Passport to Texas

This is Passport to Texas

Journalist, Holly Heyser, didn’t grow up in a hunting family. She says she eventually took up the sport to spend more time with her boyfriend who is a hunter, author and chef.

13— I got sick of being alone on weekends when he was out duck hunting all day long. He would get up at two in the morning and be out forever. Well…it didn’t take that for me to join him. What it took was for him to start cooking a lot of ducks; wild ducks, especially where we live in the Sacramento Valley, are amazing. Really great food.

Holly says she gained new respect for the meat she consumes, and not just wild game, but domesticated animals as well.

33— Since I started hunting I am so much less wasteful of meat. Even if I’m at a restaurant–if there’s a burger on my plate–I will not leave one single bite of meat on my plate, because I know an animal died for that. And when it’s animals you hunt, especially, we invest a lot of time. We can spend 12 hours and a lot of money on gas to go and maybe get two ducks one day. That’s a precious gift, and you don’t waste it. So it’s really made me understand the value of the food we eat, and I appreciate it a lot more than I ever used to. The fact that it’s wild food and it’s absolutely delicious is icing on the cake.

Holly Heyser hunts and writes in Northern California, and writes a hunting blog called Nor-Cal Cazadora on blogspot.

Sign up for our Hunt Texas e-newsletter on the Texas Parks and Wildlife website, and learn about hunting for and preparing wild game.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife I’m Cecilia Nasti.