Stories
Wild Idea Featured in New York Times: Two Approaches to Raising Buffalo Meat
Living forty miles from small town engenders a sense to isolation. A guy can get the feeling that no one know what you are doing or cares what you are thinking. Getting a call from a NY Times reporter is a seismic event that leaves you wondering if you imagined it. When the photographer shows up it seems more real, but after they drive out of the driveway, the eerie silence descends again.
A Tip of the Hat to the Spirit of America
I’m sitting in a room on the ground-level of a brownstone in Brooklyn. It is night and I’m wondering how I got here. The room is filled with books manuscripts, and galley proofs that are staked on every horizontal surface. It is the home of my long-time friend and literary agent. My body is surrounded by perhaps the greatest city in the world. But my heart is on the Great Plains.
Scrooge on the High Plains
It is Christmastime and, once again, I am driving from South Dakota to Texas. I am not moving in a straight line. I am wondering, as I have done almost every Christmas for the last forty years. By December, most of the autumn work is done on the ranch, the ponds are frozen in South Dakota, and I have the chance to follow the ducks south.
Winter River Crossing
Dan & I returned home just before midnight this last Thursday from a Patagonia book tour in California. We were greeted with a cold, still night and a black sky filled with stars. We awoke the next morning to a snow-covered prairie, the first snowfall of the year.
A Recipe Celebration of the Garden Tomato
Tomatoes are the STAR produce item in our garden, and oh how we love them! They are a true celebration of our gardening efforts, and plucking them off the vine and into your mouth is like eating a burst of sweet sunshine.
Introducing Buffalo Jerky from Patagonia Provisions
About five years ago we received a call from Patagonia stating that they were interested in starting an environmentally sustainable food line for their future sister company, Patagonia Provisions. They were specifically interested in us making Buffalo Jerky for them.
In The News: Minneapolis Star Tribune
This last weekend on Saturday, the 28th of February, the Minneapolis Star Tribune’s Science and Health section published a great article examining the role of buffalo in our modern food system.
Hearing the Rattle
There was some disturbing news on our local radio station this morning. A couple herpetologists were on NPR explaining that some rattlesnakes in our area seem to be losing their ability to rattle.
A Case for the Limping Metaphor
The trip back from a grazing seminar took me right through the center of the Black Hills. Jill was in the seat beside me, but we didn’t talk much.
Bluebird Days
My Sibley’s Field Guide to the Blue Bird says that there are three kinds of bluebirds in North America: Eastern, Western, and Mountain. The first bluebird that I remember seeing had to have been an eastern.
The Case For Selling Bison Meat
The Great Plains are enormous – about 32 million acres – but they are not limitless.
Seven Mile Point
Almost fifty years ago I was a freshman at Michigan Technological University. I did not go to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan for academic reasons – not interested in philosophy, mathematics, or engineering like almost everyone else.