00:00:00 Speaker 1: Hey, this is Tyler Jones and you're listening to another episode of the Element podcast. What's happening on the woods people? Currently? I'm sitting in the woods, but I'm not hunting their fishing. I'm sitting in a truck and my co pilot, who is currently on his lunch break, an extended lunch break, Mr Casey Smith, is flying a plane over here. And that's no joke. What's happening, dude? I'm glad it leaves me, uh little toys to play with in your vehicle whenever we're in here, keeps me, keeps you busy on these long road trips that we take. So y. But besides that, just I'm pretty hungry, right And the reason why that we're extra hungry is, Hey, it's past my lunchtime. But be uh. We just did an incredible interview with Mr Jesse Griffith's from a restaurant down in Austin, Texas. I don't know if he was at his first or second restaurant, but he said he's that a restaurants at the second second the Takira okay, so uh. Jesse is an author, a chef and outdoorsman. So as an author, he has a book called the Field. Um and that's one word a chef's guy to preparing a cooking wild fishing game. Um. He was a finalist for the James Beard Award, which is pretty awesome. Um. And he founded a restaurant down there in Austin that's based off of like kind of you know, the local war movement, I guess. Um, so I'm excited about this. He's also been on Bizarre Foods I believe with your Hero. I think that's where I originally saw him with my hero and uh. And so anyway, this guy is like he's done it man. Um. And we did an interview with him and there was like some kind of weird monster effect in there or something there in one part, like there was a there was if I don't know, you might have to excuse the audio a little bit for a section there if you notice it. If not, don't even think about it. Recently, we went on a squirrel hunt we did, was that all? Which turned into a rabbit hunt and then and then a bed hunt. Yeah. Yeah, So as most of our postseason outdoor adventures go, uh, we start to key in on one thing and then gradually drift towards the white tails. It's just who we are. But we got a lot of other stuff done too. Yeah, we pretty much did it all here the squirrel spotting Master. Dude, I feel good. That was I was impressed. It's like that one time this summer when I when I was like, dude, hey, how about the spot Like I'm looking at a map and there should be bucks betting here and using you know, going up to the dough betting, and then we saw bucks from the road. It was kind of the same thing because like when I spot things and you haven't spotted them yet, it's amazing. So it never happens hardly. I think part of it was I already like mentally switched over to looking. Yeah, I know, I know the second one. You were kind of that way already for sure. But you did do a good job on spotting some squirrels, and maybe too, I was thinking rabbits, so dude, you kind into rabbit mode, like rabbit raging made Yeah, I got the rabbit, so you're about it at first? No, I like, I like squirrel better than to do rabbit, but rabbits are kind of more fun to shoot. There fast, we had some fun. Yeah, yeah, I did get a m from a cedar tree. I don't even know what that is. Really, Get out, get out, find your local public brush pile and jump on it and you'll kill two birds one stone stone or two rabbits with one jump. But during snakes season you don't do. During snakes season, you can get a friendly clean out from a cedar bush like Tyler, or you can also run a rabbit out and smoke him. Or you can shoot a tree like I did in the rabbit right now they're doing. He this sucker came running out so fast, you know, like the rabbit. And uh, it was not like I'm gonna go and then stop and look back and then go. It was I'm gone. And so he takes off to these like cedar elms and cedar trees, and he was going straight away. He's only like fifteen yards when I finally got up on him, but it was way too thick in there, and I just blasted this the whole through where he shot the trees. So that was fun that we killed. Uh we killed a rabbit, a fox, squirrel, a cat squirrel, and you found a ship found a ship teenager ship. I don't know the first I'm convinced the first shipeen. You know, I've never done well with ships and anywhere around that I go, except for South Texas. But last year I had a great ship season, and this year looking pretty good. Yeah, I don't know if I'm gonna be out as much as I was last year to found as men, but uh, I was pretty cool. I was pretty pumped to find that one. I mean it literally had like one inch of time sticking up out of the leaves. It was just a happened chance though, Like it just I just there's no way I should have found the thing, except I was like looking at the ground right there, and I was like, yeah, we were. We had got into whitetail scouting mode at this point, not not shed hunting. We were scouting for deer sign and we get into this area where there is um two rubs I think, and one of them was good good rubs. Yeah. Um, And so we're like, man, this is there's a lot of edge habitat here. This is definitely a transition area. Even though as usual in Texas, um, at least in the parts that we hunt, um, you couldn't see a trail. Really, It's just like, oh, well, there's a lane there that might yeah. And so anyway, we're sitting there, we were talking about like, well, maybe we should hang a camera here, what do you think? And we had picked one up, a camera that we had in the area, and uh, we were gonna put it out and and so this is why squirrel me finding these squirrels is such a big deal, because we're like, okay, let's put a camera rund on that tree over there, and we start to have stepped in case. He's like, oh, there's a shed and it looks like, I mean literally like an inch of baby time's sticking out of the leaves. You know. It's like one of those things that just I would have just walked right over it, you know. But it was a good fine, it's cool. It was light point shed from probably like a one year old buck. Yeah, it's really old too, so you know, it's chew chewed up a lot, which a lot of times I'd I'd either rather find them and it would be sad. I guess it was a big one, but like a brand new brown that's big. I like that, but also like the really old ones for some reason, it's kind of been chewed on and stuff. They're just kind of like neat, you know, every chid kind of tells a story. Yeah, for sure. Um. I guess Uh. The last thing I mentioned before we go to the interview is that the point night that we have v h A Texas b h A Pine Night back Country Hunters and Anglers where we're doing a live podcast, um, and we're gonna be doing now with our buddies from Stormwater Creek and we're gonna get to see all our buddies from Texas b h A that we haven't seen in a while since basically when I Jack So released and are not released, but the tour came through and so that was that's exciting for us. But don't forget that it starts at two pm on a Saturday, uh, February UM, and it is at the Legal Draft Beer Company there in Arlington. I haven't never been there, but I hear that it's a pretty cool set up in there. Um. And they've got I guess, like some of those big copper machines and stuff working in there. I guess that's what I hear. I may be spreading false statements here, so come on Saturday and figured out you have to fact check. Yeah, you have to personally fact check fact check. So anyway, uh, I guess that's about all we have to plug here and we will get to the interview with Jesse Griffin. So did you grow up in Austin? No, I didn't. I grew up in North Texas. Um in Denton. Um. But I've lived in Austin for pushing twenty years now though, But I've just spent most of my time growing up in Denton, a little bit in Fort Worth, and then down here in central Texas. Um. Do you did? You have? You pretty much hunted all over the state? You spent some time hunting up in the Denton area and such? Not really. I started hunting a lot later in life than most I fished since I can remember. But I just started hunting probably about eleven years ago, after I had moved down to Austin. So the majority of my hunting has been done, uh in Central Texas, South Texas. Um. No, I haven't really been back up to Dent that much. I know it's it's really good up there as far as ducks go. And I saw a picture of was some buck that a guy poached? Yeah? Yeah, we saw it too, A giant Yeah. Miss growing up around. It was was amazing. They were just filling Lake Ray Roberts when I was basically, you know, first able to drive, and so as they filled that lake up, we'd go out there and and we we caught so many fish in the first few years that that lake was filling, you know, white bass, crappie, catfish, large mouth everything. It was. It was a good time. Oh. I can't imagine we Uh we grew up out here on Lake Fork. I don't know if you know where that is, definitely yeah, so big, big large mouth country, and uh, you're not supposed