All posts by traderscreek

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Roast Venison

Ingredients:

3 pounds venison top round
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons vegetable oil, as needed

Equipment:

Large oven-proof skillet (I uses a cast iron skillet)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Rub the venison with salt and pepper. Heat the oil in an oven-proof large skillet over high heat. Sear the venison on all sides until golden brown. Transfer the venison to the oven and roast for 30 to 40 minutes, until the internal temperature of 125 to 130 degrees F. Remove from the oven and let rest, about 10 to 15 minutes. Cut the venison into thin slices.

This goes great with onion rings and cold beer

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Venison Pot Pie

Venison Pot Pie

Vegetables:

2 medium turnips, peeled, cut into 3/4-inch chunks
1/2 cup green peas
2 carrots cut into 3/4-inch chunks

The stew:

3 pounds venison (rump, chuck roast, top or bottom round)
4 ounces lean bacon
2 medium carrots, minced
1 onion, minced
1 stalk celery, minced
6 tablespoons butter
6 tablespoons flour
Pinch cayenne
3 cups red wine (wine you would drink)
6 cups beef stock
3 tablespoons tomato paste
2 garlic cloves, minced

Herbs tied in cheesecloth: 3 to 4 parsley sprigs, 2 bay leaves, 2 teaspoons thyme

Equipment:

deep heavy soup pot
6 – 4 1/2 inches round pot pie pans

Cooking Directions

Procedure: Filling is made in 2 parts and then combined: the stew and the vegetables. The crust is partially baked before filling.

Cooking the vegetables: Bring a pot of salted water to a boil, add the turnips and then the carrots until fork tender. When tender remove and immediately cool under cold running water. Add the 1/2 of peas to the boiling water for 2 minutes then drain and cool. Mix all three vegetables together.

Cooking the stew: Cut venison into 1-inch chunks and dry thoroughly with a paper towel. Cut the bacon into 1-inch pieces and brown slowly in a deep large pot. Remove the bacon and set aside, and turn the heat to high. Brown the venison quickly in the bacon fat. Add olive oil if necessary. Remove the venison from the pot and set aside with the bacon. Add the minced carrots, onions and celery and brown on medium high heat in the remaining fat. Remove the vegetables from the pot and add to the venison and bacon. Melt the butter and add to the pot and sprinkle in the flour. Stir constantly until the flour browns. Return the bacon, venison and vegetables to the pot. Stir to coat them with the browned flour and cook for 1 minute on medium-high heat. Lower the heat, add the cayenne, wine, beef stock, the tomato paste, the garlic and the herb bouquet tied in a cheesecloth. Stir to mix well and simmer for at least 3 to 4 hours, stirring occasionally. When
done the meat should be very tender. Skim fat if necessary. Check for seasoning, add salt pepper or herbs as desired. Remove the meat from the gravy with a slotted spoon and set aside. Remove and discard the herb bouquet. Reserve the gravy in a separate container.

Crust:

4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
2 sticks cold butter
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup ice water

Making the crust: Preheat oven to 400 degrees Process the flour, butter, shortening, and salt until mixture is like coarse cornmeal. Add the ice water and cut until dough begins to clump. Scrape dough onto a board, divide in half and put each half in a plastic bag. Working through the bag, quickly press the dough into a ball. Refrigerate dough for at least 1 hour. Roll 1 of the balls out to about 1/8-inch thick. Butter pans and line with the dough. Butter pieces of aluminum foil and line the crust in the pans with them so that the crust is between the pan and aluminum foil. When you bake the crust to brown it, it will keep its shape. Roll the second ball of dough out and cut to approximately 1/8-inch larger than the top of the pot pie pan.

Place the top crust circles on a cookie sheet and prick with a fork. Bake both the crust in the pan and the the tops for about 10 minutes. Crust should just start to brown.

Cooking the Pot Pie: Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Warm the stew and gravy separately on the stove until they just begin to simmer. Add gravy back to the stew a little at a time until it is liquid enough but not soupy. Stir well to mix. Mix the vegetables into the stew just before you assemble the pie. Spoon the filling mixture into the partially baked pie shell. It should fill it right to the top. There may be some filling mixture left over. Bake for about 8 to 10 minutes, until the crust starts to look quite brown at the edges and the filling is bubbling. Allow to rest for 5 to 10 minutes before serving. This is great served with wild rice

Reptiles, Wildlife

Red Spotted Newt – Notophthalmus viridescens

General: The Red-spotted newt is one of the most common newts in the United States. The Red-Spotted Newt gets its name from the many red spots that occur on its dorsal surface against the background color of brown to olive green in adults. The red spotted newt undergoes two metamorphoses. The first is the usual transformation from aquatic, gilled larva to an air-breathing terrestrial sexually immature land phase called an Eft. Sometimes the eft stage is skipped completely and they go directly from the larval to the adult aquatic stage. The second metamorphosis is to a breeding aquatic adult Newts.

