Friday, 16 March 2012

Bushcraft Weather Prediction Pt.1

Frogs Pr0n init!

In a suburban garden the rite of spring has sprung once again, and I'm reminded of Andy Richardson's observation that the frogs know just how much rain to expect and lay accordingly. When I was with Andy during the summer he did have an uncanny ability to tell what the weather was about to do, so I'm a big believer in his old wives tales. Science usually catches up with old wives tales, after denying them for a few years, so I suspect the Meteorological Office actually just has a frog pond out the back, and all the 'computers' are just cereal boxes and fairy lights.
These frogs seem to agree with Thames Water and the Met Office; we're looking at a drought. In wet summers gone by I've seen about ten times the amount they've laid this year.

Bodes for a dismal Trout season. I wonder where my sea fishing rigs are?

More soon
SBW

Thursday, 15 March 2012

Book Review - Glock: The Rise of America's Gun

Not really a handgun kind of guy myself [air pistols aside I've only ever fired an S&W 1911] but I do enjoy a bit of riflery and know a few enthusiasts, as Glock is such a touchstone of the culture I was interested in the story behind the icon. I wasn't disappointed, I would defiantly put this one in the upper tier of business books/corporate histories. It's a really interesting tale.

An outsider who'd never even owned firearms, and whose shooting experience made even mine seem comprehensive, starts with a clean sheet of paper and re-invents the pistol. An ingenious salesman sees the wind change for American law enforcement - wheel guns are out: it's not 'is it going to be an automatic pistol?' its 'which automatic pistol is it going to be?' - and seizes the day.
Ably assisted by lap dancers, with press and promotion by anti-gun pressure groups, and added profits generated by the assault weapons ban, team Glock turn an obscure Austrian radiator manufacturer into a major industrialist, his invention into a design icon and cultural phenomenon.

If you're hoping for pages of technical detail about the differences between Gaston Glock's design and that of his competitors you'll be better off reading Glocktalk.com or perhaps The Gun Digest Book of the Glock.  If you find stories of corporate opportunism and intrigue are to your taste you'll not be disappointed. I've always loved stories of the little team no one has ever heard of, rocking up and changing the game, Glock certainly did that. Well worth a read.

One from the 'ya couldn't make it up files'

Shaven-headed bearded muslim chap, my age, sitting next to me on the train.
"You're reading that and no one's even looking, if I was reading it they'd be pulling the emergency cord". Yep we laughed out loud.


On the blogging front
Not been out and about much lately, but I have been reading some great books, so more book reviews to come, some local history with suburban hunters and, funds permitting, a very special trip to meet another blogger or two. Before the chalk streams dry up completely I'm hoping this season is 'the season' I'll fulfil that longstanding ambition of catching a wild trout within the city limits

More Soon
Your pal
SBW

Tuesday, 13 March 2012

Suburban Hunters Of The Old East End

East Enders Afield

Just a quick one to let you know I've not fallen off the edge of the world.

A while back I met up with Cleve author of Tales of a London Poacher a memoir which includes some excellent tales of his childhood shooting over the marshes and water treatment beds in London's east end. I'm hoping to meet up with some of the chaps in the photo in the next few weeks to learn a bit more about their adventures back in the day.

In the meantime you can see some video of Cleve, read my review of his book HERE

Your pal
SBW

Thursday, 1 March 2012

Leuku: The Knives Of Finland

In the pristine frozen north of europe where oily softwoods like birch and pine grow the Sammi people developed a form of knife known as the Leuku: long enough for chopping and light enough for carving this is the belt knife of the Boreal forests.  

Perkele is a Finish blogger and outdoorsman who keeps us posted with his 'slowly updating notes about me, my life, outdoor activities, bushcraft, knives, survival skills etc..'

He's just posted an excellent review of the work of some Finnish blade smiths and a history of the Leuku form. Well worth a read.