to eat them according to culture, you know, but I'm gonna make some people real mad, not me at all. We have eating them, and I I don't know if that makes people mad or not, but I'll admit to it. It's uh, it's pretty good fish, pretty good. Yeah, yeah, yeah, the little ones of course. Yeah. Yeah, I'm not trying to eat you know, the tin pounders that are apparently everywhere that I can't catch. Um. Yeah, that's cool, man. I Uh, that's good that we share some similar roots there, I guess. Um. So you were saying that you didn't really grow up hunting, Um, you know, what has that done for your appreciation for the outdoors and also just uh, you know, your stance on being able to harvest your own food essentially, well, you know, I always I love fishing, I love and every excuse to be outside. When I was growing up, um, and then working in restaurants group put me in front of food a lot, and then learning to butcher things like that, and it kind of eventually just evolved into really wanting to hunt, went on the you know for the first time and absolutely took to it. And I don't think I've bought meat and over six years now. I will say it as it helps when you own a butcher shop, but uh, but you know, just having that connection to it, um has been really nice. And then it kind of fills out the year, I mean between fishing and hunting and so um it it's I think it's It also has given me a really good perspective as far as people that are new to hunting, and we do a lot of besides the restaurants, we take a lot of people on hunting trips. We call them hunting schools where we take people out and show them start to finish how to out of you know, shoot clean butcher cook store package everything animals and fish. And I think having a perspective of coming to it UM as an adult has been very helpful in me being able to educate people who are coming to it as adults as well, because there's a lot of new hunters out there. I mean, it's um hunting is kind of lost. It's redneck sheen that it had for so long. Appropriately being viewed as uh as a way of of of getting food and UM and coming to it later on, especially in the Austin market. UM, I've been able to, you know, kind of convey that, you know, like, oh this is you know, it's like having a garden. You know, it's it's part of it. You know, you can have chickens for eggs, you have a garden group, rest of vegetables, go shoot a deer. It's all kind of I mean, it's not the same. Shooting a deer is probably the most fun, but they're all they're all connected, and I think people are starting to see it that way. Yeah, that's awesome. I'm glad that you're trying to perpetuate that too. You know, I see that tree in a little bit too. You know, we're not near as urban, so we're just not around as many people and not around as many you know, urbanites too for some people who kind of I guess grasp that would be going for that different direction. We kind of live in that redneck vill you're talking about to where like hunting has just been cultured, always has been. So it's cool to see it coming from the other direction. Um you talked about you know, I guess you fished for forever, but you came to hunting later in life as a pursuit. I guess from for you know, better more quality ingredients. Uh. How did you get your start, like in the culinary world, Well, you know, I started working, uh in general, when I was about I got my first job and I was fourteen. And then when I was sixteen, I just signed on to a restaurant and I just started working there as a as a busser. And then I mean, I think the best way to put is I never got out. I didn't go to college. I didn't go to culinary school. I just stayed working in restaurants, um, you know, as a as a waiter, as a bartender. You know, I managed and then eventually, you know, I didn't feel like the front of the house was you know, it's it's you know, it's long hours and lots of cash, and it's it's not the most stable environment. So I really wanted to get into the cooking aspect of it. So I just started working in kitchens and uh, I also did a lot of traveling, um, which I think is a great way to learn about food. Just go somewhere else and eat their food. I mean, whether it's you know, the high deserts of Mexico or Spain or I mean even you know Kentucky. You know it just goes somewhere else and need the food and see what they're doing. And did that a lot, and um, eventually, you know, we we built up this business um and and we're able to open our first restaurant, um and then just open our second. And so I just I've been in it for a long time. I mean, I absolutely love it. I love I love food in all its forms. Um. And you know, whether it's you know, a really beautiful vegetable from farm down the road, or or you know, going out and shooting a really fat hog. Yeah, yeah that's cool. So, uh, the name of your restaurant strikes me as unique so can you tell us what your restaurant is called and how I got that name? I can't. I definitely have have had this conversation. Yeah, it's called due and dide is Italian. Are part of an Italian phrase that means from the two kingdoms of nature choose food with carrots the first two words of that, and it means from the two Um. It's you know, kind of kind of hard to pronounce. It gets um. We get a lot of different pronunciations of it. I think that's enjoyable. It is a conversation starter. Oh sure. But basically it just where I saw that proverb in a really old Italian cookbook, um, years before I opened the business, and I was like, that's it right there. Um, I want to I want to call it that, and I stuck with that. Yeah that's cool, man, And uh effective marketing as well. If you get people to talk about your name, then you're you're doing good with that. Uh yeah. So, uh, you know, you talk about going out and shooting wild hogs, and I've looked at y'all your men. You been following on social media for quite a while. It seems like you serve quite a bit of wild pork is that great? Absolutely correct. And at the new restaurant the Takorea, we don't serve any domestic pork at all. We're only serving Farrell hog and a lot of that came well, there was kind of a resurgence. Um on our end. We've always served a lot of Farrell hog at the restaurant, and they're they're trapped. Um, they're trapped live and brought into a process. So they're inspected anti mortem before they're killed, and a postmortem and then they get that blue Texas stamp on them, so they're all expected. Um. But I mean, I love the idea of being able to alleviate this hog problems. They're eating them parts of wildlife, you know. They they famously said, we're not going to barbecue our way out of this situation. But I think that this is a great, great use of a resource like that. I mean, what what situation would we would we be in if they were inedible? Yeah, it would be it would be a far first place. So we made a commitment at the new restaurant to only serve Ferrell hag and by my estimation, we're probably going to serve about three hundred of them a year, and that doesn't count the other restaurants. So I think between the two were probably sitting at about five a year, which is a drop in the bucket, of course, but it is doing something UM and we we did UM in all transparency campaign pretty heavily against the poisoning of them when the warfare in poison was offered up and I think this is about probably about ten months ago where that became a thing, and uh it was it was defeated and we we had we were part of that. I was really resistant to the poisoning of them for a lot of reasons, not just selfishly because it might affect our ability to serve them as food. But after doing that, I felt it was pretty incumbent on us to double down on our efforts to just basically kill more of them. Um Like, if we're gonna say no, you can't pursue this means to kill these hogs, then we need to up the anny a little bit and and step up and and and seat to it that more of them are taken out. So that's one way to do it in my mind. Yeah, So how okay, So then how do you like you said, it's a drop in the bucket, but it is five wild pigs a year or so? UM, how do you get other restaurants to get on board and then further individuals too, to take that initiative and maybe that responsibility that hey, if we're gonna campaign against this poison, then we need we still have to do something about it, you know, right. I mean that's that is a great question, and that how do you get people that are already hunting to uh consume the hawks, which I think is the responsible outcome of killing a hog? But I mean you definitely don't have to UM. And then how do you get other restaurants to do it? And I think that I mean, these are two different issues and they're both very complex. The first, you know, how do you educate hunters to um to be able to more easily use Farrell hogs as a food source? Is through education. UM. You have to be able to teach them uh