All newts have toxic skin secretions.

Average Size: Efts usually reach only about 3 inches. Adults reach lengths of nearly 5 inches

Life Span: The Eft stage may last anywhere from 1-7 years. Adult stage can last as long

Diet: Red efts eat waxworms, flies, small insects and invertebrates. They will also eat very small earthworms. Brine shrimp and ghost shrimp are common prey items. Bloodworms, whiteworms and small fish are also potential food items.

Breeding: Mating begins in the spring or the autumn, in shallow pools and ponds. The males grab the females from above, either around the chest or the neck, and will hover above them for what could be up to a few hours, then will suddenly drop a spermatophore and leave a moment later. The females lay their eggs in spring, and the clutch count is somewhere around 250 eggs. The larvae only need three or four weeks to hatch, and then normally metamorphose some 12 to 13 weeks

Larvae: The larvae are carnivorous from the time they have absorbed their yolk, a few days after hatching. From then on they eat live food. They will eat any insect, worm, etc they can over power.

Habitat: Eastern Newts are at home in both coniferous and deciduous forests. They need a moist environment with either a temporary or permanent body of water, and thrive best in a muddy environment. During the eft stage, they may travel far from their original location. Red efts may often be seen in a forest after a rainstorm. Adults prefer a muddy aquatic habitat, but will move to land during a dry spell.

Territory: As can be seen in the territory map, the red-spotted newt ranges almost the entire east of the United States, Maine to Georgia and all the way to the Mid-west (Mississippi areas).

Birds

Black-capped chickadee – Poecile atricapilla

Black-capped chickadee

General:

The black-capped chickadee is a familiar visitor to bird feeders in New York. When considering their small size, they seem almost fearless. Many a time I have had a chickadee land right next to me while filling the feeder. I During the fall migration and winter, chickadees often flock together.have been lucky enough to have them eat from my hand.

Black-capped chickadeeThe Black-capped Chickadee is very similar to the Carolina Chickadee and where their ranges overlap they can be difficult to separate. In fact, they have trouble telling themselves apart and hybrids occur. The most obvious difference between them is their songs. Black-capped sings a two note song while Carolina sings a four note song. Hybrids sing a three note song. They are the state bird of Maine and Massachusetts.

Identification tips:

The black-capped chickadee is approximately 4.5 inches long and has a short bill. It has a black crown and throat with a white face, pale gray upperparts and white edges to wing coverts. Their body has grayish-white underparts and rusty flanks. The sexes similar. They are often found in small flocks

Habitat:

Their breeding habitat is mixeBlack-capped chickadee ranged or deciduous woods in Canada, Alaska and the northern United States. They nest in a hole in a tree; the pair excavates the nest, using a natural cavity or sometimes an old woodpecker nest. They are permanent residents, but sometimes move south within their range in winter.

Food:

Insects form a large part of their diet, especially in summer; seeds and berries become important in winter. They sometimes hammer seeds on a tree or shrub to open them

Patuxent Bird Identification InfoCenter

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Wolves, both wild and domestic turned wild, are roaming in New York

NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM STUDY SUGGESTS WOLVES MIGRATING EAST

Albany, New York — 10/17/11

Museum curators Dr. Roland Kays and Dr. Robert Feranec used a new isotope test for the first time to determine whether eight wolves found in the Northeast over the last 27 years had been living in the wild or had escaped from captivity. This is an important question for species, such as wolves, that are not known to breed in New York state, but are occasionally discovered here. Results revealed that three of the eight wolves tested were probably natural immigrants because they had a history of eating wild foods. One of these wild wolves was found in Saratoga County in 2001 and the other two came from Vermont in 1998 and 2006. The isotope signatures of five others suggested they had been eating food in captivity, and were therefore probably escaped pets or zoo animals. Kays and Feranec documented their work in a new article published in the Northeastern Naturalist, a peer-reviewed and edited online journal with a regional focus on northeastern North America. The abstract is available at http://www.eaglehill.us/NENAonline/articles/NENA-18-3/10-Kays.shtml.