The way i see leuku, is that its a bigger knife, that was born in hands of saame people, who were back then, living a travelling life, and their knife was a about the most important tool, as it was expensive to get, as well as difficult to make back then. They didnt have, in most cases, anvils, nor a way to transport one always, so the rare people who had skills to make knives, became important part of society as well as good tradesmen. Ive heard that with one grown male reindeer, you could get two leukus, or two leukus and one womens leuku, if uou could get a bargain. Steels, were hard to get ,too, and the price of it was naturally higher than its now. They did not order leukus, i bet, like we do, with a phonecall or through an email, nor did they buy it from webshops. You had to travels for huge distances, with trading goods, to meet blacksmith or someone else who sold or traded knives and blades. You could not replace it in the true wilderness either, because the postoffices werent invented, so you really really had to keep your possibly only knife in a good safe and try not to loose it as it might mean the end of your life.

Leuku has been used in wast range of tasks, even before it "came" familiar to southern Finlands people. Its been used to skin animals, prep hides, gut, slice, chop meat, sliver branches off from the firewood, to butcher reindeerd, to build traps for birds, fish and big game like bears. They used it to carve icy and wet snow from sleds, pulks and harness of reindeer. Its not a lie, to say that if anything, leuku was a multitool of northern people.

READ MORE

More soon
SBW

Monday, 27 February 2012

Blogger WTF!



Dear Blogger

What is going on with you guys? Really WTF is going on? I cant comment on my own blog, other people with blogger accounts email me to tell me they cant comment on my blog, the search bar on the to left of the page is basically a joke, TWENTY posts that begin with the words "I want one" and the search bar can find NONE OF THEM you guys are part of the google empire so 'searching' is a BIG part of what you do, er right? How is it that Blogger works less well than it did FIVE EFFING YEARS AGO?

Just sayin'
SBW




5 Gun Meme

I've been a little busy this year, and mysteriously unable to post comments on my own blog for the last three weeks but rest assured dear reader I'm still here and haven't given up blogging.

In the meantime a blog-meme has been doing the rounds with the usual gun nuts listing the guns they'd most like to acquire. With most of the gun bloggers posting handguns for home defence AKA 'goblin dispatch'.  This has never been a 'Gunny Blog' and I'm not really a hand gun kind of chap so I hadn't felt the need to join in, but when the mighty Steve B chipped in with his list of classic firearms for hunting I finally felt the need to publish my five gun battery of choice.

In the past I've listed a few guns in the "I want one" series of posts, some new and clever, some old and reassuringly handmade, this list is partially 'food getters' that are still available new and partially the antiques of tomorrow, nothing on the list couldn't be duplicated in functionality for a fraction of the price, but where's the fun in that?


Cooper Firearms of Montana: Jackson Squirrel Rifle in any rimfire cal. of your choice.
Arguably the best rimfire rifle made, anywhere, at any price. Sweet!
Picture credit



6.5X54 Mannlicher Schoenauer [preferably in rare Take Down spec.] AKA 'Bell's other rifle'
With its rotary magazine this was the Blaser of its day, an amazing example of the machinists craft. Bell   used his as his primary meat-getter and his stories are punctuated with praise for this wand-like rifle.
Picture credit and an excellent article about the MS 6.5x57 


David Lloyd in .240 (pictured in the barrel burning .244 cal)
Virtually an obsolete calibre, can only be used with vintage glass, but O' so sexy. David Lloyd designed his rifle from the glass down, he wanted a rifle that wouldn't lose its zero even when subjected to the rough and tumble of stalking in the Highlands. He designed his own scope mounts that shroud the scope, and then to really make sure they'd never moved silver soldered the scope to the mounts and the mounts to the rifle! Regular trips to eastern Turkey insured an amazing standard of Turkish Walnut for the stocks, and the barrels were the best money could buy.
Picture credit Emma's custom rifles

.275 Rigby with optional tang safety and the roll stamp on the barrel reading
'SIGHTED FOR RIGBY'S SPECIAL HIGH VELOCITY / JOHN RIGBY & CO. 43 SACKVILLE St. LONDON. W. / .275 BORE CARTRIDGE. POINTED BULLET 140 GRS.'

