A Lifetime of Scavenging, and a Book Review

This month I decided to join my local Slow Food Book Club. The selected book was The Scavenger’s Guide to Haute Cuisine.

But first, I want to tell you that I’m not new to the idea of scavenging. My family, especially the Leep side, has always been a “living off the land” type of family. I remember hearing about them eating all kinds of animals, such as possum, raccoon, and whatnot – because my grandfather insisted that if you kill a living being, you have to eat it. He didn’t want his six boys shooting things just for the heck of it.

So I grew up spending a week every summer up at the family’s cottage on the shores of Lake Superior. The men would go fishing for pike and perch, and the women would go shopping at the Soo or hunt for blueberries for the next morning’s pancakes. The photo below is a bit blurry, but it’s of my sister, grandfather, and Uncle Jim showing off that day’s catch.

As I got older, we would spend some time in May hunting morel mushrooms. You have not lived until you’ve eaten some morels pan fried in butter. I never did go hunting, though. One time I asked to go with my Dad. I bundled up and went out with him and sat in the woods. As we were sitting there, in silence, I realized that venison doesn’t come in nice neat little butcher paper packages. Being an animal lover, I started to panic. What if I had to witness my dinner being shot? Poor little Bambi. Deer were much cuter than fish. I had no problem baiting my own hook with worms and taking my own fish off to throw in the pail, but deer? Luckily we didn’t see anything that day.

I had kind of forgotten about my hunting and fishing roots as I went off to college, got married, moved into the suburbs. But then I started to be more interested in health, nutrition, and where our food comes from. It occurred to me that wild game is probably the most humanely raised and killed source of meat you can get; at least the way my family hunted, with an emphasis of giving thanks for God’s creation and respecting the animal as a meat source and not killing for pleasure.

So last year I went turkey hunting with my dad for the first time. As you can see from the photo below, I was successful1

All this to say, when I picked up The Scavenger’s Guide, I had some idea of what to expect. I also grew up reading the books by Patrick McManus, such as Never Sniff A Gift Fish. They were hunting tales, only funny. My dad and grandfathers would get one each year for Christmas.

According to the back cover, The Scavenger’s Guide to Haute Cuisine “is a delicious, absorbing account of one man’s relationship with his family, friends, food, and, of course, the natural world.” The basic premise is that he discovers Auguste Escoffier’s Le Guide Culinaire, and decides that he wants to recreate as many of the recipes as possible, by gathering the ingredients such as bladders, organ meats, fish, and game, and then proceeds to retell his many fishing and hunting and scavenging adventures from around the United States.

The specific hunting and fishing tales are a bit drawn out for my taste, although it could be a twinge of jealousy on my part – who wouldn’t love to go fishing in Florida or Alaska? I can only dream of visiting some of the wilderness he describes. I found myself most closely paying attention when he was describing his adventures in Muskegon (where the author is from) and Traverse City, since I’m also from West Michigan.

What I appreciated more than the outdoorsman accounts, however, was the way in which he explores some of the ethical issues without being heavy-handed about it. His girlfriend, we learn early on, is a vegetarian. He meets colorful people along the way who have a lifestyle that is being threatened by urban sprawl and politics.

In the end, it was a good reminder to me of my roots, and has inspired me to do more fishing and hunting with my Dad. I’d also love to spend more vacations in the wilderness, as opposed to the wine tasting and beer tasting that currently makes up most of our vacations. I think I’ll give this book to my Dad; I think he’ll appreciate it too. Although all of my grandparents are gone now, somehow when sharing fishing and hunting experiences it seems like they’re with us.

This post linked to Real Food Wednesday