Wolves have been extinct in the Northeastern U.S. since the late 1800s but survive to the north in Ontario and Quebec, and have recently been expanding in the Great Lakes. Although this research shows that there have been at least three naturally immigrating wolves in the Northeast, there is no evidence at this point to suggest that there is an established breeding population. Rather, it is likely that these few wolves migrated to the Northeast from the Great Lakes area or from Canada, looking for potential mates.

Citing other studies, Kays and Feranec note that the recent recovery of wolves throughout much of the Great Lakes region and increased protection of wolves in Ontario make it likely that even more wolves will migrate into the Northeastern U.S. in the near future. “There is substantial suitable habitat in Northern New York and New England that could support a viable population of wolves” says Kays.

If wolves were to become established, this new top predator would probably reduce coyote populations in the Northeast and change the behavior and densities of other prey, such as deer.

Feranec says that the new isotope test that they used “is based on the principle that you are what you eat” and involves measuring the carbon isotopes of hair and bone fragments of the wolves. Animals that eat corn-based pet food or grain-fed livestock accumulate a different carbon isotope in their bodies than those who find their own food in the wild. The isotopes in the hair represent the animals’ diet since its last molt, while those in the bone represent a lifetime average of the animals’ diet.

Kays and Feranec also used this new isotope test to show that a cougar found in Connecticut this past June had spent its life eating typical wild prey, and was not a captive animal that had escaped or been released. The test was requested by the Wildlife Division of the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP), and confirmed genetic and other evidence showing that this was a wild cougar from South Dakota that migrated through the Great Lakes and New York State, before being hit by a car in Connecticut.

The New York State Museum is a program of the New York State Education Department’s Office of Cultural Education. Located on Madison Avenue in Albany, it is open Monday through Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. It is closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day. Further information about programs and events can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the museum website at www.nysm.nysed.gov.

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Yellow Water Lily – Nymphaeaceae

Common Names: Brandy-bottle, bullhead lily, spatterdock, yellow cowlily

My son built a small pond in the backyard several years ago. Along with the necessary koi we bought the flora we added included a plant native to the entire USA – a yellow pond lily. In researching this plant I found out its history and the many ways this wild food is used and useful.

Description: As its name implies, the yellow pond lily is an aquatic plant. It is a long lived plant, a perennial, which grows from spongy rhizomes anchored into the bottom of a body of water. The floating leaves are thick, somewhat heart-shaped and have up to an 18” spread. The stalks connecting leaves and flowers to rhizomes can grow six feet long.

Flowers emerge on separate stem stalks. They are cup-shaped, yellow-green, with small scale-like petals. Flowers bloom from May to October. Spent flowers give way to seed heads that burst upon ripening, broadcasting their seeds over the water surface.

Habitat: Yellow pond-lily occurs in slow-moving streams, ponds, and lakes. The plant pictured here was in Pine Lake, NY, a shallow Adirondack lake. The plant grows in wet, poor sandy soils and grows best in 1’ to 5’ of water in full sun to part shade. It is however tolerant of shade and deep water. There is a boggy area fed by the Normans Kill in Albany, NY that gets choked up with these wild plants by mid-summer every year. This is where the lilies I have come from.

Location: The yellow pond lily can basically be found from Alaska south to California East to Labrador and south to Florida.

Edible: The roots (rhizomes) are rich in starch and can be harvested any time of the year and either roasted or boiled. I understand that the root can be dried and ground into a flour substitute. The seeds can also be gathered in late summer into the fall and roasted and shelled. They can be eaten as is, boiled like you would rice or ground into a flour/meal.

Notes of Interest: Yellow Pond Lilies provides great cover for wildlife, including all types of fish, insects (aquatic, terrestrial and flying), amphibians and reptiles. It is also a food source for beaver, muskrats and waterfowl.

The plant’s use dates back to pre-colonial times. Native Americans used the starchy rootstocks as a boiled or roasted vegetable. Additionally, they harvested the seed for grinding into flour.

Although seeds are produced and deposited on the water surface, the yellow pond-lily reproduces more readily by spreading rhizomes – I can attest to this. The lily in the koi pond has a root system around 4’ long with several spots that stems and flowers grow from. This native aquatic plant can readily take over a body of water – please do not help it spread. It is very difficult to eradicate