simple and effective methods that are gonna work and that they're going to actually use. UM when you when you go to somebody and be like, oh, yeah, well you need to do this intricate cut and fringe the rack and then wrap it around and tie it with twine. Brian it and this, and then serve it with the lingoenberry glaze, and they're gonna look at you and then they don't want to do that. It's like, but instead if you say, uh, I have a really good way to turn a big stinky board into hamburgers, like I mean, then then you've got their attention. And if you can make that work for him through a couple of simple tricks are just like preparations, um, then you are really going to get through to people a lot better. And through our our classes, you know, over the years, I hear a lot of questions from people. I mean to to the extent where we used to do venison classes, but all through that class people be raising their hand and ask me questions about Farrell Hawk. And after that I was like, well, you know, maybe we really don't even need to do venison classes anymore, and we only do Ferrell hawk classes pretty much like our day classes. Our day butchery classes at the restaurant are pretty much Farrell Hawk um. And then a lot of our three day hunting schools are are set um. We're we're going after hawks um primarily. And so I think education for existing hunters teach them how show them really simple, effective, quick methods. You know, I've always been a fan of just trying to uh put things in a familiar context for people as far as food, Like, don't try to show them complicated things, but instead, uh, let's let's look at making chili and meatloaf and meatballs and sausages and hamburgers and pasta sauces and things like that that people are going to eat on a Tuesday instead of you know, these complicated things that they may not even attempt or they could get frustrated with. So I think, if you really want them to eat it, then just make it an everyday food. Now. On the other side, you know, when you're dealing with restaurants and kind of the public consumption of barrel hogs, that is where it gets incredibly tricky because you have state agencies like parks and wildlife that want them all dead. Then that just bottom line, they just want them dead. They don't want to monetize them, um so that people have a reason to keep them around, Which is part of the reason that we we have the problem now is because people were transporting hogs from one part of the state to the other so they'd have something to hunt and now that's backfired pretty pretty blatantly, and so parks and wildlife wants them dead, and so they creating an industry around UM making you know, delicious little gourmet wild Ferrell hog available isn't high on their list. And understandably, I mean I I get that perspective. UM. And then you have UM the bottleneck where they can only be trapped and brought into a licensed facility and processed UM to therefore be put into the food supply. And when we get them there, they are no cheaper than UM, like a really nice heritage breed domestic pig would be when they come in, costing just as much, maybe even a little more UM, which a lot of people don't understand, like, well, how is it that there's this this pest, this agricultural nuisance that UM is expensive to actually get it to you? And it's the supply chain is a long. The trapper he puts a lot of miles on his truck, He uses a lot of corn, He builds a lot of traps, and he goes to the processor who then buys it from him and has to have that inspector there, and then he kills them and and you know, there's a skinning and gutting, and then they have to be transported to us and so it's just like anything else. Um, there's some costs involved, and so it becomes it's not the cheapest meat out there, um, and for restaurants to get to use it. I mean another issue is that they're very inconsistent, as you all, I'm sure, no, I mean each pig. I mean, you can shoot a sow in January that's been eating acorns and has a beautiful two inch layer of fat on it, where you could be in South Texas and shoot a poor um in August and those are going to be completely different animals, both edible by definition, but definitely not the same as far as quality good. And so restaurants thrive on consistency. I mean, that's why you have restaurant chains, because everything is the same all the time. So how do you get these hogs into the food supply where they're they're available consistently and at a price that's manageable for a restaurant? And I think, and I'm it sounds like I'm leading up to the answer, but because I don't have the I mean, things that we do is you know, the pigs. I have a very good relationship with the processor that is bringing our pigs in. These pigs are trapped on l c R A land which is um Lower Colorado River Authority land, UM, and for some reason they're just fat and beautiful and they taste amazing, and so we get a really consistent product at the restaurant as far as let's go, all right, both restaurants, but that couldn't be said for for everyone everywhere. UM, So it makes it a little easier on up. Very rarely do we get up a big board that's got, you know, kind of that stink to it. Um. He selects mostly midsized hogs for us that visually look like they have a good amount of fact um, and then the larger boars and the smaller pigs kind of go into a grind or trimp product which we also purchased. But um, we're we're flexible enough to be able to deal with both of those, you know, the whole carcasses and and the trim for making sausage and so forth. So UM, that's how we deal with it. So UM we didn't never really covered this, but explain the concept behind I Dewey Well it's it's really simple. Um. You know. Sometimes you know, I'll be talking to somebody like, well, that's just such a great idea, and I'm like, that is possibly the oldest idea ever, maybe the second oldest idea ever. Um. And we uh, we only source food that's available to us from around here. I don't have like a strict ray idious that I go with. UM. Sometimes, you know, for Valentine's Day, I might buy some both in caviare from southwestern Louisiana. But for the most part, all of our produce, and I mean every bit of our produce is going to come from central Texas. Maybe we'll go to South Texas to get some citrus. Um. You know, we'll go to North Texas and get some really nice com milk cheeses. Um. The hill countries where we get our game will source fish out of the Gulf or freshwater fish. We serve things like catfish and gaspar gou care, things like that which you can't really get at most restaurants. Um. But what I what I really I think is the most exciting part about the concept of the restaurant is it's it's it's it's like local food, but it's also cultural. I mean, we serve a lot of Mexican food, we serve a lot of German food. UM, we will serve Vietnamese food and Creole food. And I think that all these things culturally tie into where we are um As Texas. I mean, all of those cultures have have come here and settled in and brought with them some really beautiful food traditions, and we trust try to take the ingredients that are available to us UM and apply those traditions to them. And I think also from monetary standpoint, I really think that in this day and age where things are just so big and spread out, it's nice to literally support your neighbors. And you know, I'm on a first name basis with almost every vendor. Um. You know, David brings me avocados and limes, and Katie brings me bok choy and let us and you know, it's it's it's it's really nice to give those people your money. Yeah, yeah, yeah, dude, that's that's awesome. So you're telling me that I can take a bow fin or a grinel like what we call it, with some refinement and actually eat the eggs out of the thing. Is a company in Louisiana that takes that grinnel um and they make a pretty good caviare and we'll serve it on special occasions. Is awesome. It's really awesome. There's so many little things like that out there that make the food exciting. You know, Like I just mentioned guar. I mean people are just like trash fish and I'll be like, what who decided that? Oh? What do they eat? That's so bad? I mean they eat fish like you know, we eat fish like it's there's actually you know what they are is they're they're hard to clean that they developed a reputation well and things like that, or oh wild boars that edible. Yes, it's edible. It's very edible. It's a fact. It's some of the best meat I've ever had, has come off the Farrell pigs. There's all kinds of little things just floating around out there. I mean, we live in a very amazing part of the world and that there's i mean a semi arid desert to the US. There is ocean to the east, to the north as these rolling black land prairies, and there's just to the south. It's just this kind of you know, red dirt and and giant deer and and olives growing down there, and