Fred Bouwman - Camp Cooking

The tenderloins, liver, and heart supper mentioned at the beginning of this chapter is a good one to begin expanding your natural foods diet, but there are other possibilities.

Small game is a natural for camp. Ducks barbecued over an open fire cant be improved on in the home kitchen. If theres a Dutch oven with a little rice, and a few grouse over that same fire, it will turn into a meal guaranteed to be the high point of the trip.

Before we go any further, let me stress that the point of this book is not to make bringing food to camp obsolete. With the possible exception of some big game hunts, to supply oneself exclusively with meat, fish, or plant foods taken in the field is often either illegal, unethical, or both. There just isnt that much food out there in these crowded times.

Wise use of what nature offers, however, is another matter entirely. In addition to the usual game animals, there are a number of other edible forest denizens that are legal to take. They can be eaten without worrying about depleting the resource and theyre quite tasty.

And do not despise the fretful porcupine, he is better than he looks, wrote George Washington Sears, the early twentieth-century naturalist and outdoorsman who wrote under the pseudonym Nessmuk. Sears lived in the days when one would hit the foot and canoe portage trail with a sack of flour or cornmeal, some salt, and a chunk of slab bacon or salt pork. Meat was procured as it was happened upon, without discussion of its qualities at table.

A small trap adds to the meat supply in camp. Make sure to check state trapping regulations first.

A partial list of perfectly edible animals includes the porcupine, opossum, raccoon, woodchuck, beaver, and muskrat, in addition to the common game animals like the grouse or rabbit. Folks who are brave enough to eat one claim that skunks are edible. I dont know. Coot, or mud hens, are fine eating if prepared properly. Foxes are edible but are too closely related to Lassie for most folks tastes.

The camper adding some wild protein to his menu will have to take local game laws into account. Some of the abovementioned entrees are not considered game animals and will either carry no restrictions on their taking or will have very liberal seasons. Fur bearers can only be taken with traps in some states, and you may be required to have a trapping license to legally possess them. Know your game laws.

A string of half a dozen traps set around camp can provide a steady flow of exotic camp foods. Animals a trapper would consider trash, due to their negligible monetary value, such as the porky or possum, are more than welcome in the Dutch oven or on a spit, with barbecue sauce. Our few traps set around camp during the deer hunt provide variety to the camp menu, an opportunity to do some real gourmet outdoor cooking, and a sense of adventure about the evening meals.