Hunter’s reflections in Traverse

Bird hunter and local author Bob Butz writes a thoughtful piece on bird hunting and shares a recipe for glaze, or "glace," in the October issue of Traverse, Northern Michigan's Magazine. Likening the hunt to foraging in the woods for mushrooms, he writes,

If you asked me, How could you kill? How does your finger trip the trigger on a bird as it flutters batlike through the branches? I would simply ask you to sit over a cup of wild mint tea. Aftwerward we would dine on asparagus soup, a small garden salad with fresh walnuts and dried cherries, a side of wild rice, warm bread from the oven, and woodcock, lightly grilled to honey-brown and drizzled ever to lightly with a glaze.

After one taste, you might better understand when I say it doesn't take much at all.... I pluck it from the air with a gentle pull of the trigger, no malice, no bloodlust, no more pressure than one would exert when bending to pinch the head off a morel.

Filed under Wild Game