I can’t help it. It is hunting season, or almost, and I have hunting on my mind. Now, mind you I don’t have shooting an elk or antelope or even a deer raised in alfalfa fields for a couple of years, no, it is not that that I dream about. It is the eats, in a word.
My father and his brothers must have loved cabins. Anyway during fishing season we lived in a cabin most of the summer in the Bear Paw Mountains on Clear Creek. That was true in the fall when those fishing camps would turn into hunting camps as well.
In those days there were few elk in this neck of the woods and no permits ever given out. So, if we were hunting elk we would go to the North Fork of the Flathead River and there we would have another cabin. I don’t know where my family came up with so many cabins but we did.
Hunting elk was always great because once the elk was killed and butchered; we would have at least one meal of elk steaks. Some would always come home too, as elk steaks were a very good treat in our house for the holidays. Maybe the turkey for Christmas but maybe elk steaks and huckleberry pie for dessert on Christmas Eve. Now that was a treat.
Matter of fact I have a package of elk steaks in the freezer right now that a friend gave me. I am waiting for just the right day, cold and snowy maybe and I will turn those elk steaks into a wonderful elk stew.
In the hunting camps there was no elk stew ever, elk steaks were pan fried, maybe with a lot of onions or hash brown potatoes on the side.
That was before the time that men and women barbequed outside so either it simmered for a long time on the stove or it was pan fried in lots of butter or bacon grease. Delicious!
As I recall there was not a lot of hunting ever done but a lot of cooking and eating.
Lots of poker was played at night and usually there was a football game to listen to on the radio on Friday or Saturday night.
Stories were told. Matter of fact my father was a great story teller. Most of his stories I never believed but he told them and I remembered them. Imagine my surprise when I started to study local history and found them to be true!
Today is no different or can be no different than you want it to be. Around hunting season, pack up the Hudson and find an old cabin that you and your family can use for a few days.
Live without TV or IPods and the like. “Simplify, simplify,” as Thoreau used to say
No elk steak? Take some good rib eyes and cook them in butter with hash browns. They are delicious as well. Or cook a prime rib. Remember you are making memories for your family that they will never forget. At least in my family, I dream of those delightful days and nights with great fondness year after year.
