Nothing says Happy Happy Springtime like fresh bluegill filets, morel mushrooms, wild scallions, wild asparagus, leeks and wild turkey breasts!
There simply is no question whatsoever that the hunting lifestyle is the most gratifying hands-on, boots-on-the-ground, self-sufficiency, natural, instinctual, rugged individual celebration of independence available to mankind.
I don’t care if you’re a naked African Watusi stalking antelope with poison arrows in the year 6, or just an old, over-the-hill rock-n-roll guitar player addicted to the mystical flight of the backstrap arrow in 2016, this pure, down and dirty predator life is so much fun and so damn exciting I cannot imagine why anybody would choose to not join us in the great outdoors chasing down and killing our own food.
The Nugent freezers are chock-full of hard earned, precious venison and assorted game meat, handled with indescribable ever loving care after a wonderful deerseason, but like every hunter I know, the gungho harvest never really settles down.
As we head afield in springtime in search of shed antlers, snorting the stimulating aroma of plowed foodplots, there are many post season rituals that are as invigorating as chasing big bucks in our favorite fall deerhunting habitat balliwack.
We dine on sacred slabs of bass, perch, bluegill and crappie as often as possible, and stalk the mighty flora and fauna and wild vegetables of springtime.
Here at home in Texas, thank God, we can hunt squirrels, rabbits, cougars, hogs, exotics and varmints year round and they provide some mighty fine eating and guaranteed FUN SPORT MEAT TROPHY excitement for sure.
A springtime ritual meal of oil and butter sautéed morel mushrooms with fresh picked wild asparagus, leeks and wild scallions alongside a mess of just caught fresh fish filets may very well be one of the most wonderful experiences in life that is available to mankind!
Rotate the organic protein with rabbit, squirrel, groundhog, wild pork, cougar backstraps, or any species of venison and wild turkey flesh and there is simply no more delicious or nutritious rocket fuel for the mind, body, heart, soul and spirit available on planet earth.
With the Florida Osceola turkey season opening in March and other state’s seasons opening in April, this turkey hunting can certainly be as exciting and challenging as any big game hunt out there.
I’ve always said that if a hunter can arrow a wild turkey, they can hunt pretty much kill anything on earth, for a wild turkey is mystically alert and a hunter must be on his Stealth A-game to pull off a front-strapper kill with a bow and arrow.
As you all head afield after the amazing Thunder Chicken, remember to hang that dead bird before butchering. I am here to tell you that if you have never properly aged your fowl, you have no idea how incredibly delicious it can be.
Hang that turkey, (dove, quail, pheasant, grouse, woodcock, waterfowl, partridge) whole, un-plucked and un-gutted by the head for a good week or more in 35-40 degrees before butchering and cooking and your taste buds will experience the most exciting flavors of your life! If you can’t hang it in those important conditions, then put that bird in a paper shopping bag and make room for it in your refrigerator for a week.
The amazing upgrade in flavor over a freshly butchered bird and an aged bird is night and day.
I have also found in raising my wonderful children and grandchildren that these pleasant weather spring outings are the ultimate opportunity to provide lessons of the wild to young’uns. Hiking, wandering, exploring and searching for sheds, mushrooms, scallions and asparagus keeps them interested and excited and dramatically tunes up their overall level of awareness that will benefit them immensely in life.
These springtime outings are a great chance to teach them to read sign and spoor and a great chance to explain the miracle of renewable nature, identifying the new growth and how it pertains to the seasonal changes that bring all new life all around.
So Happy Happy Springtime in America everyone! May the double gobbles of spring call your name and may the Great Spirit of the Wild be forever at your side. Celebrate it like you mean it.
Ted Nugent is an award-winning musician and writer, with numerous best-seller books including “Ted, White and Blue: The Nugent Manifesto,” “God, Guns and Rock ‘n Roll,” and “Kill It and Grill It: A Guide to Preparing and Cooking Wild Game and Fish” with his wife, Shemane, among other books. Be sure to check out his website for more news on his latest music, thoughts and upcoming shows, and also at World News Daily, Newsmax and Daily Caller for more insights.
+++++
Maximize Your Deer Season Planning
From Deer & Deer Hunting Magazine, the 2016 Whitetails Wall Calendar features the work of deer researchers Wayne Laroche and Charlie Alsheimer, who reveal the 2016 whitetail rut prediction, based on years of lunar cycle research. Utilize this deer moon phase calendar to find out which days the deer will be seeking and chasing so you can time the rut for the best time to hunt.
Get your calendars today for home, work and deer camp!