Food Afield Podcast with John Schneider

Merry Christmas 2022! The Christmas Day episode has become a tradition and launches season five of the Food Afield Podcast. This one is pretty special, I loved recording and editing it for you.

With me this week, in the living room of the strawbale farmhouse, is Kevin Kossowan, the creator of the award-winning web series, From the Wild. We thought it would be fun to go back in time and re-watch some of the old FTW episodes together and record our comments.

Kevin is almost at the one-hundred-episode mark of his show, so we knew it was time to reminisce and record some commentaries on the From The Wild episodes that I've been a part of over the past 10 years. To do this, we go back all the way to episode eleven of season one, "Tin Foil and Matches".

The beginning of the episode is a little rough, as I get an insane scratching in my throat and Kevin schools me on not being able to pause these particular episodes. Pure retro Bob and Doug McKenzie. It's all there, with the curses bleeped. So, have a laugh at my expense. Happy New Year!

It is early December, one week after the big game season has closed locally. It is a perfect time to hang out with friend Lisa and do some small game hunting at Nana and Papa's old farmstead.

Lisa has never hunted before and is excited to be learning new ways to be able to connect with her surroundings. We do a little shooting with the .22 and she fires a shotgun for the first time also!

It is so rewarding to be able to hang out with Lisa, and new hunters in general. The exuberance and excitement wear off on me and take me back to a time when I struggled to figure out how to make wild food happen. This episode is full of questions and chats about being new to hunting, topics I take for granted nowadays. It was so much fun to record and edit and hopefully, this helps new hunters get started. I am also hopeful that this episode should be a guide for us old-timers to be able to mentor folks more effectively.

This episode takes you out into the bush with us as we search for hares and grouse. As darkness falls, we find ourselves embraced by towering spruce trees and the brightness and warmth of a campfire. Donairs and a nice wine are on the menu too!

This year, a little confused about the need versus the want to bowhunt, John's season gets a very late start. This was partly by design though. It was fun to have a week of bowhunting to look forward to, and I suspect that it will be replicated in future seasons. This concentrated effort was slightly thwarted by some extreme weather that blew in for the last 4 days.

This episode is also a bit of a breakthrough with recording in the field during a hunt. This is the first time I've recorded content while in the treestand or ground blind. The wind wreaked some havoc on the audio quality from time to time, but some new kit has been ordered from Germany that should take care of that issue moving forward.

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A simple little episode that I recorded while preparing my mule deer buck for a so-called "euro mount". This is the second time I've performed this home taxidermy procedure. The first time was under the excellent tutelage of Kevin Kossowan while cleaning my big whitetail buck last year. That skull turned out amazing.

Since recording this episode of the Food Afield Podcast, I've come across many knowledgeable folks who have different ways of cleaning the skulls, which I think is wonderful! I hope I never grow tired of learning new skills and different ways of accomplishing tasks. This episode should not be considered a how-to, but perhaps more of a "how-I".

This week I will post some photos on the member's feed article so you can have a better idea of what I am trying to explain in the audio. At any rate, I hope you enjoy the show!

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The last day and night at the Grasslands Shack for Kevin and John. This episode focuses on Kevin's success with his antlerless draw tag. A very long stalk ends in a great way for us!

This episode has a lot of chat about age-class choices regarding targeting animals for food outcomes. You also get to listen in on our typical morning routine when we're in the field, but this time, we're freezing cold!

This will be the last episode of the grasslands series for 2022, so I hope you enjoyed hearing about our prairie adventures this past fall.

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This episode is brought to you by our friends over at Folding Mountain Brewery, Kitchen, and Taproom. Folding Mountain is located near the gates of the world-famous Jasper National Park in Alberta Canada. My favourite is their lager, which recently won a gold medal at the 2022 Alberta Beer Awards!

Part two of the Mule Deer expedition continues in this episode of the Food Afield Podcast. Kevin and John are in the grasslands and the blizzard hits hard! The temperatures plummet to minus 18 degrees Celsius, but that doesn't matter too much. There are two deer, including John's big buck, skinned and hanging in the shack, and the woodstove is working hard.

