enslaving and brutalizing the natives there.
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Justin, Kory, and Ben discuss their favorite wild game recipes to put together the ultimate wild fish and game Thanksgiving meal. They dive deep into appetizers, main courses, turkey dishes, sides, wild desserts, and so much more! This episode originally aired in 2020. 
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Appetizers:
Cold Smoked Venison Tartare
Chipotle Squirrel BBQ Dip
Venison Heart Crostini
Fish Chowder with Rosemary Cornbread Muffins 
Main Course:
Wild Turkey

Deep fried

Hank Shaw’s Smoked turkey breast recipe 

Spatchcock Turkey 

Wild Game Holiday Ham vs Cured Smoked Ham
Roasted Quail with Sage and Squash Cornbread Dressing
Homemade Fish Sticks with Tasty Mashed Potatoes
Don’t forget the veggies!
Dessert:
Bear Fat Chocolate Croissants
Prickly Pear Cheesecake Ice Cream
Beaver Fat Biscuits
Smoked Pumpkin Pie with Bourbon Whipped Cream
Blueberry bread pudding 
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Justin and Casey tell the tales of their 2023 elk season. They discuss hunting in Colorado, drawing tags, the mobility needed in the West, tools for a successful hunt, hunting in South Dakota, two trips to Montana to hunt, and so much more! We also previewed this podcast live on social media which was confusing and fun at the same time. 
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Show Notes:
Wild Pig Camp in December
Waterfowl Camp in January
Early Season Elk Hunting
Colorado Cow Archery Tag
A tags and B tags
An opportunistic hunt
Colorado 3rd Rifle elk
Hunting a new zone
The mobility of a modern western hunting
Hunting and exploring
Pressure
Altitude
Travel and base camps
Be willing to move
Montana visit number one
Elk are where they are
They may not return to the same spot
Success one year doesn’t mean they will be there again
Time is never on your side
South Dakota elk draw
Once in a lifetime
Patience
How long do you wait after a shot? 
Return to Montana
The last day
Using public land
Success
Butchering
Dry aging
Sausage making
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Who doesn’t love a stir fry? Quick, easy, healthy, and tasty, it’s the perfect weeknight meal. 
Hunters in particular should be taking advantage of stir-frying. The lean and flavourful meat of wild game goes perfectly in a well-made stir fry and you can make the thin strips of meat necessary for stir fry out of your trim pile!
This venison stir fry is the perfect weeknight meal. Quick, easy, healthy, and most importantly, delicious!
It’s also infinitely changeable. I made mine with white-tail hindquarter (when butchering I like to square off my steaks and roasts and slice the trimmings thin for stir fry), but you could just as easily use thinly sliced wild pork, duck or goose breast, pheasant, grouse breast, or the loin, flank, shoulder, or round from any ungulate. Pretty versatile!
But that’s not all; you can also change up the vegetables to any light and crisp veggies like peppers, sugar snap peas, zucchini, spinach, kale, tender beans, asparagus, or celery. Tougher vegetables like broccoli or carrots work too, but you may have to blanch them first.
The sauce is also riffable. You can add any flavours you like to the sauce, like chilies or hot sauce, vinegar, brown sugar, ginger, etc. You could also just use a store-bought sauce like stir-fry sauce, teriyaki, sweet and sour, etc. to make things even easier.
Read the written version of this recipe as prepared by Adam Berkelmans (The Intrepid Eater)
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About Stir Frying
Proper stir-frying, especially wok stir-frying, is generally misunderstood by Westerners. In China, however, as well as the Chinese diaspora, it is nothing short of an art. 
Stir fries here often consist of a ton of meat, random veggies, and a bunch of store-bought sauce, all added to the wok or skillet at once to basically braise down into a soggy mess. Tasty? Yes, actually, it’s not that bad. But compared to a proper stir fry? Not even close! 
There are a few easy tips to make your stir fries better though, even if you don’t reach the heights of a wok master, so let’s get into them and see if we can elevate your weeknight stir fry into something just as good as takeout. 
Marinate or velvet your meat. 
You’ll probably want to get your rice or noodles going now too. 
Prepare your mise en place: aromatics ready, meat ready, all veggies cut, sauce ready, garnishes ready to go. 
Get your wok ripping hot. 
Add the oil and swirl it around the wok. 
Add the aromatics to flavour the oil. Remove if need be. 
Add the meat and give it a good sear on both sides. Remove if need be. 
Add the hearty veggies, then the tender vegetables, then the ultra-tender vegetables, tossing them around constantly.
Add the meat and aromatics back in if you removed them. 
Stir the sauce to reincorporate the cornstarch. 
Add the sauce around the edge of the wok. 
Reduce heat and toss everything together. Let the sauce thicken. 
Add garnishes and take off of the heat. 
Serve immediately. 