My last few stalking expeditions have been with a Rigby, and while I'm usually all about utility - plastic stocks and stainless steel, the Rigby was my introduction to classic firearms.  There is something immensely cool about Rigby's rifles, I've seen 'poor man's Rigby's' that would duplicate everything a Rigby could ever be, you could buy a more accurate rifle from pretty much any modern manufacturer, but none of them would ever have the vibe of the Rigby. If I needed to explain it to you, you'd never understand what all the fuss is about. Double want one.
Picture credit and available rifles from Holts



Berretta Super Leggera [Ultra Light] 12 gauge
Like a vist to an italian furniture shop this is both the best and worst of italian design. Not pretty; the engraving is so naff I'd probably have it coated in ceramic paint to hide the true hideousness of what I'll charitably call the 'engraving', but in the Highlands on those long walks after Ptarmigan, snowshoe hunting hares with Perkele or trudging across the prairie after Quail with Chad Love its light weight would be a blessing.
Picture credit

Meanwhile back in the real world I'll keep saving to buy another bag of airgun pellets!
More soon
SBW

Saturday, 11 February 2012

Plan B: Fly Fishing



I keep finding myself idly surfing for a pair of waders, so I'm not the only person thinking about fly fishing. Then Faceless Fly Fishing emailed me suggesting I take a look at their latest film. I like it, make a change from the elitist gadget obsessiveness that plagues the sport. Init Tom.

SBW

Friday, 10 February 2012

Knife Review: Camillus VG10 Sailors Knife

 What the world needs now: An affordable VG10 pocket knife

Occasionally fate smiles upon me and in a welcome break from those clowns who write to me offering the 'opportunity' to post their naff videos and receive 0.4c a view, someone drops me a line with news of something that I'd actually like and that may be of interest to you dear reader. 

Back from the jaws of bankruptcy one of americas oldest knife brands Camilllus Knives has risen from the ashes with a great offering. Knives in VG10 [one of the super steels], for decidedly un-super prices. Most excellent!

I've got a couple of blades in VG10, the Fallkniven F1 and the Spyderco Urban, both hold a wicked edge long after the generic steels would need to be sharpened. Although they come at a considerable price premium: available in the US for around $100 and here in old blighty - a shocking £100 for the Urban and even more for the F1.

Looking over the Camillus range the model that jumped off the page for me is their interpretation of the Sailors Knife, I had a couple of these as a kid, but they weren't nearly as smart as this version. There's the classic 'sheep foot' blade and a marlin spike for undoing knots [and getting boy scouts out of horses hooves], but instead of generic steel and stainless steel scales this one comes in VG10 with G10 scales, and here's the good news, while the list price is only $60 I've found them at Wally World for $40!
 The knife is a 'liner lock' and lock-up is rock solid.
The lanyard loop also acts as a lock for the marlin spike 

Fit and finish are up there with the Urban but at 40% of the price. While the lanyard loop isn't the best piece of design I've ever seen, the rest of the knife really is very very well thought out and executed. In fairness the lock-up of the marlin spike is so firm that the loop needs to be the size it is to exert enough pressure to release the spikes lock.

Sometimes an outfit comes along that just offers a product that's right; meets and exceeds the competition and offers it at a price that makes it a no-brainer. I predict great things for the new Camillus Knife Co.

Thanks Guys

More soon
SBW




Thursday, 9 February 2012

Meet Tovar Cerulli


Always a pleasure to big-up a fellow blogger - writing for the love of reading and writing.  Bloggers come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Some of us are silly, some investigative, some great at evoking wild spaces with sparse prose. The blogosphere has some amazing voices and some of them make it into traditional print. Tovar is a fascinating voice, the first person to diagnose adult onset hunting [read this one it's very funny], and my favorite 'foodie philosopher'  who has grasped the nettle of food bullshit, writing about the unintended consequences to food choices.

Have a watch of this, then have a read of his blog.

At twenty, moved by the compassionate words of Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh and concerned about the ecological impacts of meat, I became a vegetarian. Soon I went vegan.

Almost a decade later, having moved back to a rural community from New York City, I realized that all food has its costs. From habitat destruction to grain combines that inadvertently mince rabbits to the shooting of deer in soybean and lettuce fields, crop production is far from harmless. Even in our own organic garden, my wife and I were battling ravenous insects and fence-defying woodchucks. I began to see that the question wasn’t what we ate but how that food came to our plates.