lemons and papayas and avocados, and so if you go three hours in any direction, you're you're in a different part of the world. And so it's it's pretty magic here. Actually, yeah, it's rough, you know, Yeah, it's cool, and it's kind of like an interesting concept because people like to talk so uh, I guess state based when they talk about many different things, and we live in the hunting world a lot, so people talk about, oh, down in Texas, it's easier to all down in Texas, the deer big. But you know, it's not that it's subregional. You know, like every little part of our state does something really good and it has some things that lacks. But that's kind of the cool part about I guess being located, especially where you are in central Texas, where you can kind of, like you said, go all directions and get all kinds of things. Another thing that we have that's kind of need is the fact that like we're kind of this uh buffer state of like urban but also very wild. So there's a lot of I guess you could say, like uh, native things to eat, like deer, turkey, quail things like that, and then you also have like the wild board or the axis or uh you know large mouth bass that I mean besides, like a guadalupe, there's not a you know, large mouths are technically an invasive you know. So you have all these different things that kind of come together to kind of culminate as like a really uh great place to be a chef, you know. So are you suggesting we should eat all the large mouth not all. I would like to have a sustainable breeding population. But let me tell you something, man. Uh we hit the creeks, you know, in the spring for crappee, and I'm just as happy when I bring in a fourteen bass as I am a fourteenish copy because they are just they're both delicious. You know, there's nothing wrong with a large mouth at all. And I'm not gonna eat a you know, six pound rusty old male that's send seen ten spawns, you know, like it's not really gonna be my number one fish. But uh, fish or fish for the most part, you know that if you if you do them right, they're all tasty. So there's something I feel like you probably encounter quite often, uh, I guess in your personal life and in the restaurants too. And that's like uh, the mental block against uh certain species or a certain cut or something like that. Let me give you a four instance for instance about I don't know, it's two or three days ago, we made a dinner strictly of the hearts of servants. So we had some uh Midwest whitetail buck, some hill country does and an elk cart that we we uh put out on the grill. And my wife, who is lovely, I love her very much and she'll eat you know, ground meat from pretty much anything, but she just would not touch those hearts. And I know that, especially since you deal in in such uh I guess interesting diff varieties of foods at your restaurants that you have to have people come through the door who are really apprehensive to eat some things. So what has been your best approach that you found to kind of overcome those mental blocks and show people that hey, all of this is food if done right, and it's it's just like it's all in your head that you won't eat it. Well, absolutely, And I think that what you're touching on a very good subject there, and that when you're using a resource, you should use all the resource that includes the heart. It will make a quick point. Heart is a muscle just like the tendatal in it. And flavor wise, it's just I mean a little more iron flavor. But I love heart. I think it's amazing. Um And this this will this answer will loop back to what I was saying earlier with putting things in context. And for a long time, you know, we would maybe take a fresh venison liver and sauce hay it up and serve it to people and they'd be like, oh, yeah, that's that's okay. I can do a couple of bites of that. But then uh, we found our ways to present all those things. And there's there's one word that will really, you know, encompass all of that, and that word is boot. And so if you if you take we've I think the last boot and we made we used a coot the coot the coot gizzards and um venison liver and Ferrell hog liver and some Ferrell hog trim and made it I mean his boot and is great as you know. So something like that, I mean just for starters where you can be like, okay, here, we're gonna take the heart. The liver and the kidneys out of this deer and we're going to cook it with a bunch of peppers and some onion and uh some really nice fatty barrel hog shoulders and we're gonna grind it all. It's gonna look terrible. Um, and then we're gonna mix it at right, and then you know, and then I think the best way to do that is to fry it, you know, booten. And we try it up and everybody says, this is amazing, this is great, and I'm like, well, this is the only thing you really ever need to do with those I mean, if that's if that's all I'm gonna get you to do, and that's great, you know, just you know, and and one animals worth the heart liver kidney will make an eight pound batch of boot and you know they're a huge party or several dinners or whatever. So I think that you know, again, put it in context and don't challenge people too much. Just show them that it can be done, and try to get them outside of their food prejudices. Um. You know, like I said, you know, the restaurant will serve some freshwater fish and that's hardly ever done, you know, people don't. First off, they don't know what a gasper doo is, and then then we get to have that conversation with them, and then a lot of times the people that do know what a gasper do is tell you it's inedible, and that's invariably followed up with me saying well, have you ever tried it? And then they say, well, no, so how do you know if if it's inedible? And you can loop that back to Farrell hogs as well. Someone once told me you can't eat a Farrell hog if it weighs over a hundred twenty pounds, so hundred nineteen No one, you know, it's just like where where did that come from? And so much of that or an AD's inedible, not true, very edible in fact, good, in fact great if prepared correctly. If you do write things, oh it's tough, Well you didn't cook it long enough, um, things like that. So I think education, um more, having conversations and getting people out of there. Uh, the only thing that's good is backstrap and that you know, wild ducks don't taste good all right, whatever. I mean, there's there's just misconceptions and the way that people handle game meets or prepare them might not always be in their best interests. Yeah, and I'd like to touch on that, but I'll back you up just a bit because I went to school and college station and that's where I learned at the term gas per you before that, we always call them freshwater drum. That's the same thing. Yeah, And it's funny to me because I heard that too, like, oh, I don't eat that, you know, or like, you know, if you can find somebody to give it, to do it or what have you. But then you head three hours south and you catch a small black drum at the coast and it's delicious. You'll find it on plates on menus at restaurants, you know, and they're like literally so basically the same that it's it's it's it's crazy the fact that they're separate species, you know, like they're just almost the same exact fish. And it's funny how people kind of get that that species block in there too. And I've seen that more often, like, for instance, uh uh, there are members of my family that will eat deer meat. But if you grind up a hog and try to present it as a hog burger, oh no, I can't do it because it's hog, you know, and it's like it's how is it different? I don't understand. Maybe maybe people like that have had like a one bad experience with uh, you know something and then it kind of ruins them forever. But I think that's what's cool about how you're doing, like the the I guess, uh, total outdoorsmen and classes, I get what do you call those classes where you teach them how to hunt? It's become hunting schools. Hunting schools, okay, and when you know, like when you do the hunting school and like you really can facilitate where people don't have that bad experience like hey, yes you did shoot a two twenty pound four, but if you treat it right, then it can still taste good. And I think that oftentimes people uh and I kind of fall into this just to touch just be honest, like there's a gradient scale of you know, something that's worth harvesting because it tastes good enough to prepare, but I don't want to deal with an extensive preparation. And you know, because you can kind of get to that point where it's like okay, yeah, I could go shoot you know, uh, soft shelter and with some cleaning and some different things that could be tasty. But at the same time, I can go out here and shoot a morning dove and it's a whole lot easier to cook, you know what I'm saying. So, like, I guess where I'm going with this is like how extensive to