Hillbilly Hunting and Clamming with Class

"I'm like a little troll who lives on nothing but river water and squirrel meats!" - Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates.

My brother and I headed deep into the woods for a little squirrel hunt the other day. We encountered hears of elk, huge flocks of doves, and a pair of golden eagles! It was pretty amazing!

Late in the day my brother had two squirrels in the bag and we both had wide grins!

My brother cooked up a nice batch of squirrel with dumplings and he said it was incredible!

 



Next, my ladyfriend heard about how much fun clamming was the other day. She had never been clamming before, so the two of us hit the coast for the low tide and had a great sunset foray! The night before, Diane kept threatening to bring her classy gold rain boots with heals. The idea of her tromping around the mud in those boots had me cracking up!

In no time she had her first legal sized littleneck clam!

We had to race the sun as you can only legally take clams until a half hour after sunset. However, by that time we had plenty of mussels and ninety clams (just ten short of our limit) as we repaired the portions of the beach we had excavated and reburied juvenile clams to let them grow for next season.

By early evening we patiently waited as our clam appetizer steamed in sea water and onions. The subsequent beach-feast and clam chowder with our wild harvested black trumpet mushrooms were absolutely superb!

Well, the tides will be low again soon and we hope to greet them with shovels, buckets, and big smiles!

Keep the old ways alive!

Clams, Fungi, and Other Wintertime Forays

"The two of you are walking around in the sewer, naked, looking for rings and coins?"- Dennis. "You feel em with your feet! It's almost like clamming!"- Frank, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

My good old buddy Matt and I reconnected after some years over marine mud flats and hidden gems...I am of course speaking of winter's bountiful bivalves...clams!!!!

But before we get into that, check out the hefty harvest my buddy Alex and I gathered in the coastal woodlands the day before! Black trumpets, angel wings, hedgehogs, jelly teeth, and even a few candy caps and a golden chanterelle! So many good meals!

Alright, now back to the nitty gritty we call clamming!

After careful excavation with a shovel (and not so careful excavation on hands and knees with black muck-covered bare hands, stained shirts and black and blue jeans), we came up with our first haul of horseneck clams. Next we made our way to the rocky and gravely edge of the low tide mark and scraped up my limit (50) of little neck clams, aka steamers, in approximately fifteen minutes!

We were all smiles! The subsequent clam calamari and chowder were so good I forgot to get pics!

A few days later I hit the inland riparian forest with my buddy Eric for his first mushroom hunt and we cleaned up! He had a full bag of oyster mushrooms in a few hours!

Next, I took my lady friend Diane into "the wild" for some fungi fun. We located a beautiful cluster of velvet foots and a few bear's Heads in no time flat!

So much wild food, so little time! And yeah, we used the last Dungeness crab I caught to make crab ravioli with sage-butter-mushroom sauce for dinner...not too bad at all!

Well, duck season is in full swing, and I will be headed out to meet it just as soon as I bail all the rainwater out of my canoe!

Hope to see you out there enjoying all the fun and adventure the wet winter weather has to offer!

Keep the old ways alive!

Persimmon Muffins

Every year during late fall and early winter I look forward to the persimmon harvest! These incredible fruits ripen just as the last of the late season apples fall. And every year since we were kids, my brother and I would shake the limbs and gather up these sweet, gooey (and slightly bitter), fruits for one of my favorite seasonal sweets.

My mom's recipe for persimmon muffins dipped in cinnamon sugar is to die for! They are so damn good it is hard to resist eating a whole batch all at once!

So the other day, after the first good frost, I headed out to the family orchard and returned with just enough early season fruit for a half dozen of these incredibly tasty treats! Yeah...I ate like half of them!

O.k. I hear that the mushrooms are springing up again around here, so I am heading into the woods as soon as I get the final edits done on a couple of reports I am writing.

See you out there!

Keep the old ways alive!

Late Fall Fun

It's been a while since I've got to writing on my blog. But that's not on account of not getting out for some good old fun with friends and family. Porcini's have been popping!

 

 



 

 

 

 

And a massive cauliflower mushroom also came my way the other day!

 

 

Troops of shaggy manes dotted the trails...

And oyster mushrooms sprang from fallen trees...

Just begging to be sautéed, served on crostini with goat cheese and balsamic vinegar, and devoured!

Those that were not eaten on the spot, were brought home, cooked up in a red wine reduction sauce served over venison steaks from a deer my brother got recently!

 

 

 

 

And what can I say...Dungeness crab season recently opened and we have done quite well for ourselves!

 

 

Anyone who says that autumn is a time of scarcity, clearly hasn't visited northern California!

 

Many more adventures are on the horizon, I can feel it!

 

Keep the old ways alive!

 

 



 

Catfish Po' boys Revisited

Got out rabbit hunting the other day and the rabbit tortilla soup that resulted was absolutely incredible! I am sending this recipe soon to my editor at the North Coast Journal.

My buddy Alex and I had a quick foray the other day resulting in a nice haul of bay leaves, pomegranates, and English walnuts.

Since my friend Angela gave me her old car I have been loading up the canoe and getting out fishing like crazy! Thank you Angie!

A new acquaintance also gave me an old cart so I can more easily roll my canoe down to the water! Just tried it out and it works like a charm!

Been getting out for bass regularly and the bite has been great!

No, that is not an intentional Fritos chips add...I just like them, what can I say? Guilty pleasure!

Over the past few days fishing I had an otter swim right up to my boat and grab a bass 1/3 of its size from under a snag 10ft away! It was awesome to see...but I couldn't snap a pic in time. Today while fishing I had a weasel swim by about 15 feet from me in search of fish as well!

Great horned owls, falcons, bald eagles, red tailed hawks, western pond turtles, and many more forms of wildlife have also come by and taken a look at the canoe recently. I love how much one gets to see out on the water without the noise of a motor! 

The other day while fishing for catfish, salmon started jumping all around me! I had a solid strike from one later, but no hook ups.

That's o.k. though, I did land a couple of small catfish.

And made up some of my famous beer batter to fry them in. The subsequent catfish Po' boy was outstanding!

I am still stuck taking photos with my old flip phone so I apologize for the resolution on some of these images. I will get a new camera when my next paycheck comes through.

Well, time to get cracking on my dissertation proposal again.

Keep fishing, hunting, adventuring, and foraging!

And always strive to keep the old ways alive!