A few years later, my wife—who was studying holistic health and nutrition— suggested that we shift our diet. My health improved when we started eating dairy and eggs. It improved still more when we started eating chicken and fish.

Searching for ethical, ecologically responsible ways to come to terms with my food, I began to contemplate the unthinkable: hunting. Two years later, I took up a deer rifle.


More soon, your pal

SBW

Wednesday, 8 February 2012

Boil In The Bag

Perhaps a little over dressed: note the steam rising from me

Other things have keept me away from blogging for the last few weeks but rest assured dear reader I've not fallen off the edge of the world. I did make it out of town for an 'Armed Ramble' the The Bambi Basher and McShug. With the season over we took the guns and dogs to look for Pigeons and Squirrels. Is it just me or are Squirrels much rarer after last years cold winter? Our bag for the morning was Zip Ziltch, Nada but as you probably know a crap mornings hunting beats any morning at the office so the outing was a great success. I took the opportunity to 'test some gear' AKA wear clothes.

As the thaw was underway and temperature was above freezing it was still too warm for a proper test, I boiled in the bag.

Lundhags Ranger Boots
I can see how a pair of made to measure boots could be a more custom fit, but I cant see how they could be any better made or more waterproof. I wanted a pair of Lundhags for over twenty years and went through a couple of pairs of of half decent boots, and several pairs of mil-surp boots in that time. These are very very good, not cheap, but very very good.


Mini Bambi Basher gave me a hand testing the ESS goggles



RedRam Thermals
Very good indeed, and sadly it would seem very delicious to that evil predator Tineola bisselliella, the Clothes Moth!

As we set off for home McShug very kindly produced this from his pocket, "shot last week so it hums a bit, but I know you wanted to try one" Now hanging from the Gas Cock in my basement. Ripening.

More tales of feral failure, reviews and of course a traditional Woodcock recipe to follow
Your pal
SBW

Thursday, 19 January 2012

How To Get On TV

The Magic of TV: standing on a beach watching a plane pretend to land, so you can pretend to be on it.

A Little while ago this blog got me the chance to be on the TV. Appearing with Paul Merton a comedian who I've been a massive fan of for years. Aside from his weekly satirical news show he also has a travel show and for its last series was exploring what he could get up to close to home. Somehow the production company had hooked up with that 'consumate outdoorsman', blogger, wild and crazy force of nature, goose guide, and gamekeeper Andy Richardson. He pointed the TV folk in my direction. And there hangs a tale.

It's morning and you find me drinking coffee, staring into the middle distance, I'm at home wondering where my next job is coming from when I get an email from a girl I've never heard of who works at a TV company I have heard of 'CALL ME URGENTLY" she says. I take a break from my busy schedule of looking out of the window and scratching my arse to give her a ring. She wants to know about the SBW blog, luckily its my favorite subject so I tell her a bit about it, and because she works in TV and therefore thinks in pictures I email her some pictures. She sounds interested but is obviously not the decision maker.
I engage the 'did I mention I'm 40 and I've heard it all before' part of my brain, put the whole thing out of my mind, and go to make more coffee. Later that day I get Andy on the phone, I've convinced myself this is just another dead-end, but to my surprise Andy seems to think its all happening, so much for the dour Scots gamekeeper image.

A week or so later I'm on a client visit to Hell [aka Ikea], the client is suffering from option paralysis in the kitchen section and I'm dreaming of coffee and a danish when the phone rings. Its TV Chick

TV Chick: Can my boss take you out to lunch?
SBW: Sweetheart anybody can take me out to lunch

On the day itself I've been doing plumbing call outs in the morning but I manage to squeeze in getting a hair cut, then it occurs to me THEY THINK IN PICTURES so I nip home to the pile of mud encrusted  clothes left in a pile on the floor the last time I returned from hunting deer. They really are encrusted, by the time I'm sitting in the marble lobby of the TV company's office there is trail of dried mud leading to my seat. They wanted deer hunter I'm giving them 'deer hunter'.

