Blueberries – a Critical Food for Black Bear

03 Aug

Blueberries are an important food source throughout the black bear range. The most commonly eaten berries in our area of northwestern Ontario are blueberries and raspberries. Many other berries are eaten, but they have shorter seasons, are scarce, or are less preferred.

The period when blueberries are abundant in our area is short & mainly in August-making that period critically important in the black bear’s annual cycle of events. Efficient feeding during that time is critically important to winter survival, growth, and reproductive success. Researchers found that bears in NW Ontario end mating activities before the critical feeding period and focus on feeding for the remainder of the summer.

Black bears are efficient berry-eaters, consuming up to 30,000 berries a day in a good year. They gather berries quickly, using their sensitive, mobile lips and swallowing them whole. The berries enter a two-part stomach, which grinds the pulp off the seeds.

The seeds pass through the digestive tract unbroken and able to germinate, making black bears important seed dispersers. Each summer, they spread the seeds of their favorite berries all over their home ranges.

Black Bear around Wawang Lake gain weight most rapidly during July and August when berries are abundant. When the berries run out in September, there is little else to eat. The bear usually seek out their dens in September or October. The longer period of food abundance enables bears to achieve more growth and reach maturity more quickly than bear. Bear in NW Ontario typically produce their first litters at 4 to 5 years of age.

Berries contain anti-oxidants, and the seeds of some species contain vitamin B-17, considered an anti-cancer compound by some scientists. Although cancer occurs in captive bear, it has never been reported in wild bear.

RECIPES

Blueberry Pancakes

Gluten FREE Blueberry Pie

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Posted by Wawang Lake on August 3, 2015 in black bear, recipe, Wawang Lake Resort

Tags: black bear, blueberries, blueberry, blueberry pancakes, blueberry pie, blueberry recipe, wawang, Wawang Lake, Wawang Lake Resort

Moose Stir Fry

29 Jul

This delicious moose dish is low in fat. The amount of each ingredient is proportional to how many people you’re serving. Using half a pound of moose, as this recipe does, makes two large servings.

Ingredients

1/2 lb. moose steak
1/2 cup carrots
1/2 cup bean sprouts
1/4 cup celery
1/2 cup snow peas
1/2 cup broccoli
1/4 cup unsalted peanuts
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 cup soy sauce
1 tbsp crushed red pepper
1 tbsp cumin
Cooked noodles (excluding seasoning packet)

Preparation

Slice steaks cross grain and marinade in soy sauce for one day. Throw a little oil into a hot wok to avoid sticking. Stir in moose for about 1 minute.
Add other ingredients, including seasoning, stirring frequently. Add additional soy sauce to coat all ingredients.
Stir in noodles and serve immediately.

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Posted by Wawang Lake on July 29, 2015 in moose, recipe, Wawang Lake Resort

Tags: Moose, moose hunting, moose hunts, moose recipe, recipe, Wawang Lake, Wawang Lake Resort, WMU 15A, WMU 15B

Grouse Kebobs

20 Jul

Cubes of ruffed grouse breast skewered along with grape tomatoes, mushrooms and onion make for wonderful kebabs. No ruffies? You can also use other grouse, as well as duck, goose or wild turkey breast meat.

Serves: 4

Ingredients

4 ruffed grouse breasts (skinless, boneless)
3 sprigs fresh thyme
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup white wine
Salt and black pepper to taste
1 red onion, cut into ¾-inch cubes
16 grape tomatoes, whole
16 brown mushrooms, whole
Canola oil

Preparation

Cut grouse breasts into ¾-inch cubes and place in a zip-lock bag with thyme, olive oil, wine, salt and pepper. Marinate in refrigerator for 30 minutes.
Remove grouse from bag and thread onto skewers, alternating with onion cubes, tomatoes and mushrooms. Brush kebabs with canola oil and grill until grouse is cooked through.
Serve with fragrant basmati rice and carrot rounds.
Tip: If you use wooden skewers, first soak them in water for 15 minutes to help prevent them from splintering or burning. Whether you use stainless steel or wooden skewers, coat them in cooking oil before threading on the grouse and vegetables so the food will easily slide off after grilling. Also coat the grill with cooking oil so the kebabs don’t stick.
For the glass: For this tasty light meal, fill your glass with a full-bodied beer or a heavy Chardonnay.

