Eating from the Earth: Hank Shaw's Hunter Angler Gardener Cook blog
July 13, 2017 6:29 PM Subscribe
"Grain, or more accurately dependence on grain, is what separated farmers from foragers, Jacob from Esau. Grains underpin civilization: portable, easily renewable, nutritionally dense foods that can be grown in surplus and stored — or kept from those the holder deems unworthy...So how did grain fall from sacred to commonplace? To become something tossed about without thought, wasted, even scorned?" Hank Shaw, proprietor of Hunter Angler Gardener Cook, considers the miracle of seeds from grasses in "A Grain of Wheat."
Shaw's blog, Hunter Angler Gardener Cook, is a treasure trove for readers wondering what to do with their freshly-killed wild game (on hanging pheasants; beer can pheasant), freshly-caught fish and seafood (classic fish and chips), or freshly-foraged finds (wild greens).
His writing on what it takes to get from a grain to a loaf of bread is one of a number of essays on topics such as:
* Enough: Thrift, Equilibrium and a Full Freezer
* Mortality: A Garden(er's) Middle Age
* Work: The Hands of a Gatherer
* The Hunter's Paradox: Loving What You Kill
Shaw's writing is thoughtful and instructive, and his site—named Best Food Blog by the James Beard Foundation in 2013—is worth exploring, whether you're interested in learning more about charcuterie, or just reading a few fish stories. (Hank Shaw, previously and previously.)
Shaw's blog, Hunter Angler Gardener Cook, is a treasure trove for readers wondering what to do with their freshly-killed wild game (on hanging pheasants; beer can pheasant), freshly-caught fish and seafood (classic fish and chips), or freshly-foraged finds (wild greens).
His writing on what it takes to get from a grain to a loaf of bread is one of a number of essays on topics such as:
* Enough: Thrift, Equilibrium and a Full Freezer
* Mortality: A Garden(er's) Middle Age
* Work: The Hands of a Gatherer
* The Hunter's Paradox: Loving What You Kill
Shaw's writing is thoughtful and instructive, and his site—named Best Food Blog by the James Beard Foundation in 2013—is worth exploring, whether you're interested in learning more about charcuterie, or just reading a few fish stories. (Hank Shaw, previously and previously.)
I aspire to be a really shallow version of this guy. I constantly talk about taking up hunting, but have yet to do so, partly because of inertia and partly because I don't really know any hunters well enough to talk about learning from and going out with them.
posted by asnider at 7:22 PM on July 13, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by asnider at 7:22 PM on July 13, 2017 [1 favorite]
If you live in North America and have even a tiny bit of earth (4 feet by 4 feet is plenty sufficient, and I mean a big pot is plenty it just won't fertilize and get a nice cob without 4 stalks by 4 stalks) and have never grown corn, I strongly suggest you grow corn. This one tiny corn grows -- EXTREMELY RAPIDLY -- into a massive-ass plant with prop roots and a corn cob and a stalk so sturdy it can grow six feet and you suddenly understand why people spent so much time weighing plants and soil to discover if they got all their material from the earth or what because HOLY CRAP GUYS.
It also makes you understand how agricultural deity worship came about because I LITERALLY FELT LIKE A GOD when I grew corn from seed and everyone who came over to the house that month I was like, "I HAVE MADE CORN TO GROW FROM THE EARTH!" and they were like, "Um, yay?" and I was like "NO SERIOUSLY I AM BECOME AS A GOD WHO CREATES LIFE" and they were like "dude simmer down" but I have still not simmered down, it remains awesome, in the literal sense.
(Like I think I was more mind-blown about having grown corn than having gestated a baby, the corn was more foreign to my life experience.)
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 8:16 PM on July 13, 2017 [26 favorites]
It also makes you understand how agricultural deity worship came about because I LITERALLY FELT LIKE A GOD when I grew corn from seed and everyone who came over to the house that month I was like, "I HAVE MADE CORN TO GROW FROM THE EARTH!" and they were like, "Um, yay?" and I was like "NO SERIOUSLY I AM BECOME AS A GOD WHO CREATES LIFE" and they were like "dude simmer down" but I have still not simmered down, it remains awesome, in the literal sense.
(Like I think I was more mind-blown about having grown corn than having gestated a baby, the corn was more foreign to my life experience.)
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 8:16 PM on July 13, 2017 [26 favorites]
I just found this guy recently, looking for an obscure recipe. How good to see him here as well.
posted by mumimor at 3:31 AM on July 14, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by mumimor at 3:31 AM on July 14, 2017 [1 favorite]
I LITERALLY FELT LIKE A GOD when I grew corn from seed
Which puts the seed catalog in a different light, doesn't it? I have no love for the various shiny-papered visions for living that arrive in my mailbox--off to the recycling center, unread--but seed catalogs? Invitations to create life, and greenery, and sustenance and a way to add to the world in a positive and concrete way. That these seeds, once gathered and saved and planted with such great difficulty, show up at my door? My God, it's amazing.
It still leaves me with tremendous cognitive dissonance, though. I get the seeds and think "this is never going to work," and then I worry about keeping the seedlings alive (and away from the cats), and then the weather, argh. And the whole time I'm watching vines and stems and fruit swell and grow, simultaneously doubting the process will come to fruition...and suddenly there I am, begging for my family's help with harvesting. Every year! I swear, the garden grows only because I stand there and think "I am no damn good at this." I love it that the seeds execute their plans with my help, and despite my doubt. Little miracles, season after season.
posted by MonkeyToes at 7:58 AM on July 14, 2017 [5 favorites]
Which puts the seed catalog in a different light, doesn't it? I have no love for the various shiny-papered visions for living that arrive in my mailbox--off to the recycling center, unread--but seed catalogs? Invitations to create life, and greenery, and sustenance and a way to add to the world in a positive and concrete way. That these seeds, once gathered and saved and planted with such great difficulty, show up at my door? My God, it's amazing.
It still leaves me with tremendous cognitive dissonance, though. I get the seeds and think "this is never going to work," and then I worry about keeping the seedlings alive (and away from the cats), and then the weather, argh. And the whole time I'm watching vines and stems and fruit swell and grow, simultaneously doubting the process will come to fruition...and suddenly there I am, begging for my family's help with harvesting. Every year! I swear, the garden grows only because I stand there and think "I am no damn good at this." I love it that the seeds execute their plans with my help, and despite my doubt. Little miracles, season after season.
posted by MonkeyToes at 7:58 AM on July 14, 2017 [5 favorites]
From the opposite (completely impersonal, rather than intensely personal) perspective: The Economist on the story of wheat: "To a first approximation wheat is the staple food of mankind, and its history is that of humanity."
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 8:55 AM on July 14, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 8:55 AM on July 14, 2017 [1 favorite]
I can't remember any other time I've made it to the end of a blog post and went, "Oooh, and there's also a video!!" But it happened here. Excellent writing and interesting insights.
posted by mixedmetaphors at 9:02 AM on July 14, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by mixedmetaphors at 9:02 AM on July 14, 2017 [4 favorites]
I can second Eyebrows's amazement at the beauty of a backyard corn patch. It is stunning to realize that plants build themselves literally out of thin air; every time I remember this, I'm shocked all over again.
posted by tivalasvegas at 9:57 AM on July 15, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by tivalasvegas at 9:57 AM on July 15, 2017 [2 favorites]
I'll just leave this here:
https://ensia.com/voices/its-time-to-rethink-americas-corn-system/
posted by sneebler at 11:35 PM on July 15, 2017
https://ensia.com/voices/its-time-to-rethink-americas-corn-system/
posted by sneebler at 11:35 PM on July 15, 2017
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