This episode continues John's story on the first morning and picks up as the doe and the big buck are headed straight towards him. Kevin and John re-tell the story that evening while the blizzard howls and cocktails are poured. They also tell about Kevin's whitetail gift as they were loading up John's buck! 

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This episode is brought to you by Folding Mountain Brewery. The brewery, taphouse, and kitchen are located near the gates of Jasper National Park in Alberta, Canada. 

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This episode of the Food Afield Podcast finds John and Kevin in the newly established Grasslands Shack where they are looking for both antlered and antlerless mule deer.

Kevin has spent a good deal of time and energy getting the shack set up on some property in the grasslands where his family has hunted since he was young. This was our second visit to the shack and we installed the chimney for the woodstove, just ahead of an incoming blizzard.

This episode begins inside the shack, a wood fire crackling in the background, with the guys chatting about wild food and Folding Mountain Brewery beer. The conversation turns to mule deer hunting before too long though and suddenly we are in the field with John as he first encounters the big mule deer buck!

This hunt will continue over a few episodes. It was a great trip and we are so glad to share it with you!

This episode is sponsored by Folding Mountain Brewery. The award-winning beer they produce is served around Alberta. The taproom and kitchen are located at the gates of Jasper National Park. Their Lager recently won the gold medal at the Alberta Beer Awards and has been John's favourite beer for a couple of years now. 

If you are interested in sponsoring an episode of the Food Afield Podcast, please contact John directly at: [email protected]

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The 50th episode of the Food Afield Podcast. Happy Halloween!

This episode finds Kevin Kossowan and me in the familiar surroundings of the northern boreal forest. We've decided to multi-task with some wild food ingredient procurement this day. It is a long day, many hours, and many kilometers of hiking, but we accomplish a few things.

The first task is for Kevin to set up his three trail cameras. This has become a fun pastime for us in recent years. We get to see some pictures of game that we wouldn't get the chance to do otherwise. Sometimes, there are some pretty interesting photos that come from these cameras. These photos, and the times that they are taken also help us to make some decisions once hunting season comes around. Should an area be hunted in the morning vs afternoon for instance? Mostly though, it is just for fun.

The other reason for being in the boreal at this time of year is for the Ruffed Grouse hunting. Last year, the populations of grouse were through the roof! You get to hear us finally achieve some success on these birds. They are right up there for me as far as the quality of meat is concerned.

Lastly, I fill up the bed of the pickup with dry tamarack firewood for the house. While I'm cutting wood, you can hear Kevin sighting in his antique 303 in the background. With this firewood, the strawbale house stays warm and comfortable all winter, and we get to cook with it also. 

This was a quality day spent in the woods. I invite you to come join us in the woods here on the Food Afield Podcast! 

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In this episode of the food afield podcast, Kevin and I wrap up our grasslands bird hunting expedition. We set up in a field for geese and continue our hunt for Sharptail Grouse as well.

In the Grasslands Shack, we explore the tastes of Sandhill Crane and describe to you what flavours we discover with this amazing wild food ingredient.

Wingshooting, and upland bird hunting on the Canadian prairies! Come join us in the field in wide stereo as we pursue wild game. The Food Afield Podcast is a Canadian hunting and fishing podcast that focuses on wild food ingredients and how to acquire them. Share the show with friends who enjoy wild food and hunting and fishing! 

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In this episode, Kevin Kossowan and I are in the grasslands of southern Alberta and we're after birds. Waterfowl and upland seasons are open and no time is wasted before our first success. Kevin's first Cranes ever! The season for Sandhill Cranes here in Alberta is only two years old. 

Wingshooting and stalking birds on the prairies is intensely challenging, and Kevin was perfect on his first opportunity of the trip. 

This episode was filled with firsts. Those are always the best episodes! It was the first time we stayed in the newly constructed Grasslands Shack. Kevin has worked tirelessly for months to get the old building moved and then renovated to the point where we can live comfortably in the wind and harsh environments of the Canadian prairies. It was also both of our first sharptails of the season. 

Part one of this expedition episode covers the first day of our trip. Next week you can join us again as we break down crane butchery and have our first taste ever of Sandhill Cranes. We'll also share our attempt at field decoying geese and another intercept tactic that worked to near perfection. 

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