Over lunch we talk about the star of the show 'a hypercondriac from the suburbs', the producer and director have just done a location visit so we talk about Scotland, we have a laugh about Midges being scotland's apex predator, and some how manage to skirt round the fact that I have no idea what wild and crazy force of nature Andy has told them!

Lunch is a mid price steak house - which gives me the opportunity to casually tell them I only eat steaks when out, ' at home I only eat wild meat I've shot '. I manage to do this with a straight face - They wanted hunter I'm giving them 'hunter'.

I'd sent them a link to The Best of SBW which of course they hadn't read. After I'd answered their questions, and told a few tales something happens which seems to make a difference. Regular readers will remember the time I got Scope Bite from a Muzzle Loader, I still have a bump on my skull. If I tell the tale I usually offer a audience the chance to  feel the bump, as its next to my eye for both our comfort I say 'give me your finger' and put it in place. This time the director was already reaching out for a feel before I got to the end of the tale. Once he'd verified its existence his face took on the satisfaction of a schoolboy in the presence of a 'gnarly scar' and quietly said "best not tell Paul about that". The presence of this wound seems to add veracity to everything else I've told them and at this point they start talking about me being with them in Scotland as though its happening.

I'm still not rising to the bait. Did I mention that I'm forty and I've not only heard it all before but come out with most of it too? I'll believe it when I see it.

When I get home Andy has already posted on his Facebook group that I'm on my way. I call Andy who is full of enthusiasm and tells me how much the film crew loved it when he told them about how I'm an unstoppable optimist who lived as a homeless person foraging the canal paths of London. For three years. 'You told them WHAT?' 'Well y'are, you're always so optimistic"

Ten days later I'm standing in the carpark of a dairy farm re-doing voice overs for the director, as we finish we say our goodbyes and he adds "From the first moment I saw you I knew it was going to work, there you were 'Hunter: Straight from central casting'"

More Soon
Your pal
SBW
PS You can see the episode Andy and I are in here and I'll tell you the rest of the tale another time.


Some Observations About TV People
1. They are simple people - they think in pictures and cliches. Complexity doesn't lend itself to TV. Keep it simple and keep it sexy or their eyes will glaze over.

2. They are not malicious bullshitters, they just appear so - to them every option has the same value until the last minute when a snap decision is made and all other options are dropped in a mad rush to get the camera's rolling. Lots of people will be contacted, very few will end up on screen.

3. They cant read. [OK I exaggerate they 'can' but don't.]

4. They are very very proud to be working in TV, but it is totally against the rules to show any kind of delight - they must be seen to be working very hard. Any shows of excitement or enthusiasm will reveal you as a total naive and not 'one of us'. So they can appear a bit sniffy to non-TV real people.

5.The Director: probably the best job in the world. you get to be an inquisitive child 90% of the time and the other 10% you get your demands met. Nice work if you can get it!

6.The Producer: Its all on your shoulders, but you've got a small army to make sure it works out. You must encourage the director, stop money being spent and get stuff on tape that'll look good on screen.

7.The Director and Producer roles in TV aren't nearly as glamourous as they sound - think middle management in trendy shoes.

8.The Girls Who Can: without the teams of competent young woman the whole thing would fall down in an instant. Shrewd-eyed and extremely motivated; with the opportunism of pirates and the organisational skills of the german army, if they weren't making TV they'd be running the world - underestimate them at your peril.



Goat Head Spikes


I love the letter pages of newspapers, and the comments sections of blogs, the conversations that break out are so often where the comedy of real life shows its self.

A chap wrote to me the other day asking for help promoting his company, Sole Spikes, at this time he only has one product, but his price is reasonable and his product useful so I was happy to help out.

Goathead Spikes are 1/4 inch studs that you screw into the soles of shoes and boots to gain traction on rock and ice. It's not icy enough for a true test here, and the season for wadding, fly rod in hand, for Grayling and Trout is yet to begin. So in-lieu of a full product field test here's a story also about 'Goat Head'.