these hunting schools get that you do? And like, I guess how exotic do you go with the different things you teach people to cook and clean? But we don't get that exotic unless we feel like they want to know that. And I think that's why it's we well eat. We limited to about six or eight people per trip, And so I'm in there, I'm sitting in the blind with them. I'm talking to them all weekend. They were just getting a feel of what they want to know. And then when we start up to class, and we typically will butcher three animals and then cook those for well not all of them, but cook that for dinner that night, and you know, fifteen different preparations. And I'll let them guide me. I mean, I'll say, well, what what is it that your family is gonna eat? Or what are you must curious about, or what have you been told you can't eat off of a deer. You can't eat the ribs. Oh yeah, well let's do this then, let's try this out. You know, you can't eat it raw. Oh yeah, well we're gonna. I'm gonna. I'm gonna do that just because you told me I couldn't um and things like that. Or you know, one time we were down in Madagorda and we had some fish and guys sitting around and we we're serving just course after course of fish, and we served him some fried fish, you know, which is I think one of the finest foods in the world fried fish. Um. And they one of them is like this the best fried fish I've ever had. And I was like, well, I'm glad you said that, because that's gaff top. Oh man. Yeah, And and I really enjoyed that. I would prefer to eat gaff top over trout. I think that they're really I mean, I know about the slime, no, but you don't have to point the slime out. But labor wise, I think they're amazing. I think they have great texture and great labor and I and if you think about it this, it's like, you know, you go out, you're you're standing in the bay. You're throwing a jig and all of a sudden you hook this big fish and it fights like crazy. It's eight pound fish. And then you get it up and you see it's a gaff top and you're disappointed. Why why? What? What about that whole experience was disappointing. I'm looking at it, thinking, now, this is amazing. You know. Now I have an eight pound gaff top that I get to eat, you know, and I can I can still potentially catch three reds and some trout, maybe flounder or something like that. And to me, I'm like, this is this is an amazing bonus. And you know, I understand that that's gonna slim up your cooler and all that, but worth it to me. But to be so species specific about things about where the enjoyment comes from what you can eat, I think is a has has gone It's gone overboard, you know. It's like we've gone too far with it. And and what is the point of us going out there into the woods or you know, the bay, or on a tree and if we're not um, you know, they're catching delicious food. And the same with a gasper, you know, we were running a trot line, and the last fish on the last hook was this nice four or five pound gasper And this was back in December, and we were all real happy and we fried that thing up for breakfast the next day and it was good. Fried fish for breakfast sounds like one of the best things I've never done that, especially if it's fresh. Oh yeah, yeah, bacon Greece. Oh man, bacon. Yeah, I taught my language, man. Yeah. So uh, let's go back to your restaurant stuff a little bit here. Uh. You know, I understand you served the wild boar and uh, because of you know, the I guess criminalization of market hunting, you can't really have any native North American game animals on the menu, right, so you write all of all of the deer are acts as follow psycha elk that are either escape, bees are being cold hold off those game ranches. Yeah, yeah, delicious animals. Nonetheless, Actually, access is next to elk. Access is probably my most favorite thing that I've eaten by far so, But it's still like not the true experience of going out and shooting one of you know, a true wild animal yourself. It's still you know, like you said, it's it's it's far raised game animals or a game meat. Um, So, uh do you actively kind of uh promote the idea that like, hey, this this is is a reasonable fac simile, but it's not the real thing and to do the real thing you need to go out and do it yourself. Or is that you kind of keep those two worlds separate from your restaurant and then from the hunting schools, right, I mean there's a lot of misperceptions about that. I mean some people think that, you know, in the morning, I get a call from a sus chef, They're like, yeah, we need a a hog and three catfish, and like I just like, but I'm a boot you know, it can't happen that way illegally. But you know, I think with as far as the hogs go, I mean, that's definitely that's that is exactly what you're getting out in the wild. And all of the fish we get, like, we don't serve any farm raised catfish, and we do serve catfish. We serve wild catfish caught by some of the last trot liners, commercial trot liners out there, um in East Texas. And but with the deer, you know, it is it is a little different and Um, we've had people challenges me say like, oh, it's illegal to serve venison and it's not not this kind. But but I like that it started a conversation. And we're not getting them off of kind of your classic venison farms either. They're coming off of these ranches and they're they're they catch them with net guns and they catch them in traps and so they are, at least from a diet standpoint, pretty much living in the wild. They're out there in the scrub, which is important to me also. And uh, but yeah, we do have to have that conversation a lot. But in the end, if someone's choosing to call something like that off their ranch or it's an escape b that's competing with a with a native white tail, again we are serving a dual purpose with that. Yeah. Sure. So, uh, since you talked about you know, like it's important for you to to I guess have free ranging meat and game on your on your plates there at the restaurant. Do you feel that um animals who maybe die a violent death, so like say you have a white tiller or psycha or what have you that uh is shot with an arrow or or a bullet with an ethical shot. They don't really know what happened, and they expire and bleed out, as opposed to uh, something that comes from a game farm or say beef at a finishing catalog, you know, grain finished or what have you. Do you feel that that there's uh kind of a connection to taste and I guess UH played ability with animals like that, not so much just the fact that like some people like the taste of grain fed stuff better versus grass fed whatever, but like the actual way the animal lives and dies. Do you feel like that that kind of reflects into how it's it can be prepared? Absolutely? And I think that there's there's no denying that. I'll give you one anecdotal um example of that, and that we were, um, we had a film crew come in and uh, I was I was taking this guy on his first hunt ever, and he needed to kill a pig and we really needed to get a pig on the ground any anyway we could, so UM, I put some snares out on crossings under the fence where I knew pigs to be crossing, just to kind of double up, And then I went and sat with him in a blind and he shot a probably about eighty pounds sow out of the blind rolled. It died immediately. And then we went and checked the snares and there was about an eighty pound snare a pound south excuse me, in one of the snares. Um. We took him back, you know, we killed her immediately upon getting there. Took them back, butchering him both. The one that he had shot it was great, tasted really nice. Um. The one that we've caught in the snare was inedible. And you know, if you you can talk to you know, veterinarians or you know, anybody that understands physiology, and it is that stress, that lactic acid, all those things that build up, and they will exacerbate that that gamey flavor that you find in game meats and make them um um pretty bad. And a lot of times too in a class, you know, when we're talking about eating big boars, which is I mean, I have this conversation so much and I say, eat them all, try them. You know. In fact, some of the best Ferrell hug I've ever had came off of a d fifty pound plus boars. Um. They can be very good. Uh. You know, the guy in the class one time and he said, yeah, we we shot a you know, I don't remember a big two fifty whatever pound bore and he said, yeah, it was actually really good and I and I said, well when you shot at what happened? What do you mean? I was like, what did it run or did it drop? And he said, oh, we shot it in there and it just dropped. And I'm like, well there's you know, I think that there could be something to that. You know, if if they run for thirty seconds and that's thirty seconds of stress. Um, things like that do come into play, um, I you know, and I also think you know, one time I was sitting on a