Well done. I hear echos of Wendell Berry obviously and also Arthur Haines and Aldo Leopold. A few notes from my experience: Beavers are a high return for the effort. Excellent food, long season in much of the US, warm and durable fur. No limits. Raccoons are also plentiful, moderate challenge to trap and also are good to eat and have useful fur. "Trash fish" is a term for people who can't cook or have a limited palate. Or they believe what others have told them without finding out for themselves. They avoid fresh water drum, burbot, gar, fallfish and other suckers, white perch, pike, pickerel and the list goes on. I've eaten all and many others. You just have to keep them cold and cook them right. Where I live in Maine, a majority of my friends don't even keep fish, they'll stay out all day, drink a six pack and come home without any food. But that's another topic. For return on effort with birds, geese are first with giant limits per day and possession early season. Ducks are not bad with 6/18 limits in most of the northeast. The plant and fungi forager probably can fill more of their dietary needs than the hunter and angler. It would take a few paragraphs to touch on the available plants and fungi that are edible and great food. Even in Maine winters where I live acorns and rose hips can provide great food value for a modicum of effort. Bottom line, we just need to relearn what native Americans knew and survived by for thousands of years and make it a part of our lifestyle.
Idk, everyone I ever heard that tried suckered said they were gross. No idea what a panfish is. And in Saskatchewan you can get HUGE fines for fishing without a license ($42 this year now). Our hunting and fishing is very regulated. Not rabbits but there's not an easy way to get those on farmland now, especially with the new trespassing laws. Upland game birds (grouse, Hungarian partridge, etc) are also regulated. Migratory birds, same thing. Foraging on chemically treated farmland? No way.
I've heard sucker are actually really good. The secret is to score the fillets so the bones get melted. Panfish is basically fish small enough to fit in the pan (bluegill, rock bass, crappie, etc).
I will be frank this model works best in the U.S. Other countries just criminalize this kind of thing.
Also I definitely was advocated for fishing with a license. It's good for conservation.
A couple thoughts. To be fair that tent wasn’t designed for fishing. Folks also will want to read and re-read the regulations. Last I knew Michigan allows you to keep 25 of most panfish, but only two daily limits total possession, meaning if you had 100 perch in your freezer you’re twice over the legal limit. I thought suckers had a limit but that may have changed. Also double check the legality of bartering. You can definitely give filets or game meat away, but bartering fish or game is considering selling and therefore illegal.
I personally didn’t care for frozen fish, and the lakes in Michigan are so full of fish I never struggled to put fresh fish on the table. The big exception was smoked fish which hold up pretty good frozen. I like your idea of the margins. Squirrels are almost universally under utilized, rabbits too. I personally wasn’t above popping a grouse from a limb or the ground as the opportunity arose but saw bird hunting as a low return for the effort expended. I ate a lot of venison because there were so many deer and plentiful tags so filling the freezer was easy. Right now turkeys are plentiful and my season last year lasted about an hour.
Anyway, you lay out an excellent outline for the would-be modern hunter-gatherer.
Ok I'm not gonna lie, I'm ok breaking the law bartering if it's with people I know. I won't give wild fish and game to random people, but I trust my own fishing skills enough to give to friends and family.
There are a lot of underutilized game in Michigan, and most other states too. Hunting is just simply not as popular as it was 50 years ago.
That’s fine I just wouldn’t advertise or encourage it on a public forum. What happens in your inner circle is up to you. I used to barter large quantities of morels to restaurants, then they made a law you had to pass a free course to be a certified seller. The restaurants weren’t holding up their end of the bargain so I quit about then.
Well done. I hear echos of Wendell Berry obviously and also Arthur Haines and Aldo Leopold. A few notes from my experience: Beavers are a high return for the effort. Excellent food, long season in much of the US, warm and durable fur. No limits. Raccoons are also plentiful, moderate challenge to trap and also are good to eat and have useful fur. "Trash fish" is a term for people who can't cook or have a limited palate. Or they believe what others have told them without finding out for themselves. They avoid fresh water drum, burbot, gar, fallfish and other suckers, white perch, pike, pickerel and the list goes on. I've eaten all and many others. You just have to keep them cold and cook them right. Where I live in Maine, a majority of my friends don't even keep fish, they'll stay out all day, drink a six pack and come home without any food. But that's another topic. For return on effort with birds, geese are first with giant limits per day and possession early season. Ducks are not bad with 6/18 limits in most of the northeast. The plant and fungi forager probably can fill more of their dietary needs than the hunter and angler. It would take a few paragraphs to touch on the available plants and fungi that are edible and great food. Even in Maine winters where I live acorns and rose hips can provide great food value for a modicum of effort. Bottom line, we just need to relearn what native Americans knew and survived by for thousands of years and make it a part of our lifestyle.
Idk, everyone I ever heard that tried suckered said they were gross. No idea what a panfish is. And in Saskatchewan you can get HUGE fines for fishing without a license ($42 this year now). Our hunting and fishing is very regulated. Not rabbits but there's not an easy way to get those on farmland now, especially with the new trespassing laws. Upland game birds (grouse, Hungarian partridge, etc) are also regulated. Migratory birds, same thing. Foraging on chemically treated farmland? No way.
I've heard sucker are actually really good. The secret is to score the fillets so the bones get melted. Panfish is basically fish small enough to fit in the pan (bluegill, rock bass, crappie, etc).
I will be frank this model works best in the U.S. Other countries just criminalize this kind of thing.
Also I definitely was advocated for fishing with a license. It's good for conservation.
A couple thoughts. To be fair that tent wasn’t designed for fishing. Folks also will want to read and re-read the regulations. Last I knew Michigan allows you to keep 25 of most panfish, but only two daily limits total possession, meaning if you had 100 perch in your freezer you’re twice over the legal limit. I thought suckers had a limit but that may have changed. Also double check the legality of bartering. You can definitely give filets or game meat away, but bartering fish or game is considering selling and therefore illegal.
I personally didn’t care for frozen fish, and the lakes in Michigan are so full of fish I never struggled to put fresh fish on the table. The big exception was smoked fish which hold up pretty good frozen. I like your idea of the margins. Squirrels are almost universally under utilized, rabbits too. I personally wasn’t above popping a grouse from a limb or the ground as the opportunity arose but saw bird hunting as a low return for the effort expended. I ate a lot of venison because there were so many deer and plentiful tags so filling the freezer was easy. Right now turkeys are plentiful and my season last year lasted about an hour.
Anyway, you lay out an excellent outline for the would-be modern hunter-gatherer.
Ok I'm not gonna lie, I'm ok breaking the law bartering if it's with people I know. I won't give wild fish and game to random people, but I trust my own fishing skills enough to give to friends and family.
There are a lot of underutilized game in Michigan, and most other states too. Hunting is just simply not as popular as it was 50 years ago.
That’s fine I just wouldn’t advertise or encourage it on a public forum. What happens in your inner circle is up to you. I used to barter large quantities of morels to restaurants, then they made a law you had to pass a free course to be a certified seller. The restaurants weren’t holding up their end of the bargain so I quit about then.
That's totally fair. I would never do anything like bartering, that would be bad and illegal!
Your credit score just jumped 3%.