Geese of NYC, We Will Eat You

Remember a blog entry I wrote last month about culling Canada geese in the NYC area? The issue is back in the news. Of course it will be back in the news again and again for the next year or so.

The resident geese in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, have been replaced by 107 new geese that quickly moved into the area once the habitat was unoccupied. There will be more. They will round up these geese and it will happen again. This is not to say that the effort to reduce collisions with aircraft engines is not worth bothering with. Rather, I think it demonstrates the value that meat hunters can contribute to solving this.

New York City is not going to allow people to hunt geese for food in Prospect Park using any methods. Not going to happen. There is too much knee-jerk politicking to worry about. Somehow its more sanitary to have people in uniforms round them up in traps, gas them, and bury the bodies.

Outside of the city there are plenty of hunting opportunities. Resident geese move around -- they don't migrate per se, but they do fly from one place to another. Hunting Canada geese 20 miles outside of the city limits will help to reduce the number of geese that end up filling the void in Prospect Park and other urban bodies of water. A real solution to goose-related aviation accidents needs to involve reducing goose populations well outside of the immediate vicinity of the airport. While citizen hunters can't take geese out of NYC, they can still help by going outside of the city.

I've been in touch with Slow Food NYC about doing a new type of event for them. Some time in October I will be putting on an event to benefit Slow Food, at which we will be cooking geese several different ways and giving the public an opportunity to taste it. I will be working with a chef in NYC to develop some simple recipes for Canada goose that are less intimidating than the all-day effort to cook a whole goose in the oven (which is the only method of preparation most people are aware of). I will be speaking on the topic of geese and what is practically involved in hunting them, while the chef will explain how to prepare them as food.

The chef is still to be decided, as is the exact date while Slow Food works things out with their venue.

I want to be perfectly clear about the fact that I don't have anything against these geese as individuals. Obviously they aren't especially keen on being sucked into jet engines. They want to remain alive just as much so as every chicken on the grocery store shelves did, and just as much as any rat about to trigger a snap trap in a pantry. I don't hate Canada geese, but everyone has to eat something and this is arguably a more ethical way of putting calories into your body than buying grain-fed beef or eating a factory-farmed soy burger.

[Photo used courtesy of Jim Linwood under Creative Commons license]

The Great Floridian Alien Expedition

If I have been a little quiet on this blog lately its because I've been spending a lot of time preparing for a hunting expedition to Florida in September. At long last, the serious alien hunting tour is going to start.

My father-in-law and I are going to be sharing the driving duties during the two day trip to Boca Grande. I'll be spending two days hunting green iguanas, black spiny-tailed iguanas and monitor lizards with George Ceras. George is a professional hunter who has removed over 16,000 invasive iguanas from Boca Grande. We will first be hunting the streets and backyards of Boca Grande, followed by a trip to a bird sanctuary where some of these invasive species represent a serious threat to native nesting birds.

We'll spend a day in the kitchen working with a professional chef on recipes for these lizards before driving down to the Florida Keys, where invasive salt water fish are on the menu. For three days I'm going to pursue lionfish and other ecologically disruptive fish with both rod and spear. We are still trying to get a good spearfishing guide lined up for the lionfish, so if anyone who wants to help out with that would send me an email then I would appreciate it.

Other fun stuff coming up in the next few months includes a wild boar hunt on a farm in Georgia, and a new event for Slow Food NYC in October where we're going to be introducing people to the idea of hunting Canada geese for food as an alternative to rounding them up and gassing them. I'll be working with a professional chef at that event to serve everyone simple, practical recipes for geese that prove their edibility.

If I return from Florida with sufficient iguana meat in the cooler then I am hoping to accept an offer to put on an iguana barbeque (Carolina style) event at a bookstore here in Charlottesville. If the event happens, it will involve a reading from 'Eating Aliens', a presentation on locavore hunting and iguana barbeque for everyone to try.

[Photo used courtesy of Papaija under Creative Commons license]

Small Game Hunting Instruction

With September in Virginia comes an early taste of hunting season. Doves, squirrels and Canada geese are all in season during that month and there is plenty of good public land on which to hunt any of them. Having been an advocate for using all of these species as a food source, I want to encourage new and aspiring hunters to go out there and eat them.

While I am always happy to dispense information via email (and this blog) free of charge, many people don't feel comfortable going out and hunting by themselves for the first time, even after taking the free DGIF hunter's safety class. This is why I'm going to offer guided hunts for beginners on a limited basis during the month of September.

This is going to be a little bit different from most guided hunts, because the purpose here is not to put a trophy on your wall. It isn't even to fill your whole legal bag limit. The aim will be to teach you how to hunt and dress your own small game for food.

We will be hunting doves and squirrels on either public or private land, depending where I am seeing the prey in good numbers during scouting trips before your arrival. Dove hunting on wildlife management areas is only permitted on Wednesdays and Saturdays and all hunting is still (archaically) illegal in Virginia on Sundays. I will be available on both weekdays and weekends.

All students must hold a valid Virginia hunting license in order to participate. This can be either an apprentice license or a standard license. A rifle or shotgun can be provided if necessary. If you require basic instruction with a .22 rifle or a shotgun then this can be included, although that will either have to happen on another day or cut significantly into our hunting time.

The cost is $100 per day, per person. For safety reasons, no more than 2 hunters can be accommodated at a time. Students will need to be in good enough physical shape to walk several miles on woodland trails in unpredictable weather.

This will not be a canned hunt. I cannot guarantee for certain that you will end up taking any meat home, although I will certainly do my best. What I can promise is that you will come away from the experience with a good idea of how to go about hunting several species of small game and hopefully with the confidence to go out and do this on your own.

By the way, the deer hunting classes will be scheduled again once the weather cools down. Through the end of September I expect that it will still be too hot for us to transport a whole, un-gutted deer to the field-dressing site for the class to work on without serious risk of spoilage.

Interested people may contact me at jack.landers@gmail.com

Florida Hunters?

At some point during either September or October, I need to make a trip down to Florida to hunt iguanas, Nile monitor lizards, and any other potentially edible invasive species that I can find. This will be work towards my second book, 'Eating Aliens.'

My problem is that the odds of success aren't too good if I just drive South and hope for the best. I could really use the help of a knowledgeable person to meet up with. Someone who can show me exactly where to go in order to hunt examples of these species (using whatever methods are legal and appropriate for that parcel of land).

Are there any readers here from Florida who can help me out? I'll buy you a beer and probably put you in the book.