In the Sunday paper an article had been published about the nicknames school kids give their teachers, the next week a fella writes in to say his most memorable teacher was a man known to all as Goat Head, but he had no idea how this mild mannered educator had come by the name.
The following week another chap wrote in, he had attended the same school and there hangs a tale.
Mr Whatever-he-was-called was indeed a mild mannered man and a crap disciplinarian, so much so that he didn't even attempt to discipline the boys himself, and would as his default punishment send miscreants to the Head [master]. An instruction his accent rendered "Go t' head!"

Simples
SBW

Tuesday, 17 January 2012

Stephen Bodio's Querencia: A Book review

I know an amazing carpenter, he has the relaxed air of a man who has it just right for him. Secure in his own skill, comfortable in his life. He has the good fortune to be married to a financial genius, not for him the stresses and stains of billing and tax payments. They have a porsche, and about five houses. If you want to hire him he just tells you his day rate and after that you deal with her, email only, she bills you for his time, gives him pocket money and ensures they live well. Very very well. The rest of us live like street dogs. He works for me and I live like a dog. As MCP said "I wish someone loved me that much"

'Querencia' describes a place where we feel safe, the well from which our strength of character is drawn, that little bit of real estate (in our heads or our environment) where we are truly at home. I'm told It comes from the verb 'quere', to desire, to want. Great name for a book. Or a home.

Back in the days before the rise of the bleached shivering whippet, back when smart was still cool and you could earn living writing long-form journalism Steve finds himself at something of a loose end

I had expensive tastes in belongings , adventure, and alcohol.... I had two fifty year old LC. Smith shotguns, one engraved, 500 books, a master-falconers licence and a captive bred Lanner [falcon]
with ancestors from South Africa and Ethiopia. I liked my life but I had nobody to talk to


Steve hooks up with Betsy Huntington and after a while they pack their worldly goods into a yellow Datsun and trade new england for new mexico. There begins a tale of seven years exploring a remarkable landscape with a remarkable woman.

'If there was a breeze you could inhale the incense of burning Pinon and Juniper from the town a mile up wind, strong and sweet, evocative and nostalgic. My sister from back east thought it was "the scent of Mexican cooking spices" Kit Carson said that if you ever smelled it you would return to the high villages of New Mexico as long as you lived.'

' "sounds good to me" this from Chubby firmly. His hand was extended. I took it, and although I could not know it, started living in Magdalena'.

As naturalists of the old school - red of tooth and claw - Steve and Betsy are the perennial students of their own interest. This is a story of an absorption into the landscape, where every rock and fold in the land is a track, a story left behind in a very very slowly evolving landscape. Giant skys, arroyos that flash from dust to full before your eyes, all in the clear harsh light of altitude.

The area is not short on local colour; Steve paints a backdrop so vivid that the found-words jump off the page into that space of the remembered imagination where all the great books make their home.

The middle of route 60 which just seconds before had contained only a few wandering bodies now held a brawl as thick as a snarl of ants on a summer sidewalk. Above the thwhack of fists against bodies rose a cry I will never forget "That horse never fucked nobody!"

Betsy too leaps from the page; a woman who has seen such a variety of different lives that she must have been an amazing co-conspirator, able to explore without judgement, and to summon up both the wisdom of the well travelled and the childlike enthusiasm Ursula Le Guin summed up as "The creative adult is the child who has survived."

Now Betsy would join us, in her own way. She had always been a leisurely climber, and claimed her smoke breaks revealed more wildlife than I ever saw. Now with her bad leg, she might drop and hour or more behind me. If I waited at all obviously she would be furious. She'd walk up slowly, taking pains to stroll rather than labour, only her reddening face betraying her effort. She's stop and eye me angrily from under her bangs as she lit a camel. "Do not wait for me. I am not an invalid. If you insist on seeing me as a burden I shall not come". I was reminded of the time she had told me about some boyfriend who said he "needed" her . "I told him I didn't want to be a necessity or a responsibility. I'd prefer to be an indispensable luxury"

After my first reading of Querencia I lent the book to MOB (my mum) she loved it too

MOB: 'wonderful writing and an amazing eulogy to Betsy"

SBW: I wish someone loved me that much

More soon
Your pal
SBW

Here's the Link to Steve's page on Amazon
His blog of the same name 
And a link to some of his journalism 

Tuesday, 27 December 2011

Hedgehogs?