panel, Um it was at south By Southwest, and I was kind of confronted about somebody about hunting, and like you were just saying, um, you know, there's there's different ways animals can die. There's there's kind of like three ways. One as they can go to a slaughterhouse if they're domesticated animal and they wait in line, Um, there's the smell of death. They they know what's happening, you know, and whether it's a cow who might have a restricted understanding of what's going on, or you know, a smarter animal, like a you know, a pig, or they can die in the wild, and no animal ever goes and lays down in a in a meadow full of little daffodils and falls asleep and walks into the light. You know that it never happens that way. They're gonna the fire antser, the coyotes are going to get them first or something. And it's and I don't I don't in the wild. I don't think it ever is a peaceful way to die. Or there's the third option, and that's you know, an animal sticks its head out, it walks into that meadow, boom, and it dies. And you know, for people that are opposed to hunting, especially I I say, well, if you if you're personifying animals or you're trying to um, you know, make a case for the best death, which of those three d you choose? And I think it would be the quick death in your natural environment, um with as little stress as possible. Now you know you're also gonna sometimes there's a bad shot and the animal may run and you have to track it. But I think that's the uh. You have to incorporate that into hunting as things go wrong in the wild, and that that could be a factor. But I think at the end of the day, um, you know, hunting an animal is the best way for everyone, for you to eat it and for the animal to die as well. Um. So I'm gonna kind of had a little bit different direction here maybe, But how much foraging have you done? Um? A little bit? Um, you know, we forage, you know, things like wild chilis. I found some. I found some dried up child bean peppers yesterday. Uh, mushrooms here and there especially, you know, a mushroom seasons are really hit or miss here, but I mean some years it's amazing. We'll find Morrel's and Chantrell's. Um, you know, things like cactus fruit, um agarita. And then you know, I have a seven year old daughter, So I mean things like dewberries are just to give it, you know, and that's just that's just good fun. And you know that's like you can kind of incorporate a little bit of crappy fishing and dewberry yeah. Um and so yeah, I mean, if it's there for sure, and I love the idea of eating you know, wild plants are you know. I was talking yesterday also about the white bass run and that it's as always wild onions coming up where you're catching white bass and the same. I don't know if it's photo period or or lunar phase or temperatures or whatever it is that but if there are wild onions growing, then there's probably white bass spotting. So so the wild onions are just kind of curious. Um, you know that's you tend to smell them. I feel like, um, if you smell something that smells like an onion, can you go wrong eating it? As far as you've seen, Uh, you can't go wrong. That's what I've I've heard is that, um, if it has that onion he smell, then it is definitely edible. It's not gonna be uh, I can't remember what the I mean. It is an an edible allium. So that I you mentioned the white mass earlier and this kind of piqued my interest. Um, what's your what's your favorite way of doing those? Because those are pretty readily available across the state. I feel like, oh yeah, well, you guys are close to the sabine out there too, where I mean, wow, you know you catch a fifty pound limit. You know, there's just I love white bass. Um. I am not often someone to cut the bloodline out of a fish. But I do like to do that on white mass um and uh, you know, I'm I'm in all honestly, I'm gonna fry them, um and maybe chop up some you know, maybe cook those onions and chopped those up and fold them into mayonnaise or some you know, maybe a little bit of fresh arab or something and server it with that, um, you know, something real simple. Um. White basses is great. I mean, I love catching them. It's one of my favorites. Were I was looking at my pictures from last year and I caught the first males on February eight of last year, which that's early. Yeah, we were getting into limits on February twenty two last year, so it's time I got like reset, Okay, that's that stuff off and get ready. That's like yeah, and that's a that's a good fly rod Cory for us. Tyler and I have just caught the flyer rod Bog the last for you. That's just what we love to do. And you know those shallow water creeks and you know, it's it's it's pretty easy when you can throw aside a twelve clouds or something that just rip white bass all day and we called sand bass, but you know, same thing. But uh, and then really I didn't grow up targeting them much in the spring appere as much as we did in the summer when they get the big schools out in the lakes, you know, and chasing them and you're fishing them like they're bonita or tuna or something you know offshore. That's a lot of fun. It's enjoyable. And that kind of I guess leads me into another question for I guess, uh, culinary options, let's just call it that way. So, um, we as humans oftentimes think of herbivores as food, right, Like everybody knows that you see a cow and it's food. It's eating grass, it's it's food. And uh, then hogs would be omnivore. Uh. Some people eat things like coons, which I like cone, but you know it's not a common thing. But a true carnivore, when you're talking land animals, is not very widely accepted as like food like and and I have a mental block against it, like I just do not want to eat a coyote. You know, it's not it's not it's not in my list. But when you switch over to fish. It's I mean, the carnivorous fish are really what you end up eating. People don't really want to eat things like car poor omnival wores or or grass carper things like that. So, uh, I guess why is that? And then have you dabbled into the whole uh I guess mammal or land animal carnivore side of things. Um, you know, I don't know why that is. I've definitely thought about that because it is, as you say that, it's just the reverse I've tried before. Um. You know it's fine, definitely not on the top of the list. Doesn't taste as good as the carnivorous fish. Um. And as far as you know eating um, you know predators, you know, top apex animals like that. I've I've not. I don't have a clear answer for you on that either. I've not um eating them. I also don't shoot them. UM. So that's one thing. And you know, I've recently heard that you know, some booth handed out Bobcat jerky and that it was everybody's favorite. But great, I mean, you killed the bobcat and you made jerky good. Um. I I mean the way that I am hunting fish is just like I like to shoot what I like to eat, and so most of the time it's it's hogs and ducks and crappy and white and catfish that right there makes up of oh and deer. H you know, that's what I eat. So, I mean, I don't really feel the need to get exotic or are even in dabble in that stuff, but you know, and I mean it's kind of I mean, I never want to be judging. I mean about what you're shooting. You need to control kai it is on your property, then you should do so. But I I don't never have to deal with that. Yeah, and coyote and I wish it well, yeah, I like it. I like that take man, because I feel like a lot of times people uh try to get weird for the sake of being weird. And I'm sure you get that because you live in Austin, a right that's like you keep it weird. But uh, I just um, I like to try new things with the allure that like the new things will taste good. But like if I try something and I don't like it or it's not that great, I'm not going to continue to do it. And then there's some things that just don't desire to eat, Like I don't want to like eat something weird, like you know, oh, these coyote eyeballs are delicious, you know, Like yeah, you know, like okay, so, but what's the point, you know, you kind of get to that point where I don't ever want to treat my food as a novelty, you know what I'm saying, Like I want to like respect the game that I take, and I want to eat the parts that are you know, at a and uh eat the game that is considered edible or that I care to to eat. And I'm not gonna uh shoot something without a purpose like you were saying earlier. But at the same time, like I don't want to like go out and try to find like the weirdest thing I can shoot just so I can eat it. And I don't, like you said, not to get to judge. I'm sure there's people that do enjoy caddy eyeballs, but it's just not gonna be me, you know what I mean. But uh uh, I don't know. It's just it's weird to see those trends, and I think that it's so much more relatable to the common person kind of like what you're saying way back at the