Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/728154
S P O R T I N G C L A S S I C S • 49 L ook back over pivotal events of your life, and I'll bet you dollars- to-dumplings you remember exactly where you were, who you were with, and what you were doing when you got "the news." On this particular sultry September eve, I happened to be at a Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers concert with my husband, Shannon, and our good friends and kindred spirits in the outdoors, Pete and Beth, rapt as Tom, Mike Campbell, and the boys tore it up with their customary intensity. So when my phone vibrated the arrival of a text message from my jeans pocket, I nearly ignored it. But as with all parents—yes, even those of us with adult children—I pulled it out for a fleeting glance at the screen. Not son nor daughter, but my book agent: "We have an offer. It's a good one." Thank heavens it's September, I remember thinking. You see, the first chapter of my proposed book, The Field to Table Cookbook: Gardening, Foraging, Fishing & Hunting, devotes itself to this month, with chapters for the subsequent months. Each chapter includes essays on hunting, fishing, foraging, and gardening, along with recipes for each in the height of its season. With only a skeletal outline and a handful of sample chapters, I would need to bear down on gathering my ingredients. If I missed an animal this season, I couldn't simply run out to the grocery store to pick up, say, a brace of pintails, a fat doe, or a couple dozen quail. And I just had one crack at it, as the book would be published in less than a year. Plus, although many of the recipes had been developed over the course of many years, not only the finished recipes for wild game would need to be photographed, but so would the wild forageables—some, such as pawpaws, so ephemeral that the window of opportunity is mere days. For the next few weeks my office resembled that of a modern-day war room. Excel spreadsheets—one for the opening and closing of Texas's season for each game animal; one for prime times to target freshwater and saltwater fish; one for the availability of wild foraged greens, roots, tubers, fruits, and nuts; A WomAn's plAce by susAn l. ebert The Year of Living richLY. and one for planting and harvest times for an array of fruits and vegetables in USDA Hardiness Zone 8b—festooned the walls. Shannon (he's the outdoor writer for the Houston Chronicle) could only shake his head, bemused. "I knew if I remarried, my second wife would complain about hunting," he said. "What I didn't know is that she'd complain about not going often enough." In short order, the news that I was writing a wild game and fish cookbook spread like a brushfire through our extended circle of hunting and fishing buddies. My sporting calendar filled up quicker than a debutante's programme du bal. And the magic that would ensue— although related to my culinary pursuits— both humbled and inspired me. More than anything else, my hunting and fishing became imbued with an intensity that surprised me, as I had not yet experienced that. A different, deeper intensity than pursuing a trophy buck, behemoth bass, or leviathan speckled trout—or even a Volkswagen-sized gobbler (well, except for Emilio, Lord of the Llano,