Hedgehogs! What are they all about?
Why cant they just share the hedge with the other animals?

More Soon
SBW

Picture credit britishhedgehogs.org.uk

Monday, 26 December 2011

Bow Hunt Giant Rats?

Morning all, hope you're not feeling too rough after yesterdays excesses, At the shindig I went to while the family were gathered round a copy of the saturday paper was being passed round to squeals of delight, it contained a review of the hilarious book [and website]  Awkward Family Pet Photos  needless to say this handsome beast was my favorite, although no family member was able to answer my questions:
What is it? Where can I Bowhunt it? What do they taste like?

I've loved hunting and eating squirrel's, Mr. Bojangles has reported on eating Rats in Senegal, could this be the next stop for the Rodant Carnivore?

Any pointers, and/or invitations gratefully received

Your pal
SBW

PS For news of the UK's Trophy Rats click here

Sunday, 25 December 2011

Happy Crimbo '11

Having been up all night working, some people seem to have fallen off the wagon sleigh!

Where ever you are, whatever you're up to, Happy Crimbo
Your pal
SBW

Tuesday, 20 December 2011

My 500th Blog Post

Well doesn't time fly? 500 posts along the road. I've learned to write [a little], a bit about shooting, very little about archery, I can now cast[ish] a fly [so that's 1% of yer actual fly fishing], I've collected most of the gear, been on TV, made myself a dinner party pariah, changed job, worked my way out of poverty, been cheated back into it, separated from the mother of my children, found and lost love, feasted on the flesh of wild animals, and felt the shame of my shopping perpetuating factory pharming.
All in the name of freedom, adventure and a more honest relationship with my dinner.

[Shrill] Horrified dinner part guest: You kill deer! How can you do that?
[Smirking] SBW: With a high-velocity rifle.

Honestly. Not much of this would have happened without you dear reader, some of you have actually stuck with it and read every post, some of you have written blogs of your own, a few of you I've actually met. I can honestly say blogging is the best thing I've ever done, I cant even begin to express how much it's sustained me during the dark times, how cool I've seen myself look in some peoples eyes and just how great it is to have a little bit of inner space where I can speak to you in the voice of SBW.

I could make a long list, a roll of honor of the bloggers I've emailed with and or met, and try to thank you all individually but I'd be mortified if I missed anyone out. I've loved every minute of it. It's meant more to me than I can say.

More soon
Sten AKA SBW

Friday, 16 December 2011

The Hitch: A Eulogy

So it's over, The Hitch has left the building: angry, clever, scruffy, stylish (in a way), funny, hard drinking, fine dining, and provocative. The contrarian's contrarian. We parted company over the war in Iraq, but not over a lot of other stuff.

The table at the ultimate dinner party now has one less place setting.

"My own view is that this planet is used as a penal colony, lunatic asylum and dumping ground by a superior civilisation, to get rid of the undesirable and unfit. I can't prove it, but you can't disprove it either."

"What is your idea of earthly happiness? To be vindicated in my own lifetime."

Your pal
SBW
The Tweets of favorite Hitchisms
Picture credit and an interview

Tuesday, 13 December 2011

Girl Hunter: Book Review

I was made-up when I got sent a pre-release copy of Georgia Pellegrini's second book 'Girl Hunter' to read and review. Unknown on this side of the pond she's built her media profile as the champion of 'retro-locavore'; recipes that develop from meals with people, seasonal local ingredients, and seek to evoke those moments again.

I hunt and gather myself, and hone my pioneer skills. I seek ingredients that are anchored to the seasons and a definite place. It is the kind of food once served in simple restaurants and in homes by housewives, now, by grandmothers, by families for generations, and today by people – culinary artisans – choosing to do the hard work required to live off the best their hands can produce.

The good news is she's an engaging storyteller with the 'get stuck in' sensibility of the true adventurer. The bad other news is you'd need to spend a year hunting to get all the ingredients for the mouthwatering recipes at the end of each chapter.

