March 20, 2015
This post shares a pheasant hunt in east county which enables young people to learn: where their food comes from, gun safety, and how to hunt and clean an animal. True field-to-table.
My 10 y/o girl – who asked for a .22 rifle for her birthday last year – really likes to shoot her Scout, and also .22 pistols… but she was never a fan of the shotgun. In fact, here she is at a shotgun clinic last summer, rolling her eyes at the praise her brother was getting (hah!):
And she wasn’t sure she wanted to hunt yet. So I signed her up for the Junior Pheasant Hunt in Campo this spring (you only get to do it once) with the notion that she could at least enjoy all the other activities and bow out of the hunt if she wanted. But she surprised herself (and me!) when she bagged not only one pheasant ~ she bagged two.
We got up super early and rode out to this beautiful spot just past Buckman Springs near Lake Morena. I know it never rains in San Diego and really never rains in the desert, but it rained All. Day. Long.
Despite the rain, the kids learned many things at various educational stations onsite. Here, they learned how to build and use a quail caller, and this little one won a pocket knife for making the best one!
Next, the kids were instructed on bird dogs – the process of training a dog to help a hunter flush and fetch his quarry. Here you see a beautiful English lab doing what he was trained to do:
He was so excited to show off his bird (here, a pigeon)!
Next up was archery, rain or shine (RAIN). It was also freezing cold up in these mountains.
After the archery we took a break in the car to warm up our hands. It was our only break in almost 8 straight hours of standing/walking in the rain, and we were glad for it.
Next up, we practiced our shotgun shooting. She almost quit the day before due to recoil but decided to keep trying. These two wonderful gentlemen gave her all the confidence she needed.
And this is daughty, receiving instruction from her guide and meeting her bird dog, Coby:
Finally they set out on their hunt. This is super zoomed-in on the first of two spots.
And the second spot. I doubted that she got one… it was so hard to see!
This is her returning with a big smile. But did she bag us any dinner?
She did – she got TWO pheasants!
This is her telling war stories with the other hunters at our spot.
Posing together in the pouring rain. She was so proud of herself!
We discussed the Blooding Rite (the hunter’s ritual of putting first kill blood on one’s cheeks) and she surprised me again when she told me to do that for her. We talked about the dear pheasants that she just took to provide us our food, just as a fisherman takes a beautiful fish out of water and fillets it, or plucks mussels off the rocks in the ocean, or the archer who takes a deer with her bow. In those cases, the animals lived free and their death was a necessity for life. Most of our factory-farmed animals aren’t so lucky, but such is the way of modern-day life: most people are left completely out of the food chain.
When we got home, she told her siblings, “I got us dinner! I got us dinner!” We made Pheasant Pot Pie or Hunter’s Pie. I had enough for one great big pie, and one individual pie, which she wanted all to herself.
First I made the Dorie Greenspan crust. It cannot be beat!
Dump the dough out onto a lightly-floured surface and knead quickly into a ball. Cover in plastic and allow to rest in the refrigerator for 30 minutes or more.
Cubing:
When ready, remove the dough from the fridge and divide into two (one for the top of the pie, one for the bottom). Roll out each half to fit a 9 or 9 ½ -inch round by 2-inch high ovenproof glass or ceramic baking dish. Place 1 crust in the dish and if you have time, place that dish into the freezer for 15 minutes or more. Remove and fill with filling mixture, and top with the second crust. Crimp the crusts together and brush with egg wash. Make slashes or fork-pokes in the top crust.
In the oven.
Ta dah!
I PROMISE this recipe is amazing, even with (organic) chicken from the store.
Thanks for sharing our first youth hunting + cooking adventure with us, and I hope you try the recipe!