beginning, like, uh, instead of showing you how to like take this, you know, this deer bladder and turn it into you know, some sort of a Italian delicacy, look like, hey, let's just show you how to take these ribs and make them something you eat on Tuesday. Right like that, You you lose people when you start getting too weird or two or two out there, I guess you'll gain a few that really like the weird stuff. But you know, for for the common purpose of that, there's plenty of that out there. Yeah, say that. You know, it's very very grounding to have a kid. You know, it's she my daughter is not exactly picky, but when it comes to the day to day stuff I'm gonna make it, it is a little bit limiting. And it also affects the way that I cut a deer or a hog. Um. You know. Now most of it will go into a into ground or breakfast sausage or you know, make hot dogs out of venice and things like that. And uh, that that is also and that's just that's real world application. That's when you take everything else out of it, you know, all the romance and like, oh, I'm gonna do this, it's gonna be so impressive. But that's when you're looking at that deer, that hog, and you're like, I need to make food for the family. What are they gonna eat? Yep, that's that's how That's how I treated a lot of times too. Um. You know kinda on this subject. Um, your book is of the same same concepts um, and the the overall concept is pretty interesting to me. Um, you took a photographer on several hunts, I believe, Is that correct? Can you kind of run through how you got the idea and and uh and what the book is and I mean do a plug for yourself to you know, feel free to do that. Well, yeah, I mean the book you know, it came out, um almost almost six years ago now, and so um, you definitely learned a lot since. But the basic idea behind it was, you know, as I said earlier, you know, I came to hunting later on in life, and it was it was all these things that I had learned in applications and coming at it as a novice, how to how to clean an animal, how to butcher that animal, and how to cook it most effectively, and I didn't really see a lot on the marketplace. UM like that. You know, since that time, you've there's been kind of a proliferation of really good quality cookbooks. I mean, Hankshaw writes amazing books. Stephen Ronnella has come out with a series of very um like just comprehensive books UM on game and cleaning and cooking and these things. So UM. At the time, I wanted something that was very like visually helpful, where it would it would show you step by step this is how you skin a squirrel, or how you half shell and black drum or or how you break down a hog, and you know, how you kind of cut the ribs of the chops and this and that and then some nice simple recipes. UM. I was lucky enough to work with a very talented photographer, is really patient and good at being quiet and UM. And we're also we're working on another book now we're and this one is it's no surprise, but this one, the next one is gonna be dedicated only to feral hawks. That's cool. I was going to ask you about that actually because I I UM had read I think on your website or some something that you were you guys are trying to decide on a concept. Yeah, and I mean it's the thing that people ask about. Um, it's the it's the proverbial elephant in the room and they so that's you know. I I love the educational aspects, so where we decided to tackle that because I think that it would just be useful a field guide, you know, this is what to do with them. But the book, I mean, originally we set out to just do this really simple um not um high level expertise, uh, cookbook and god and just like nice little stories in there. I think people enjoy reading quick little I know I enjoy reading quick short stories about hunting and fishing. You know, I could I mean, I don't know what our time limit is today, but I could sit here and talk to you guys for power. Just I love I love the story aspect of it and and and talking about you know, like oh there's this time five years ago as the raining and the rain stops whatever. You know, it's just um, so kind of a book like that. UM that was real, and it was it was moderately successful and I'm really glad that we put that work into it, and it was really fun and it's and we still get people um that that appreciate that book, and that means a lot to me. You know, they're coming there like, yeah, I got blood all over my book and I'm like, that's cool, that's cool. Yeah, Yeah, that's awesome, man. And we we definitely need to do a part two one of these days and where we can sit down and maybe tell some stories there at the restaurant or something like that would be that would be a lot of fun. Sorry, we don't make it down to Austin that often, but when we do, we're coming to see you. I think more importantly. I need to come see you. Man. You're in the heart of it out there. I love that part of the world. Hey, dude, have you ever trot lined and pulled up a big flathead or at Baloosa Catfish? You know, we run First off, I don't have a boat, so yeah, we we waighed. We'll put on waiters and run trot lines and we'll we'll catch some blue cats here and there. But now I've I've caught a couple yellow cats, but nothing nothing huge. Yeah, well that you've probably heard about them some and they have a lot more I guess oil or fat to them. And but if done right, we did uh where I grew up doing Cajun smoked at Baloosa uh Filet's, and man, it was just it's one of my greatest meals. It's just something I love. So anyways, uh, if you free around, may come up here and join us and we'll do a little bit of that and a bunch of other things. Awesome. But anyways, Uh, I feel like that you've got a great thing going here, man, with with the educating people and what really is food and what you know where food comes from and how you can go out and get to it yourself and turn uh these wild, organic, free, happy animals into food that you can feed your family and and and be healthy with. Um. But with that being said, it's it's not a lot of good to have those animals on the landscape if there's no access, and this is gonna be kind of like a little I guess public lands plug here. UM. I can imagine that you know through these uh hunting schools that that you do, that that that question comes up from time to time on you know, uh these people who are trying to get introduced to hunting, but then they see the price of a dear least a year. And when you start doing a little math and uh chickens two dollars a pound at the grocery store, like, it gets pretty tough to want to go in Lisa place. So, uh, I guess my first question is that do you talk much about the public land stuff with with people who are taking these classes and people that you encounter, And then uh, I guess, uh, how do you feel about uh, you know, hunters access and or we're at with that nowadays? And where do we where do we need to be headed, especially on a state level. Yeah, that is I mean, that is an exceptional question and we do address that constantly. So you have a new hunter come to a class and you know, they went to the academy and they bought the rifles, they bought the game winner cambo jacket. Oh yeah, well I owned several. Uh so, and then they come out to the ranch where they you know, they pay a pretty higher amount to come with us for this weekend and kind of get the crash course on everything, and then at the end of it, they're like, so what's next, And I'm like, well, yeah, that is that's a really good question. We live in a state that's privately owned, um, and so you do have a little bit of an uphill battle. But the first thing I do is refer them to the UH annual public hunting permit with the Parks and Wildlife, which I think, just like anything else, UM, you'll get out of that what you put in. If you're willing to hike more and just be more tenacious than other hunters, then you can potentially get more out of public lands. UM. I Also, you know what has worked for me personally is making friends with farmers. Now, I make friends with farmers a lot because it's done a lot of money with it. I the second method, I was like, you know what you need to start doing. First off, you need to go to the farmers market because that's where the best produce is that and also that's the people you need to support. Um. Most of the people that you're buying produced from at the farmer's market have a hog problem. Most of them. I'm not saying, you know, on the first date, when you go up there and buy that first head of cauliflower in a cabbage you need to ask if you can come out on their land. But I was saying maybe after six months in conversation. When you hear them saying, yeah, the hogs got into the south pasture and are up all my onions yesterday, that's when you can step in and be like, what about me coming out and sitting there, you know, one night this week and trying to you know, keep