Ready for a taste of squirrel?
-
At the 2011 Eastern Sports & Outdoor Show in Harrisburg, attendees sample Smoked Trout Spread.
Share with others:
If you're an adventurous eater, you might enjoy parts of the Eastern Sports & Outdoor Show. Billed as the largest outdoor hunting and fishing event of its kind in North America, the 57th show opens Saturday and runs through Feb. 12 at the State Farm Show Complex in Harrisburg.
Not to be missed is the Tuesday, Feb. 7, "A Taste of the Great Outdoors," when, at 5 p.m., students and chefs from the culinary school at Harrisburg Area Community College will present several game recipes and give out hundreds of free samples of them.
These will include Pulled Venison with a Mango Salsa, Venison Stroganoff, Herb Roasted Wild Turkey with Apple Cranberry Couscous, Citrus Walleye, Teriyaki Pheasant Stir Fry, Honey-Orange Elk Meatballs, and Smoked Squirrel Chowder. And attendees can take home the recipes (which include directions for how to smoke the squirrel).
Where do they get that much squirrel?
Or, where, for that matter, do they get any squirrel?
Show publicist Debra Davis says, "I'm in charge of 'finding' all the meats for this event. So that means I call up all the hunters and fishermen (and women) I know and ask them to get on it. 'What do you have in your freezer that you are willing to give me for my event?' "
In the case of squirrels, she had people out bagging some for her last week.
You can't legally sell or buy truly wild game hunted in Pennsylvania, so she has to get creative.
Pheasant she gets from a friend who belongs to a game farm where he enjoys the social and shooting experience, but doesn't like the taste of the birds.
A retiree who fishes freezes walleye for her all year long.
"The elk meat this year," she continues, "came from a wonderful woman who took a hunting trip out West and bagged an elk and had some left over and graciously gave up 12 pounds."
The venison comes from Hunters Sharing the Harvest, the charity that works with butchers across Pennsylvania to distribute hunters' extra venison to food banks. That group also provides nine deer to be used for daily deer butchering demonstrations. Afterward, that meat is distributed to people via food banks, "so technically, we are borrowing the deer," Ms. Davis says.
The wild turkey? She got that, "after much cajoling," from Hunters Sharing the Harvest executive director John Plowman, who had one in his freezer.
Ms. Davis is pretty good at her job. Maybe too good. Her hunters bagged enough squirrels -- about 25 -- but were too busy to dress them all. "So good PR person that I am," she relates, "I have to pick them up and bring them home and clean them myself and drop them at the college. I sure hope there's a YouTube video on it, because I've never done this."
Tickets for the outdoor show start at $13 ($12 for seniors and $6.50 for children ages 6-12), but there are multiday passes and group discounts, too. For more information, including the list of 1,200-plus exhibitors, schedule of seminars (including ones on venison sausage and jerky making and cooking trout), contests and family entertainment, go to easternsportshow.com.
First Published February 2, 2012 12:00 am
