Historically, the hungriest months of the year were in the springtime before any significant amount of plant-growth occurred.
If you don't pay much attention, it is easy to lose sight of the fact that the ground is either frozen or cold mud and nothing is growing through much of the spring. The larder is depleted and the animals that survived the winter are devoid of body-fat.
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| Collecting eggs for the fish hatchery. Notice the ice on the riverbanks. Wisconsin. Probably late-July. |
Two sources of much-needed protein and calories were migrating waterfowl and spawning fish. In my area of operation suckers and Northern Pike start spawning even as there is snow and ice on the banks of rivers and creeks and they continue to spawn* until the daffodils are in full-bloom. Suckers and pike are "white" fish with little fat, but various trout and salmon are loaded with fat. Fat equals calories.
Carp can be very fatty and they spawn about when the apple trees are blooming. In Eaton County, Michigan apple trees bloom about May 10, give or take a week. North Americans look down their noses at carp but that could change. Different horses for different courses.
Spawning carp congregate in shallow bayous and ox-bows where the water warms earliest in the spring. They can also be chummed with a bit of dried corn, soaked and partially sprouted. Pounding the sprouted corn makes the flavor leak out. Carp can be harvested with arrows, nets, hook-and-line, electricity, walnut-hulls or pool "shock" chlorine powder. The last three methods are not legal methods-of-take in most areas but if your family is starving, what do you have to lose?
Baby rabbits start showing up shortly after the apples bloom but have almost zero body fat. Protein yes, fat no.
Hens start laying well about the time the apple trees bloom but eggs are also low in fats.
Some kinds of roots/bulbs are easy to find in the spring. Onions and garlic are easy to identify by smell. Turnips can survive the winter under the snow. Carrots and parsnips can make it through the winter, in-ground, if mulched with straw or autumn leaves.
Greens make a good tonic but offer few calories per calorie expended in collecting and preparing.
Autumn is the time to prepare for the hungry months. March is too late.
*There are many species of suckers and they spawn at different water temperatures.
We are making, Pemmican, jerky and beef tallow, with dried berries.
ReplyDeleteFirst batch we added dried banana chips, and sunflower seeds.
Waht type of fish is the young lady holding? A pike?
ReplyDeleteNorthern Pike. The biggest ones are female. They will strip the eggs and return the fish. Then mix milt from males into eggs. Return to hatchery and incubate eggs, raise fingerlings.
DeleteSometimes Pike eggs are fertilized with Musky milt and a hybrid called "Tiger Musky" are raised.
I've caught a lot of pike, and a (very) few muskies, and I don't eve remember them being as "docile" as the one the young lady is holding. Of course the ones I hooked weren't spawning, and were usually ravenously hungry, and a bit ticked off they got hooked.
DeleteI’m not sure what they use but the above fish was probably anesthetized . I spent 20 years in a salmon hatchery and we used electric shock but we cut them open. When they tagged young fry before release they added anesthetic to the water. I’m sure hatcheries that spawn fish that are used more than once have something.
DeleteProperly rendered beaf tallow, lard and bear fat will keep. If you are stocking up olive oil and crisco will keep. A good way to use any of these to enhance calorie intake is to fry your potatoes which should store into spring. If you have a freezer and a way to make sure you have electricity butter stores in the freezer or in a secure shed during the cold months. Some Alaskan natives used to hunt bears in their dens to secure fatty meat in winter.
ReplyDeleteBacon fat
DeleteBacon fat
bacon fat
Clarified butter (also known as ghee) can be canned in mason jars and kept indefinitely.
DeleteERJ, in a world where are transfixed with fats and "evil" calories, it is good to remember that not all that long ago, calories were a thing to be treasured, not cut back on.
ReplyDeleteHistoric examples of calorie trading in the north include the fact that the trails the early gold rush people used were called grease trails because costal residents carried dried candle fish and sea mammal fat to trade for copper and fine furs. Similar trade came between Eskimos and northern interior tribes with sea mammal fats.
ReplyDeleteWisconsin late march. Woody in Eauclaire.
ReplyDeleteFolks were so famished - the Catholic church approved eating muskrat DURING lent:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/detroit/2019/04/16/catholics-permitted-eat-muskrat-during-lent/3485498002/
https://www.detroitcatholic.com/news/the-history-of-detroit-catholics-muskrat-eating-tradition-and-yes-its-still-a-thing
Aquatic animals are usually counted as "fish". Thus, whale, alligator, capybara etc. are not considered meat under Church law.
DeleteThat muskrat threw me until I looked at the picture . Here in the Buckeye hills we called them groundhogs . And yes I have eaten them many times growing up rural and poor . The younger the better cause the older ones get stringy and tough not to mention a bit strong tasting . Hence the wine added before cooking to mask the taste and soften the meat . Roasting them stuffed with sauerkraut was my favorite way to eat them . The young ones needed only a good skillet frying and were always good like that but only before the second year when the scent glands form .
ReplyDeleteSage advice. Thank You!
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