Have you killed for your dinner?

Lazy, this may get interesting as a topic. You bring up a great point that I totally agree with you on...people are so spoiled with today's conveniences that waste is commonplace. Especially when it comes to meat/seafood.

I have a freezer full of fish and venison. I try to garden and over the years I have had decent success.

Nothing more gratifying than hunting/fishing for game and taking the care from field/ocean to table (IMHO). Can you imagine today's society trying to lead a subsistence lifestyle....it would be complete chaos.

 

Yes lazy, I have, I don't criticise chinaman for the sake of criticising the chinaman.

I ate pheasants I shot, fish i caught, and I worked as a lobsterman for 10 years.

Anything I've 'harvested', I killed as quickly as possible.

Factory farming is cruel, yes. But we don't believe that torturing animals makes them taste better like the chinaman. We're not pressuring threatened species because we think their balls are a love potion.

Any restaurant serving shark fin soup should be fire-bombed.

 

I have gone hunting twice, didn't get anything. Not really into it. The day I can't go to the grocery store and pick up a steak or some chicken or some swine, then i'll kill my own. I used to first mate buddies boat for off shore fishing. I had so much tuna in my freezer I actually threw some out. I still eat some fish I catch, but mostly just fish for sport

 

This sounds like BS but it's not. When I went back to school with a wife and two kids and zero $, We ate pretty much what I shot. I remember going out on a Saturday, shooting two rabbits and and for dinner we had rabbit, carrots and potatoes; my in-laws bought us a freezer so I could store venison in it.
We had a garden and canned veggies.
We still garden.
One of my sons is a real hunter and gatherer. He gardens, and hunts squirrels and rabbits with his dog and then grills them and shares them with the dog and his daughter! He's always bringing something back from the woods, be it root, plant, fruit, or animal for us to try.

 

I have caught and eaten countless fish. If they are worth keeping, I eat em. Only thing I have shot / killed and ate was a squirrel when I was a kid, not impressed, never again.

 

the faster and more humanely the animal is taken, the better the meat. If the animal suffers and adrenaline is pumping....it creates a "tougher" fare.

+1 SS

 

Yessir...I mean not 10 years straight, but every spring/summer, take home gear in the winter while home from school, etc. The nice thing was it was always there, and there was always work, until the fishery got focked in the Sound.

But thank you...and longlining outta Dutch Harbor, that's serious shiz. I never had to deal with weather that nasty, the sketchiness was with getting all the gear back in the water. Fockin hated setting trawls in the spring!

 

I've eaten and killed many a fish and crab, but I've never gone hunting...mostly just because I never had much interest, have horrible eyesight, can't fire a gun for sh!#, and know few people who hunt. That being said, I'd totally do it, given the opportunity. It's just not one of my top priorities. Spearfishing is plenty challenge for me, and it helps with surfing.

As for gardening, hell friggen yea! It's February, so I have my window shelves packed with 300+ seedlings, waiting a few more weeks to get them in the ground and start growing some food. I've done a lot of smallish gardens over the years, but the wife and I finally bought a house and have 1.5 acres ready to grow the good stuff. I'm super psyched about it. Along with gardening, you gotta preserve some food for the off-season. Fermenting vegetables and other foods is awesome, and I highly recommend giving it a shot if you've never tried it. If you're interested, there's a Facebook group called "Wild Fermenting" full of amateurs and professionals willing to learn ya up. Kombucha, kraut, kvass, pickled anything, kim chi...all that stuff is expensive at the store but super cheap and delicious to make in your own place. Typically all you need is vegetables, salt, water, and some spices. If you grow a lot of stuff and ferment a bunch of it, it'll last all winter so you can keep the grocery bills down and have fresh organic goodness that wasn't sprayed with f'ng agent orange or other creepy stuff.

Other dinner methods that I'd love to try but haven't: mushrooms (both kind lol) and harvesting seaweed.

 

live aloha you're in the right place to find mushrooms, both kinds

Nothing with a purple-brown spore print will kill you.

I plan on gardening my arse off this year...I've done standard stuff in the past, but I want to take it to the next level, especially with my little one on the way.

 

I killed a guy at McDonalds once. I ate his chicken nuggets.

 

Other than fish that I caught, I have never needed to actually kill for my supper but...

Back in college, our Thanksgiving break was Thursday to Sunday. Too short to try and travel home and then return; so a number of us would stay on campus for the few days off.

Like most college students we were as broke as could be. All our money was tied up in alcohol and drugs so we were contemplating a meager Thanksgiving Dinner. One friend was a Tennessee farm boy. He assured us that if we could come up with some side dishes and trimmings, he would provide us with a "bird".

A few hours later he shows up with a goose that was still covered with it's feathers. We were like wtf dude, where did you get that? He had apparently gone to a nearby park that had a lake and stalked one of the geese that lived there! He lured it in with some bread and then jumped out from behind a bush to grab it and snap it's neck! We were equal parts stunned and thankful with this development.

The rest of us were a little horrified when he said it was up to us to pull the feathers and gut the thing. None of us city slickers had ever done such a thing. Surprising what hunger will do to a man. Although we didn't know what we were doing, under his supervision, we soon had that thing ready for the oven. All in all that bird tasted kinda tough but ultimately pretty tasty.

To this day, whenever the old crew gets together, this story inevitably gets told to the horror of those who weren't there that day. Not my best Thanksgiving dinner, but certainly one of the most memorable.

 

Very cool story dude! That's crazy haha

 

#9/12

 

Not much past various sea creatures (fish, crustaceans (crabs, lobstah), mollusks).

No birds or mammals.. I guess there is more investment (plucking, skinning, draining, etc.).