Living Off The Land

* This picture is a plate of wild boar ribs and tenderloin, string beans, pumpkin and purple potatoes.

We had our first meal using only food we killed and grew. Even though it was just one meal, it was a great feeling. And to think that Native Americans and early settlers used to do it every day... They didn't have the luxury of failing at hunting, growing, and gathering. If I wasn't successful at killing the boar, I would have just gone to the market and bought some baby-back ribs. If the peas and potatoes didn't grow, we could have gone to the store and picked up some. Our meal was a personal goal, not a matter of life and death.

With that said, it was a lot of fun to eat a meal without having to buy anything at the store. I would definitely like to eat more meals from food we hunted, gathered, and grew. For one thing, homegrown produce, eggs, etc. taste so much better than buying these things from a store as they are so fresh. The other reason I think homegrown food tastes better is the mental aspect of knowing how much work went into getting that little seed to grow into a cucumber or knowing how much work it took field dressing and butchering a kill. The time, effort, faith, and pride of providing the ingredients for a meal will make one so biased that even if the squash is mealy and the meat is tough, it still tastes wonderful. Have you ever cooked spaghetti while camping? It may sound weird, but it will be the best spaghetti you've ever had. Maybe it is the hint of campfire smoke infused with the sauce, but you would think the spaghetti was from the Italian countryside.

* Close-up of the wild boar tenderloin.