My 2024 Wild Food Calendar

Deepening relations in Michigan and Beyond

By all accounts, my first full year in a new state was a spectacular adventure and resounding success in terms of provisioning from the land. I began the year learning how to tap maple trees for syrup and ended with harvesting two deer on the second to last day of season.

The skills I developed challenged my patience, redefined what I thought was possible, and helped me build new relations with different peoples, both human and non-human.

This past year of wild food also helped launch my YouTube channel and this newsletter, which is helping me to cultivate an entire new set of skills and relations. I’m struggling to contain the gratitude for how fortunate I am to be able to do things I could never have dreamed I’d be doing.

So first and foremost, thank you for your support, attention, and interest.

As exciting as this past year was, I’m even more excited for this coming year’s harvests. Incredibly, maple sugaring season is right around the corner! Last year’s 5 liter harvest was unbelievably delicious and I’m looking to double that amount; so long as the trees are willing to share.

I have a lot of cleaning of equipment I put off — always clean as you go — so there’s a fair amount of inertia to overcome, but hopefully I’ll have more to enjoy and share this year. One big question is whether or not we tap a fourth sugar maple who still has a large branch wound that hasn’t sealed.

Probably the largest amount of work is going to be put in the garden. Last year, our harvest was fare below our expectations due in large part to the poor soil we were working with. We still haven’t finished the tomatoes we canned, but aside from that bounty, nothing we grew produced beyond snack or one-off meals.

The SUV is going to be loaded with goat poop from friends come spring, to hopefully build up soil nutrients for a harvest that can lessen our dependence on grocery stores.

Behind last year’s maple syrup harvest, I’m most proud of my rekindled relationship with fish. I’ve missed fish in my diet for more than a decade, living in places where fresh, high quality fish was not readily available.

The epic Lake Michigan fishing trip with my dad and friends…

A reprise of outstanding Lake Erie fishing…

And the discovery of high quality whole fish options at Whole Foods has given me life!

This year, I plan to add to these sources of animal protein by trips to northern Lake Michigan for king salmon, a run at Lake Huron lake trout, and several trips to Lake Erie for white bass, walleye, and, according to my buddy Brandon, maybe the most underrated Great Lakes fish species, the freshwater drum. I’m so excited!

Now that I’ve exorcised the inexperience demon of my first crossbow hunt, I’m eager to put more deer in the freezer this coming fall.

Two big changes for deer hunts include starting earlier in the season and only taking one deer at a time. Because I prefer to butcher and package my own deer, I don’t have the capacity to do more than one at a time.

I’m still sore and achy from all the work it took to process the two bucklings.

In addition to Michigan wild foods harvests, I’m also planning several trips to other states for wild/whole foods. My step mother comes from a big hunting and fishing family in Alabama and Georgia, and ever since she and my dad got married, she and her brothers have been encouraging me to come out with them to hunt and fish. I’m finally in a position to oblige and I couldn’t be more excited!

The rough plan is to travel down with my dad in the fall and see if we can’t bring back a cooler — or two — of fish, deer, AND wild pig. Putting a wild pig in my freezer is a bucket list item for me and I’m so grateful for the space my step mom’s family has created over generations.

Speaking of pigs and generations, I plan to return to North Carolina this December for an annual pig processing that’s been happening among a group of Black families since emancipation. I was fortunate enough to be invited to this event by none other than James Beard Award winner, writer, historian, and all around dope human Dr. Cynthia Greenlee, and had an amazing time learning from and getting to know folks down there.

I’ve been invited back, and this time I plan to come home with more than just a suitcase of pig heads (that story is only for subscribers — coming next month!).

I would love to head back to West Virginia and deer hunt with Jason Tartt and Amelia Bandy, co-founder and executive director of Economic Development Greater East (EDGE). I had the pleasure of meeting them in 2022 through mutual friend and owner of Two Seeds in a Pod, Dr. Mehmet Öztan, who organized one the best events WVU has ever had, Eberly Eats! Jason is a Black farmer and entrepreneur in McDowell County, whose work, network, and spirit was part of what made leaving Appalachia so hard for us. Hunting those southern West Virginia hills would be a dream and we might even see some feral pigs too!