And that my friends is a stir fry. 
About Adam Berkelmans:
Adam Berkelmans, also known as The Intrepid Eater, is a passionate ambassador for real food and a proponent of nose-to-tail eating. He spends his time between Ottawa and a cozy lake house north of Kingston, Ontario. When not cooking, he can be found hunting, fishing, foraging, gardening, reading, traveling, and discovering new ways to find and eat food.
Follow Adam on Instagram
Visit the Intrepid Eater website
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Have you ever wanted to get into waterfowl hunting or grow your existing waterfowl hunting skills? Well, we have the perfect hunting skills camp for you! We are partnering with G&H Decoys to host our first-ever Oklahoma Waterfowl Camp this coming January! It doesn’t matter if you have hunted for years or are just picking up a shotgun, we have a spot for you to join us at our hunting skills camp, this winter in Eastern Oklahoma. 
Sign up now: https://harvestingnature.com/product/oklahoma-duck-hunting-camp-2/
“Although not the first state to jump into mind when thinking of waterfowl, Oklahoma has been blessed with many diverse opportunities for waterfowlers. Located at the southern portion of the Central Flyway, Oklahoma is part of the wintering range for many species of ducks and geese. This provides sportsmen an opportunity to pursue their feathered quarry from November through January.”
At this camp, we will hone your skills with a shotgun on the skeet range, scout for good habitat, teach you to call ducks, set up decoys, clean ducks, butcher waterfowl, package the meat, and cook tasty meals with waterfowl all in one extended weekend. All hunting will be DIY with our crew hunting alongside you, but not guiding you. 
We will use the G&H Decoy HQ as our base camp for all classes, meals, meetings, hunting planning, and campfires. Lodging will be at a nearby hotel, just minutes away from base camp. Our highly skilled, professional chefs, Adam Berkelmans and Justin Townsend, will prepare meals each day.
The G&H crew will spend time ensuring you are comfortable shooting on the range in order to prepare you for the transition to the waterside where you will have the opportunity to hunt a variety of migratory waterfowl.
Daytime classes will include topics such as Waterfowl Hunting 101, Intro to Duck Calling, Butchering Waterfowl, Hunting with Dogs, E-scouting and Scouting Public Land Waterfowl Classes, Advanced Cooking Techniques, and so much more!
Each day you will have the opportunity to scout multiple hunting spots and to go on four total DIY, unguided, duck hunts with both the G&H and Harvesting Nature crews. They will hunt right alongside you as you both try and bring home some game. 
After the hunt, our expert butcher, Adam Berkelmans, will walk you through the steps on how to break down the ducks and process the meat for storage in the freezer and for later eating. Everyone will get the opportunity to work with birds even if you do not harvest any in the field. 
Each night, after the hunts, our chefs will bring you into the kitchen. There they will provide hands-on instruction on how to prepare different cuts from the waterfowl you harvested. You will be taught kitchen skills to take back home and showcase for your friends and family. 
At the end of the camp, you will walk away with the skills to hunt, shoot, process, store, and cook your waterfowl. These skills easily translate over into any other game birds you would decide to hunt in the future.
Sign up now: https://harvestingnature.com/product/oklahoma-duck-hunting-camp-2/
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Justin and Adam chat again about butchering and cooking by specific cuts. In this episode they dive deep into the Denver Steak and the Neck, touching base on techniques, nuances, and recipes for these two delicious cuts. 
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Recipes:
Grilled Venison Steak Salad
Venison with Roquefort-Shrimp Sauce
Venison Steak Marsala
Venison Red Beans and Rice
Cajun Rice and Gravy with Venison Neck
Venison Gamjatang
Show Notes:
Home Butchering vs Processor

Denver Steak
It's part of the under-blade portion of the chuck
clam shell looking cut
4th most tender cut on animal
Has marbling even on lean game animals
It will have a rich flavor
Recently created in the US, unveiled in 2009
Result of a research project by the University of Florida and Nebraska
Not a popular cut along the rocky mountain foothills
Japanese have been eating for a while from Waygu 
How to remove the Denver Steak
Serratus ventralis muscle
High heat sear, grill, broil, stir fry
Join our Field to Fork Wild Pig Camp
Slice across the grain
Why is the steak so tender? 

The Neck
Commonly left behind
A huge amount of meat is available
Tendons and bones can make it a tough cut
History of cut
Neck Bones in Soul Food
Lamb Roasts in the Middle East/North Africa
Grilled Pork Collar with dipping sauce
Korean Gamjatang
Chronic Wasting Disease Considerations
Braise
Stew
Grind
So flavorful
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