This isn't a story so much, and will probably be classified as a musing, but I wanted to share a good book with you all, and it is definitely related to hunting. The book is called Girl Hunter by Georgia Pellegrini.
I read this book recently and was very pleasantly surprised with what I found. Now, it may seem odd for a guy like me to pick up a book called "Girl Hunter", but the tagline got me interested, "Revolutionizing the way we eat, one hunt at a time." Because one of the main reasons that I hunt is to have some semblance of living off the land, this idea of a top chef actually supporting this same idea was refreshing and captured my attention. Furthermore, I was also piqued by the general idea of a girl taking up hunting, not because there aren't plenty of women hunting these days, but because I have several women in my own life that I would like to see get into hunting more and I thought this book might offer some insight into assisting me in that endeavor, especially as my wife is also and avid but amateur chef. As an added bonus, while paging through the book, I also realized that there were a number of recipes included for much of the wild game hunted throughout the book.
In any case, I was very pleasantly surprised with this book. It was not quite what I expected and was in some ways, more than what I had thought. Ms. Pellegrini starts out with a description of her first hunt, a turkey hunt, but then she backtracks and describes how she got into the position where she realized she wanted to hunt in the first place. She goes on to tell the story of the hunt as well as several other hunts, some successful, and others an utter disaster.
To add to these entertaining stories, she includes several recipes at the end of each chapter, having to do with the game hunted during the preceding chapter. All of these recipes look excellent to try, although some of them do seem somewhat unapproachable in that they require ingredients that may be difficult to acquire. On the other hand, the recipes that are doable look excellent and I hope to try them in the future.
More, possibly most, importantly, is that Ms. Pellegrini intersperses some degree of philosophy about her making the jump to hunting. She has some great things to say about hunting and how it should relate to our way of life, and especially what we eat. It was this aspect of the book that I enjoyed most as well as the reason that I have passed it on to several people around me, especially the women in my life. I hope that by reading this book, they may get some insight into why I hunt.
The only thing that I would have changed is that she would have included some fishing stories. On the dust jacket, there was some indication that she did get into fishing, yet there is not one story about fishing in the book. It isn't crucial to the book, I just think it would have been interesting and probably entertaining to read a little about Ms. Pellegrini fishing. In any case, it isn't anything that's necessary, just would have been good.
Overall, I highly recommend this book to everyone, especially those that might find some entertainment in reading my blog. Ms. Pellegrini has written a great book including some great hunts, many wonderful looking recipes, and best, the philosophy of why people hunt. In any case, I hope you all have a chance to read this and get as much out of it as I have. Enjoy!!
TLaSS,
Joshua
Heres the Amazon link:
http://www.amazon.com/Girl-Hunter-Revolutionizing-Hunt-Time/dp/0738214663
I'll have to read that book. I saw at the library and thought it looked interesting, but haven't read it.
ReplyDeleteI recently read The Mindful Carnivore which is about the authors's journey as a long-time vegetarian into a devoted hunter. I think this would be another good book for a non-hunter to read to who wanted to understand why someone might hunt.
Another book I'd recommend to any hunters which get's into the philosophy, reasons for hunting, and challenges some legal hunting practices, is A Hunter's Heart- Honest Essays on Blood Sport.