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Posted by Wawang Lake on July 20, 2015 in grouse, recipe, Wawang Lake Resort

Tags: grouse hunting, grouse recipe, Ruffed Grouse, Wawang Lake, Wawang Lake Resort, WMU 15A, WMU 15B

Wild Mushrooms

17 Jul

The main edible find in our region is lobster mushrooms, Hypomyces lactifluorum, in some pretty good quantities. On any hunt, it’s good to bring home dinner, but one doesn’t typically expect to bring home a bundle of lobsters too late into the fall.

Typically, by the end of August and into September the brush is filled with mushrooms, edible and not. Unlike spring hunting, fall hunting in and around our area is more mushroom identifying than actually trying to find mushrooms growing. But some year the lobsters can account for a major harvest.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

So on your next trip out into our region whether you’re fishing or grouse hunting be sure to hike the old logging roads in search of these very delicious mushrooms. Stay tuned for a great recipe that easy to prepare.

WEBSITE RATES FISH HUNT CABINS PHOTOS
TESTIMONIALS BROCHURE HUNT BOOKLET

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Posted by Wawang Lake on July 17, 2015 in northern ontario, ontario, recipe, Wawang Lake Resort

Tags: canada, lobster mushrooms, mushroom hunting, mushrooms, ontario, Wawang Lake, Wawang Lake Resort

An illustrated guide to the best game meat cuts

04 Jul

There are plenty of hunters out in the field bringing home dinner and we figured we would share some great guides on the best cuts and how to get them from your harvest! Click on each picture to enlarge for greater detail 🙂

This diagram is the basic overview of the quarters and can be applied to deer, moose, elk and caribou.

This second diagram is a more in depth cut selection and is coded for the sections as well. Again, this can be applied to deer, moose, elk and caribou.

Ensure before you properly care for your game in all stages of meat preparation to give not only longevity to the meat, but reduce the risk of cross contamination of any bacteria that could not only spoil the meat but could also make you very sick.

Happy hunting!

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1 Comment

Posted by Wawang Lake on July 4, 2015 in game, recipe, Wawang Lake Resort

Tags: big game, burger, butcher, cuts, deer, diagram, diy, elk, Meat, Moose, steak, Wawang Lake, Wawang Lake Resort, WMU 15A, WMU 15B, Woodland Caribou

BBQ Moose Roast

24 Jun

How to Barbeque a Moose Roast

Have you ever wanted to barbeque a moose roast and still have it be tender? We have, and recently cooked a moose round roast on the barbeque that was so tender once we carved it, it was possible to cut it with your fork.

How did we do it? Let me tell you about it.

I started out with a moose round roast; I know this is not the best cut to be barbequing. So I knew it would require moist heat if it were to be palatable.

I remembered a friend of mine telling me how he had cooked ribs on his barbeque and had great results. I wondered if I could achieve the same?

mooseroast1

I wanted to give it a try.

The Process

The process is quite simple really, and you could likely apply this to any meat that is tough.

Cook it with moisture over a long period of time.

How much time… I cooked our roast for almost 9 hours.

Ingredients:

Moose round roast 3 pounds
1 large onion
5 cloves garlic (elephant)
1 1/2 cups of barbeque sauce

Directions: Barbeque a Moose Roast

Thaw the moose roast in your refrigerator

Coarse chop the onion

Peel and slice half of the garlic and mince the balance

Start with a 8 inch by 8 inch roasting pan and place the moose round roast that you plan to barbeque onto a thin layer of the chopped onions.

Place the rest of the onions around the roast evenly.

What I did next was to sprinkle the onions with the sliced garlic and rubbed the roast itself with the minced garlic.

I followed this by pouring the barbeque sauce over the roast.

Once this was complete I covered the entire pan with a layer of heavy aluminum foil and took the pan (with the roast in it) outside to my barbeque.

I lit one burner (in my case the right hand one) and set it to low heat. I then placed the covered pan containing the moose roast I wished to barbeque on the left hand side well away from the heating element.

I then closed the lid.

I have a thermometer on the outside lid of my barbeque I maintained a constant temperature of about 200 degrees Fahrenheit for 9 hours, until the internal temperature reached a minimum of 140 degrees; or your required doneness.

