Passport to Texas

Wild turkey ready for the table. Image: Field to Table Cookbook, Susan Ebert.

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This is Passport to Texas

If you harvest a bird during the 2019 spring turkey season, don’t wait until Thanksgiving to eat it. Yet, whenever you prepare it, be sure to save their built-in “flavor packet”.

Wild turkeys have this huge fatty deposit at the top of the chest and the base of their neck; it’s called the breast sponge.

Susan Ebert is author of The Field to Table Cookbook. She says gobblers develop this fat layer to sustain them during mating season and it can account for up to 10 percent of the bird’s body weight.

It’s very weird looking tissue. And some people will just cut it off and throw it away, and I say, oh no…no…no. Leave that breast sponge on the turkey’s breast. Because, what you have is a built-in fat blanket to keep that meat moist while it’s cooking. It will shrink substantially during the cooking process. You can discard it afterwards, before you start carving.

We have a longer segment on harvesting and preparing wild turkey with Susan Ebert, as well as a segment on turkey restoration and another on how to call turkey for hunting or nature watching, and on our podcast Under the Texas Sky.

It’s the one called “Talking Turkey”.

The podcast is available on spotify, iTunes and other places where podcasts roam.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Have fun with family and friends when you participate in the Great Outdoor Scavenger Hunt!

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This is Passport to Texas

A picture may be worth a thousand words, but an experience is priceless. Get your experience on with The Great Outdoor Scavenger Hunt, or GOSH.

It’s a fun framework in which to go and see and do.

Nathan Adams is art director for TPW Magazine, which is where you will find a list of 30 locations that feature Texas’ natural wonders, history, wildlife, water and fringes. Participation is as easy as taking a selfie.

Everyone’s got their phone with the all the time. So, you would go to one of these locations, and there are instructions for what to take a selfie of. We want to see you and we want to see whatever the location is; we want to see that present also. And so you would go to that location and take a picture of yourself.

Then upload the images to social media, or to a portal on the website with the hashtag: #GOSHTX. They’ll be added to a gallery where you can see what others are doing. Nathan hopes some friendly competition will arise.

I would love it if Texas A & M would challenge UT. Or, Texas State and Texas Tech would get involved. I would hope that this would encourage some competition among people. Yeah.

Find complete details for the Great Outdoor Scavenger Hunt in the May issue of TPW magazine—on newsstands now—and the TPW website.

We receive support from RAM Trucks: Built to Serve.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

No matter where you live in Texas, you can participate in the Great Outdoor Scavenger Hunt.

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This is Passport to Texas

Through Labor Day, The Great Outdoor Scavenger Hunt—or GOSH—inspires you to discover the natural wonders, wildlife, water, history and fringes of Texas.

I would want to make sure everyone knows that no matter where in Texas you live, there’s at least one thing on this list that’s close to you. And probably more. So we want everyone to participate. This should not feel exclusive, this should feel very inclusive.

Nathan Adams is art director for TPW Magazine; along with the website and magazine APP, it provides the GOSH guide, which includes 30 tasks to encourage exploration and discovery of Texas’ best.

If you complete all of the tasks in any given location, then you’ll get a certificate that we’ll email to you that you can print out; and if you’re crazy enough all the way—get them all—then you’ll get a different certificate [you’re a “Gosher” par excellence] and you’ll get a two-year digital subscription to the magazine.

To participate, go to the sites, take selfies of you and your crew and then upload the images to social media, or to a portal on the website with the hashtag: #GOSHTX.

So, I’m hoping people will discover things didn’t know existed in Texas. But mostly I’m hoping that people will just have a good time being outdoors.

Find complete details for the Great Outdoor Scavenger Hunt in the May issue of TPW magazine—on newsstands now—and the TPW website.

We receive support from RAM Trucks: Built to Serve.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Get the family outside and participate in the Great Outdoor Scavenger Hunt.

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This is Passport to Texas

Is this how summer vacation usually goes at your home?

I’m bored. What are we gonna do? Summer vacation’s great for about the first ten days; then it’s drudgery for the next two months.

Nathan Adams is art director for TPW Magazine. He says this year will be made different…by G.O.S.H.

GOSH stands for the Great Outdoor Scavenger Hunt.

The May issue of TPW magazine, the website and APP has a list of GOSH locations. Use your smart phone to snap selfies at the sites listed.

What makes it unique, in part, is just the size and the scope of the state of Texas. There’s so much out here to see and do. And so, we wanted to find a way to encourage people to experience the history, the nature, the wildlife, the water features—just all of Texas. And, a scavenger hunt—let’s be honest—it’s a gimmick. But it’s a fun framework in which to go and see and do.

Instructions for what to include in your selfies are in the magazine, online and in the APP. Upload images to social media, or to a portal on the website with the #GOSHTX.

And then we’ll be collating those into a gallery where you can see what other people are doing, or collect what you’re doing, and keep track of your progress, and see how many of these locations you can hit over the summer.

Find all details at tpwmagazine.com.

We receive support from RAM Trucks: Built to Serve.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Working on a prescribed burn.

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This is Passport to Texas

We welcome rain in Texas as it promotes lush vegetative growth. Yet, in the absence of fire, such growth can become a problem.

The lack of fire on the landscape has been a big issue. Especially in East Texas, but across the state. We’re seeing a lot of our habitat go from those grasslands to being more dominated by woody vegetation.

Jason Hardin, Turkey Program Leader at Texas Parks and Wildlife, says woody vegetation with an open understory is good turkey habitat.

A turkey’s main defense is its eyesight. Its sense of smell isn’t much better than ours; it’s sense of hearing is good—but it’s not going to keep them alive. So, their vision is most critical for them. So, they need to be able to see where they’re going. If they can’t see through it and move through it easily, it’s not good habitat.

Fire creates an open understory, which affords usable space for turkey, especially in rainy East Texas.

When you see forty, fifty, sixty inches of rainfall a year—you’re going to get a lot of rapid growth on that woody cover. So, burning those forests is essential. We don’t have a fire culture in Texas; people know it’s important, but they’re scared of it. So, we’re trying to provide funding where we can, and work with partners to try and get fire on the ground with certified prescribed burn bosses doing that fire—some of our staff as well—to educate those landowners. And try to—as much as we can—begin to develop a culture that if they’re not willing to burn it themselves, at least they can support fire as a management tool.

The Wildlife Restoration Program Supports our Series.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.