them out of there, and and a lot of times answer is going to be like sure, UM, I think there's other ways to go about it, but public hunting UM is probably the most reliable. And I, you know, I also would like to you know, plug parks and Wildlife and Texas Wildlife Association UM and you know in their efforts for education and UM keeping these UH accessible, keeping these resources as accessible as they possibly can be. UM. I get to participate in a mentored hunt at inks Lake every year, and it's it's a lot of fun. Will guide first time hunters on UM. They'll go shoot deer and then show them how to clean and butcher and make sausage, and we cook a couple of meals for him and it's really rewarding. But you know, when it comes down to it, that's eight or ten people a year that we're getting in there and getting them that opportunity and there's a lot more um and I think it's a fine balance too, because you know, your private landowners in Texas acting as stewards of stud land and keeping it uh, I mean generally in in this you know, nice wild condition and so um. You know, saying with the hog problem, I don't know what the the overall overarching answer is going to be to keep the general public um having access to hunting without you know, degrading the land and the hunting. But um, I would like to you know, continue to work towards it where people can get those opportunities. And I think the start is with with public lands, you know, going through parks and wildlife. Yeah, for sure, we had Casey and I spent a lot of time on public lands and uh we had we had opportunities to shoot deer this year and we're you know, we we like to shoot. We like to not scare too many deer out of an area that we may have a pretty decent bucket and sometimes um so we'll pass some dose you know, early in the season and such. But even still, you know, the deer hunting can be hard on some of these public properties. And but the one thing that we're gonna continue circling back to obviously, is that we had like hogs for until like December, we had hogs. Every time we went on to public land, we had we were within bow range of hogs pretty much. Um And so you know that that opportunity. Yeah, you may not be able to shoot a deer out there on public land, but there are plenty of places with hogs out there that you can go on public land and shoot you know, many as you want just about. So that's a good thing. Yeah. I think in most new hunters either don't care or shouldn't care that much whether they're shooting a deer or a hog. Just get out there and get that a experience exactly and keep that available to them. And I think it's just it's really important to keep parks and wildlife in a position where they can maintain public access to land. Yeah, for sure, they're doing good things. Um Jesse, I appreciate this a lot. Man. We this has been one of my most anticipated podcast interviews that I have had, And uh, I've been wanting to do this for several months now, even though you and I only have a few weeks of correspondence. But um Man I appreciate your time and and uh, I guess would open it up to kind of allow you to um plug what you got going on. Where can people buy the book and how can they find the restaurant and maybe take a course uh in hunting or butchering. Oh well sure. First off, I'm thank you for the opportunity of being on the podcast. I mean a real pleasure of talking to you guys. And I'm gonna I'm gonna hold you to that invitation. Hey, we're for real. Yeah yeah. The book, uh. Probably the most easy way to get it is off of Amazon. It's called a Field One Word, A Chef's Guide to Cooking and Preparing wild game and fish, um and yeah, available through their You can also buy it at UM. The restaurant we're on the Manor Road here in Austin, and then the Tacarea, which we just opened about three weeks ago. That's the one that is only serving uh farrell hog and venison, no beef, no domestic pork. Um. And we're downtown, in the heart of downtown Austin, uh serving tacas two suits all day. You can get the book there too, UM. And then the classes we offer are under a third branch of the business. It's called the New School of Traditional Cookery and it is found on our website, the Die do a website spelled d A I d u E, and it has a lot of information on there about different types of classes. We do open enrollment public classes that anybody can come to and we'll put together a group. We do a lot of private classes where a group will have us out to their ranch or down to the coast where we'll put together a team of guides. You know, we'll go flounder gig and we'll go bay fishing, or we can bring a group out to a ranch that we partner with, and that's the ones where we are demonstrating, you know, how to you know, skin gut, clean, butcher, cook animals, and we call it like an immersive cooking process. And then if we're hunting pigs, we're gonna only eat ferrell hog for three days. That's a breakfast, lunch, and dinner. That's what we're gonna have. We're gonna present everything that we're doing in context, in real time. And then if we're down at the coast, you're gonna eat fish for breakfast, um, launch and dinner. Also, so we'll run crab traps and gig founder and um and uh we are you know, just try to educate on as many things as you want to learn about. And you know, we've had groups say, oh hey, we really want to focus on sausage. Sure thing, will spend five hours on sausage. Things like that. So that's the new school of traditional cookery. Website's got lots of press on there, and we've taken a lot of a lot of friends from up north, from New York and so forth on hunts and uh uh you know they've written about it. You know, we've been in Texas Monthly Wall Street Journal. Um, we did a video for Yetti um and a lot of other things. But you know, when it comes down to it, it's I love my job. You know. I get to go to the King Ranch in about two weeks and take a group of guys they're they're down there shooting nil guy to teach them how to butcher no guy and basically just hang out on the King Ranch for three days and cutting nil guy for these guys. That's pretty Yeah, it's it's it's fun, it's it's a good job. So well that's what we do. Yeah, well, we'll make sure and link to all that in the podcast notes. So if you're listening, make sure and look underneath the podcast in these notes and you can find any of that. And uh again, Jesse, thanks a lot man, Yeah, thank you, guys. I really appreciate it. Problem do you? Thanks? Talk to you soon. All right after that, I am ready to go to Gordita's starving. Where are you going to to my vehicle? I've got elk cart in the vehicle, cart salad eating healthy hang and you walked a bunch on public land this this week's initially Again, you're gonna be in good shape. I doubt it. I am a little bit actually had a really good night sleep last night, but the night before they're not get a lot of sleep sometimes, you know, whenever you're your family world and then your hunting world meet in the family world's the night before the hunting world starts the next morning, four hours of sleep. It's just how it goes. Yeah, but oh well, well that's part of it what makes it fun. Oh yeah, for sure. I mean it's one of those things you gotta get enough sleep to feel good and function well. But like at the same time, you don't want to sleep your life away, and right, man, you sleep and you did. But I guess, but man, I uh, I'm pretty pumped about uh. I guess kind of one of the cool things about the off seasons we really get to expand uh are cooking and do some fun stuff and has been pretty inspirational talking to Jessein and like, is like kind of down home feel. Yeah, yes, yeah, I do too. Man. I really appreciate that because you know, it really does resonate with me. Um. I like to cook wild game a lot, and you do too, But I still I'm not gonna like we were saying, like wrap up something in the bladder and like cook it, you know, with some kind of what do you say, lingberry sauce or something. You know, Like, I'm these are things that I'm not gonna do, you know. All the time. I'll see I have several recipe books for wild game and there's like i'm ingredient in there. It's like you can get this at the Asian Market, and I'm like, you're the closest Asian market to me is like an hour and a half away. So I'm probably not going up to the Asian market to get this I'll be able to get at the walmarket. It has to be at the walmarts, so anyway, I uh, I can appreciate that for sure. And um, I'm about to appreciate some downhole Mexican thos cooking right now. So that's I mean, that's all I have to say. I think you got anything else. That's got all. So make sure, uh you know, if you enjoy what you're here, and give us a review either on Facebook or iTunes and we will see you soon. God bless you guys, love you, and remember this is your element living in

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