At the end of the cooking time the barbequed moose roast was cooked to perfection.

We served the moose roast with baby potatoes, carrots, chopped onions and mushrooms. All of which were cooked on the barbeque while the roast was cooking. All the veggies were wrapped in foil; salt, pepper and butter were added and placed directly over the burner that was set on low temperature. About 1 1/4 hours.

We made gravy from the juice from the meat pan as well we added the onions from the meat pan to our veggie dish.

Also we had grape tomatoes with feta cheese dressed with Balsamic Vinegar Reduction…

The barbequed moose roast, the entire dish… well…

Delicious

Now I can say we learned how to barbeque a moose roast… and have it tender too!

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Posted by Wawang Lake on June 24, 2015 in moose, recipe, Wawang Lake Resort

Tags: Moose, recipe, roast, tender, Wawang Lake, Wawang Lake Resort, WMU 15A, WMU 15B

Wild Mushrooms

03 Jun

The main edible find in our region is lobster mushrooms, Hypomyces lactifluorum, in some pretty good quantities. On any hunt, it’s good to bring home dinner, but one doesn’t typically expect to bring home a bundle of lobsters too late into the fall.

Typically, by the end of August and into September the brush is filled with mushrooms, edible and not. Unlike spring hunting, fall hunting in and around our area is more mushroom identifying than actually trying to find mushrooms growing. But some year the lobsters can account for a major harvest.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

So on your next trip out into our region whether you’re fishing or grouse hunting be sure to hike the old logging roads in search of these very delicious mushrooms. Stay tuned for a great recipe that easy to prepare.

WEBSITE RATES FISH HUNT CABINS PHOTOS
TESTIMONIALS BROCHURE HUNT BOOKLET

Subscribe to Blog via Email

← Back

Thank you for your response. ✨

Leave a comment

Posted by Wawang Lake on June 3, 2015 in northern ontario, ontario, recipe, Wawang Lake Resort

Tags: canada, lobster mushrooms, mushroom hunting, mushrooms, ontario, Wawang Lake, Wawang Lake Resort

Grinding Wild Game with Meatloaf Recipe

24 May

For foodies, especially those smart enough to eat within their means, there is no better everyday meat than wild-game burger, whether it is from elk, antelope, moose, or most likely, whitetail deer. No meat sold at the farmer’s market is more local, humanely raised, drug free, and genetically unmodified than that from a wild animal cleanly killed by the hunter. And if you process it yourself, you know exactly what you’re getting. No mystery meat or pink slime scares when it’s done D.I.Y. If you do decide to do the grinding at home, there are a few things to note when processing wild game into ground meat. Here are few tips to get the best from your burger.

1. Buy The Best Grinder You Can Afford—and Keep it Sharp
An underpowered grinder, or one with a dull knife, won’t grind meat cleanly. If the meat coming from the grinder plate looks like it’s been extruded rather than cut, make sure the back of the plate is free from sinew and the retaining ring is on tight.

2. You Get Out What You Put In
Who knows what ground meat from the grocer contains. When you do it yourself, you control the final product. Make sure you clean your meat well and trim with a judicious, yet keen, hand. Trim sinew, yellow fat, silverskin, and all bloodshot meat before it goes into the grinder.

3. Keep Things Cold
You’ll get a much better grind with less smear if your meat, and the grinder, is cold. Put cubed meat in the freezer for at least 30 minutes until it’s firm, but not hard, to the touch. Also, throw the grinder neck, auger, blades, and plate in there as well.

4. Don’t Forget Fat
Beef has fat built right in, but wild game burger needs a boost. You can use several things to up the fat content (and flavor) depending on what the final product is going to be. Bacon trimmings (sold in boxed form often called Ends and Pieces) add a distinctive flavor to burgers and meat loaf. Beef tallow and pork butt are both available from good butchers and make great fat additives. You can control the ratio of meat to fat, but I like somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 to 15 percent. Experiment until you find what’s right for you.

5. Or, Cut The Fat
Some folks want to cut the fat altogether and that’s fine, too. Just realize that a 100-percent wild-game burger can be very dry and will fall apart when cooked. To avoid crumbly burger, consider adding some type of moisture as you form your patties (same goes for meatloaf). This can be anything from eggs to bread crumbs soaked in milk. Last summer, Wild Chef readers turned in a bunch of great ideas for better burgers.

