Barrie Boulds and Jean Petersen - The Big Sky Bounty Cookbook

Merv Coleman.

Published by American Palate

A Division of The History Press

Charleston, SC

www.historypress.net

Copyright 2018 by Barrie Boulds and Jean Petersen

All rights reserved

First published 2018

e-book edition 2018

ISBN 978.1.439.66471.1

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018936070

print edition ISBN 978.1.467.13873.4

Notice: The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. It is offered without guarantee on the part of the authors or The History Press. The authors and The History Press disclaim all liability in connection with the use of this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever without prior written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Nicole OShea.

This book is dedicated to my beautiful mom.
BB

With love, I dedicate this book to my devoted mom, Sharon, and my dear stepmom, Betty.
JP

IM IN LOVE WITH MONTANA. FOR OTHER STATES I HAVE ADMIRATION, RESPECT, RECOGNITION, EVEN SOME AFFECTION. BUT WITH MONTANA IT IS LOVE. AND ITS DIFFICULT TO ANALYZE LOVE WHEN YOURE IN IT.

John Steinbeck

Huckle Berry Camp, Glacier Park [circa 19001920]. Photograph by N.A. Forsyth. Montana Historical Society Research Center Photograph Archives, Helena, MT.

CONTENTS

Dorvall Club lambs, Fromberg, Montana. Holly Dorvall

Jean Petersen.

FOREWORD

Here in Montana, you can relish in the states leading industry of agriculture, from the vast fields of wheat and grains to hobby pig farms. With our clear rivers, big skies and clean air, the food cultivated in Montanas fields and land has a layer of flavors rarely found elsewhere. I have been cooking meals professionally for more than twenty-five years, and still, nothing compares to the quality of lamb from Sweet Grass County or the fresh huckleberries picked along the mountain streams. Agriculture is a part of life for many Montanans. If you are fortunate enough to share in the practices of their hard work, the food you are savoring becomes a story more than a meal. Take a drive through Montana along the miles and miles of wheat fields or past the green spring pastures filled with newly born calves, and you can smile knowing that the quality of ingredients you receive in Montana is well nourished through the air, water and the hands that tend the land.

Journeying at farmers markets throughout the state, you cherish a feeling you had as a child of going through a candy store. At these markets, you can purchase beef, goat, poultry, berries, fresh produce, honey, grains, freshly baked goods and more. You have recipes dancing through your head as you contemplate which ingredients you are going to prepare at home and which you are going to enjoy tasting on the ride home. At a farmers market, you can share stories and recipes with friends of what they purchased last week, along with your plans for the upcoming week. I enjoy asking the farmer or rancher about their favorite use of their product or why they decided to grow a particular type of fruit or vegetable.

I have been invited to beef ranches where you recognize the sustainable practices they have developed to not only provide a better product but also to provide an environment for their childrens children to raise cattle. By supporting this agricultural community, we are not only gifted with a better product, but we are also supporting our farmers and ranchers livelihood. Montana also provides a hunters paradise. We have great bird hunting in the prairies, big game in the mountains and freshwater fishing as good as you can find. Through food, we help bring families and communities together. Through this book, you can provide more shared stories and culture of Montana food.

Chef Barrie Boulds has utilized ingredients raised, harvested, grown, picked, hunted and fished throughout the hundreds of years in Montana, and she has prepared ingredients in ways that combine traditional and contemporary cooking techniques. Chef Boulds inspirations come from techniques used around the world, including those from France, Asia, Italy, Spain and Native American traditions. From these inspirations, she creates recipes for you to enjoy throughout the seasons. Following these recipes, you can bring out the true flavors of Montana history and the quality of local ingredients.

CHEF ERIC TRAGER

Executive chef of the Old Piney Dell located at Rock Creek Resort in Red Lodge, Montana, Eric Trager has twenty-five years of experience providing culinary masterpieces. Hes the vice chair of the Chefs and Cooks of Montana and the organizations past president (2015 and 2016). Chef Trager is an active member of the Western Sustainability Exchange, promoting Montana-made products and sustainable products. He was honored as Chef of the Year in 2009 by the Chefs and Cooks of Montana and received gold and silver medals at the Montana Connection Chefs Competition in 2004 and 2005. Chef Trager is a graduate of the culinary program at Paul Smiths College in upstate New York.

FOREWORD

Since 1995, except for a three-year period from 2005 to 2008, I have been employed in a variety of editor positions of the weekly ag newspaper Western Ag Reporter and its predecessors, Western Livestock Reporter and Agri-News. Jean Petersen was hired as a freelance writer during my absence, and just six months prior to my return, she had created for the younger readers of the paper a wonderful weekly series about a three-legged working stock dog named Banjo and all his animal, bird and reptile friends that live and work on a Montana ranch. Because Jean submits her column via e-mail every week, it took me several years to actually meet her. But believe me, before that nice event happened, I knew the young woman well, as she writes what she knowsand what she knows is rural life well lived.

While performing the multitude of duties required to fulfill her roles as a busy multitasking ranch wife and mother of four, Jean extracted from the hectic life around her, teeming with not only any wife and mothers personal activities and misfortunes but also the weather-related events and tragedies as orchestrated by the capricious and all-powerful Mother Nature that all rural wives and mothers deal with on a daily basis, year in/year outcolorful, interesting and accurate details that she wove into the lives of her fictional ranch critters. One only has to read her most recent column to know the issues she was currently dealing with at homeboth inside and out. Jean has a knack for getting to the heart of the matterwe call it cutting to the chase in our circlesand wrapping that up, along with a generous dose of humor and history.