'G' travels from across the US (with a stop-over in england) from the pay-to-play luxury lodge of the Berretta Trident directory where multi-million deals are done as investment bankers follow the dogs, to multi-generation gatherings where families enact their rituals over grandma's recipes. 'The Commish' a former fish and wildlife commissioner takes her on a variety of hunts and to learn the ways of the hunter.

I really enjoyed it and am giving it for a Crimbo prezzie to a couple of people

More Soon
SBW

The link to the Amazon page is HERE


Monday, 12 December 2011

The Other Foie Gras Controversy


 
Photographed by Holly A. Heyser. For more of her Foodie photography click HERE 

Having a bit of time to myself, and too battered to go out, I spent the time listing to This American Life podcasts. Where I heard this interesting story which sheds further light on our relationships with food animals. Which in turn reminded me of a post Hank Shaw wrote a year ago.

The received wisdom [AKA dogma] has it that Foie Gras 
is only man-made by Gavage the force feeding of Ducks and Geese

Foies Gras is probably the most contentious of foods; to some the ultimate delicacy, to some 'greasy meat paste', a 4,500 year old tradition, and the most unkind of animal husbandry.

The TAL story concerns Dan Barber a NYC based farmer, restaurateur and Foie Gras aficionado's discovery of Eduardo Sousa who raises 'free-range foies gras'.  Dan initially dismisses the story as the stuff of legend but later goes to Eduardo's to track down this seemingly contradictory delicacy.

On the farm he learns that when in their wild state Geese are a feast-and-famine eaters, accustomed to periods of famine; when the opportunity arises they will gorge themselves, eating and eating until the food stuff is gone, then flying on in search of the next opportunity. When Geese are stressed by environmental factors like the cold AND surrounded by food they really stuff it in. So far so plausible.

The received wisdom [AKA dogma] has it that Foie Gras is only man-made by Gavage - the force-feeding of grain soaked in fat to the birds, however by the wonder of the bloggerverse I beg to differ. A year back my wildfood hero, hunter and blogger Hank Shaw  posted the picture at the top of this post where he compares the livers of two Ducks he shot, one with steatosis after it had been gorging itself on rice in the paddy fields of northern California. Hank's theory is that with such an abundance of high-energy food, rice, the birds 'thrifty-gene' kicks in and the bird's metabolism switches to the 'store fat now' setting.


Doctors call the condition steatosis, in which liver cells accumulate lipids. I call it yummy.
Hank Shaw

Would it also be plausible to think that 4,500 years ago early foodies saw geese and ducks from the wild with engorged livers and thought to replicate the process in the farmyard?

Eduardo does everything he can to provide an endless supply of foods right across the range that Geese are attracted to. Grains, leaves, acorns, figs, and olives are made available - but never fed to - the Geese. He contends that Geese have had a lot of their wildness bred out of them, and with it much of the feast-and-famine-eater instinct. Any and all human contact signals that food will be provided, even fencing acts to re enforce this now inbred expectation. The stuff-yer-face-coz-ya-don't-know-where-yer-next-meal's-coming-from stress response is now much less acute. Just as the dogs of today are a fair way off the African wild dogs or Australian Dingos 4,500+ is a lot of generations of geese. It would be more remarkable if they hadn't adapted to human husbandry. In Eduardo's non-contact farming the geese act like wild Geese, not being so hemmed in by a fence or protected from the elements by a shed when it gets cold they eat everything in sight just like wild geese landing on a sweet food source would.

To Dan Barber the principles he see's at Eduardo's farm la Pateria become a cipher for the way he'd like to see farming engage with naturally occurring proceses.

You can hear the This American Life podcast HERE it's the last story in the episode

Dan Barber tells his story at TED talks HERE he's very witty, you'll like it

Eduardo Sousa's website is HERE

Read Hank's post HERE with links to the research and recipes

With the Scottish Goose season still in full-flight I'm hoping to get some samples myself.

Thanks for reading, you have no idea how much your comments and page views mean to me.
More soon
SBW