I live in Colorado with my wife, Melissa, and our chessie, Lefty, where I love to be outside, doing the things that I love to do. Go on a hike. Hunt for an elk. Suffer for an elk. Cook a delicious stew with Melissa. Train with Lefty for bird hunting and hunt tests. Grow our own food – eating a home-grown heirloom tomato is what actually got me to concede that tomatoes are pretty darn good. Prepare sausages from the meat that I’ve hunted. Find some delicious mushrooms. Bring home some trout for supper. You get the idea…
I grew up in Atlanta, Georgia, and I spent most of my weekend days as a kid outside of Atlanta. My family would go on camping trips, and Dad took me on my first backpacking trip when I was just five years old. I still have the backpack that I used on that trip. Now, I’m not sure that one of my shoes would even fit into it.
And we would go out to the family farm just east of Marietta, Georgia. That’s where I learned to put an worm on a hook, and fish. I still have Grandpa’s rod and reel that he gave me for fishing out there. Dad also took me trout fishing up in the north Georgia mountains on the headwaters of the Chattahoochee River. I used corn from a can at first. Then I graduated to spinners. And finally he introduced me to fly fishing.
The farm is also where my family maintained a 3 acre “garden.” And my Mom and Dad kept two vegetable gardens in the backyard. I’m still trying to remember all of the things that they taught me about gardening as I’m getting back into it now. During the spring and summer, there are a lot of calls back to Georgia to ask them how to do something.
Dad also introduced me to hunting. Grandpa gave me his .22 rifle when I was eight. He gave it to me, and he placed the rifle into Dad’s hands for safekeeping until Mom and Dad thought that I was ready for it. Later, I remember that when my friends were getting together on the weekends in elementary school, I was out camping with Dad and hunting for whitetail deer. I shot my first deer with Grandpa’s 30-30 rifle. Out here in Colorado, I love the fall because (a) it’s cooling off, and (b) elk season is right around the corner.
And all of this leads up to the fact that I (well, we – Melissa and I) truly enjoy good food. I enjoy cooking it, and I love eating it. Sometimes, it’s smoking some trout or making pork BBQ. Othertimes, it’s making a delectable elk stew. And it’s also remembering, and honoring, old family recipes passed down through the generations, like Mom’s scrumptious Norwegian julekaga bread that I’m still learning how to perfect out here in Colorado.
I hope you enjoy what you read here.
-Charles