I'm a little late in writing this but I wanted to make you all aware of an article that appeared in the Sacramento Bee today. Many of you, I presume, have been reading along at Hank Shaw's blog Hunter Angler Gardener Cook. A blog that follows Hank - a mountain man gourmet of sorts - and his edible adventures. If you aren't reading it then, well, you should be. His garden is diverse (who else is growing sorrel, 8 kinds of onions, and borage?) and for the most part sustains him and his girlfriend Holly, a woman with keen journalistic talent and a toga-perfect personality and poise. Furthermore, he catches almost all of his own fish and hunts most of his own meat. The few bits he buys he picsk up from local purveryors at various Farmers Markets. He lives in a complete food cycle that most of us could only dream of living up to. Eating an animal nose to tail is one thing, going out, killing it yourself, preparing it, and cooking it up in a haute fashion with vegetables and herbs you grew yourself is something else.
However, Hank did something no other personal food blog did. He was nominated for a James Beard award - something even the great names of Food Blogging weren't able to do. Hank's keen (though at times delightfully juvenile) sense of humor, Trotsky-esque goatee and glasses, fabulous cooking style, and intelligent writing will immediately endear you to him. Even the wandering vegan, who may bear slight antipathy to us meat eaters, will find his meaty pursuits noble in the way he respectfully approaches eating animals.
I encourage you all to go and read the article and then go read his blog. =)
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I'll have to go through his recipe list. I'm planting my first big vegetable garden this year as we try to live a little more independent of the grocery store. Hunting still isn't an option for me. I tend to lean toward a vegetarian lifestyle anyways, but I dodge frogs on the highway. The only way I could hunt would be if the difference was between my kids starving to death and some deer not seeing tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteIn cases like that, well, I have a really good venison chili recipe. :o)