137 ~ Gifts from under the trees (and waters)

Merry Christmas, all. At this time of year, when attention turns to gifts and gratitude, it’s good to also remember that every day the Earth is generous in her gift-giving. It must be this way, for life to go on.

Among the main things I’m grateful for this past year (in addition to health) are relationships with loved ones and the abundance of food the Earth provided to me. I’ll share a recent special gathering that combined both, and which was a rich, fitting way to begin drawing the year to a close.

My daughter, Alonda, and her boyfriend, Mike, came out from NYC (Brooklyn) to spend the week of Thanksgiving with me here at the Wisconsin farmhouse. We had a fine time, including a lot of good eating. Their visit coincided with Wisconsin’s main deer hunting season, and a few days before they arrived I shot and killed a fat doe in the woods behind the house.

Now, Mike is a city kid from Long Island, and Alonda grew up in the city of Vientiane, Laos and is pesca-vegan – that is, she eats fish and seafood (preferably wild) but not dairy or other animal products. To my surprise and my bemused, grateful delight they both absolutely got into helping me butcher the deer. I felt like Tom Sawyer at the whitewashed fence as they dove into what is usually a solitary chore for me.   

A stellar dinner soon followed, all from the Driftless land and streams. Alonda loves mushrooms, and so after some foraging last spring, I froze for her next visit some morels sautéed in olive oil (oil produced by my nephew Keegan in Italy – more connection through food).  Morels appetizer, check.  For the main course, ‘Driftless surf & turf’ (of which Alonda could enjoy the surf): trout and venison.  

From the freezer I pulled a large brown trout I’d caught in October, and as the trout thawed, I worked into medallions of venison backstrap a rub put together from birch syrup and a fantastic seasoned salt, pesteda, from the Italian-speaking part Switzerland, courtesy of Corina.  

When it was time to start the cooking, out to the herb garden I went in the dark, and managed to dig from under the snow and the cold, stiff ground a clump of last-stand lemongrass; dead and brown above, but the buried stems and root shafts still with plenty of flavor for the trout. The fragrance of lemongrass is sublime anytime, and there’s something even more special about taking it in while standing in snow.

Back in the kitchen, one of my fave photos of their visit: Mike cleaning and trimming the cascade of lemongrass while Alonda tends the morels:

After filling the big trout with shafts of lemongrass, I laid it on parchment paper with a bit of my nephew’s olive oil, put some lemon slices and a sprinkling of this across the top, and the package was ready to crimp closed and bake at 400°F for 30 minutes.

What a fine feast we had, with the morels and the venison. And with everything provided from the Earth through us, or someone we know and love, it was a feast for both body and soul. Food as connection and relationship. 

A few nights later, for the last meal of Alonda and Mike’s visit, I took from the freezer three brook trout. Edible artwork. A bit of salt and pepper inside, a dusting of flour outside, and laid in a pan of hot, nearly smoking olive oil (for a crispy crunchy skin).  With some leftover Thanksgiving mashed potatoes and steamed beans from the summer garden (via the freezer), we sat down to another wonderful meal.

It’s a good time of year to remember, with gratitude, the abundance of the world. With these gifts of the land I fed my daughter and her loved one, and being able to do so was yet another gift of the morels, the gardens, the deer and the trout to me.  

On to 2026! May it be abundant for us all. -Bird

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