Lastly, I plan to strengthen ties with my new Serbian family in the suburban Chicago area. My brother-in-law and new sister-in-law tied the knot this November and I had the incredible honor as serving an important traditional role in the Serbian wedding ceremony (another story for subscribers only — coming next month!).

Jelena’s family has been so incredibly welcoming to us and when they found out I was into food, butchery, sausage making, and the like, they invited me to participate in several pig-related events. I haven't been able to make the time to attend, but this coming year I plan to.

Seriously, how is this my life?!

If I’m able to pull all these wild/whole foods adventures off this year then I will absolutely need another freezer. Here’s a breakdown of what I’m planning/hoping for:

• 10 liters of maple syrup

• 4 deer

• 2 whole pigs => one domestic, one feral

• 100lbs of various fish

• Half a root cellar full of veggies

• 30% reduction in grocery spending

If you’d like to plan your 2024 wild food calendar with me, including help developing and actualizing your wild food goals, please email me at [email protected] with the title 2024 WILD FOOD CALENDAR, and we can hop on a group zoom call to get started.

Let’s get this work!

What’s in my pocket

This past week has been a bit rough in terms of aging for me. I’ve had significant sciatic pain and one of the things I’ve found helps, besides limiting the amount of time I spend sitting, is making sure I drink plenty of water.

I’m not very good at staying hydrated, but one of things that helps is an easy to use, go anywhere water bottle. What makes a water bottle easy to use?

Two things; 1) ease of drink and 2) ease of clean.

Having a straw is the pinnacle of drink easy, but water bottles with straws are the most difficult to keep clean. Plus, opening a water with a straw in the middle of a flight can get you wet in inconvenient places.

I prefer cup syle water bottles, but screw top vessels are so much less convenient than simply pressing a button to get access your water.

This water bottle by Zulu has the best of both worlds, an easy drinking push button pop top that you can lock (what?!) and a screw top AND bottom to make sure you can clean every inch of your bottle. It’s even a thermos.

I take this bottle everywhere. I’ve dropped it multiple times and it’s a tank, just shrugging off my clumsiness as if nothing happened. One of the best $25 I’ve ever spent.

Using the above link to make this or other purchases on Amazon is a great way to support this newsletter. At no extra cost to you, I earn a small commission for my recommendations. Thanks for your consideration! 

What’s in my ear-hole

I’m fully re-engaged with the Ender and Bean universe that Orson Scott Card created. I finished reading Ender’s Game to my eldest and have been working my way through the Bean saga.

Card has problematic views on gender, race, and national identities, but I still find the worlds and characters he’s created compelling and entertaining. Sorry, but I do.

Anyway, the third book in the Bean series, Shadow Puppets is currently playing in my ear holes while I cook and grocery shop and I’m enjoying it through periodic moments of cringe.

What’s on my brain

The incredibly frustrating resilience of white supremacy of NFL quarterback culture and commentary. I consider San Francisco 49ers QB, Brock Purdy’s journey thus far to be the epitome of whiteness in pro-sports and I can’t stand it. I have nothing against the young man and find his ascendance and success impressive, but the way so many others talk about him and try to contextualize his “greatness” is maddening.

And within the context of how the league treats Black QBs and coaches, and just Blackness in general, I can’t help but root against the latest great white hope for leadership and thus economic supremacy in a sport that would be nothing without Black labor and genius.

I believe ever bit of this tweet and perhaps I’ll spend an entire post explaining the evidence for this idea (subscriber membership anyone?). But for now, I hope my former favorite team — I will never forgive them for how they ruined Kaepernick’s career — particularly the coach, GM, and that racist POS Nick Bosa, to come up short in achieving their ultimate goal.

Announcements

My YouTube channel content is back and for at least the next 3 months will see a dramatic increase in long- and short-form content.

Check out this episode on Striped Bass

And stay tuned for my new series on entrepreneurship coming at the end of this month (joined by a bi-monthly newsletter for paid subscribers)!

Thanks for reading this week’s newsletter!

!!PLEASE RECOMMEND TO A FRIEND!!

I’ll talk to y’all next Sunday.

Cheers,

Jonathan