Meat Loaf

Ingredients
– 1 lb. ground meat
– 8 oz. can tomato sauce
– 1 egg, beaten
– 16 to 20 Saltine cracker crumbs
– 1/2 cup of dry oatmeal
– 1/2 onion, chopped
– ¼ cup ketchup

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, mix ground meat with tomato sauce and beaten egg.

2. Crush the Saltines in a gallon-sized zip-top bag and mix in the dry oatmeal and chopped onion.

3. Add the dry ingredients to the meat-egg mixture and, using your hands, blend thoroughly.

4. Form meat mixture into a loaf pan. Liberally cover top with ketchup. Bake for 45 min to 1 hour.

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Posted by Wawang Lake on May 24, 2015 in Bear, cooking, moose, recipe, Wawang Lake Resort

Tags: black bear hunting, Cook, grind meat, meatloaf, Moose, recipe, Wawang Lake Resort, wildgame meatloaf, WMU 15A, WMU 15B

All That Remains: How to Make Game Stock | Field & Stream

22 May

One thing you can do to amp your kitchen credibility quickly is learning to make stock—a flavorful cooking liquid that forms the base of many soups, sauces, and other recipes. Making homemade stock from venison bones or bird carcasses not only give your favorite dishes, such as the duck pho in the photo, a flavor boost, but you’ll be get every last scrap of use from your bird or game animal.

The stock making process starts with a scrap bag—a gallon-size Ziploc kept in the freezer that collects the trimmings from onions, carrots, celery and other vegetables. (Of course, you can also make stock with fresh ingredients, but this method is kind of like saving your pennies for a rainy day.) A simple stock can be made by adding the ingredients of the scrap bag into a pot with the leftover carcass from a pheasant, grouse, duck, or goose, deer leg bones or other game scraps, covering everything with water and letting it simmer for a short period of time, say 30 minutes to an hour. However, with just a couple more steps and a bit more time (mostly unattended), you can achieve a richer, fuller flavor by roasting the scraps before soaking them.

Here’s a recipe for pheasant stock, but you could easily substitute the pheasant carcass for just about any game bird or whole or cut leg bones from deer, elk, moose, and other venison.

Stock Recipe

Ingredients
– Pheasant carcass or assorted pheasant bones (NOTE: You can use any game bird)
– 1 cup each of celery, carrot, and onion scraps
– Assorted herbs, including thyme, parsley, and rosemary
– 1 bay leaf
– 12 cups water (or enough to cover pheasant)

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Place the pheasant bones and vegetables in Dutch oven or heavy, ovenproof stock pot. Place the uncovered pot in the oven and roast for 30 minutes, or until ingredients are browned.

2. Move the pot to the stovetop set the heat to medium-high and add a few cups of water, scraping the bottom of the pan to loosen any browned bits. Cover the pheasant and vegetables with the remaining water, add the herbs and the bay leaf and raise the heat.

3. When the water just starts to boil, remove any scum that has risen to the top. Lower the heat and cover the pot. Simmer slowly for at least 1 hour; two is even better.

4. After a few hours, remove the pot from the heat and let it cool slightly. Remove the bones and vegetables with a slotted spoon and discard. Pour the stock through a cheesecloth-lined strainer or other fine sieve.

You can let the stock sit overnight in the fridge and skim any hardened fat from it the next day, though, with lean birds like pheasants, this generally isn’t necessary.

Stock can be stored for up to a week in the refrigerator or several months, covered, in the freezer.

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Posted by Wawang Lake on May 22, 2015 in cooking, grouse, preparation, recipe, Wawang Lake Resort

Tags: diy, Food, grouse, grouse hunting, grouse recipe, Ruffed Grouse, soup stock, Wawang Lake, Wawang Lake Resort, WMU 15A, WMU 15B

Canning Wild Game

13 May

Meat, poultry, and game are low acid foods and must be canned or processed in a pressure canner to assure it is safe to eat.

1. Canning frees up freezer space for other things.
2. Pressure canning can make the less tender cuts versatile.
3. Home canning meat means jars of meat on the shelf ready to go at a moment’s notice. No defrosting time. Ever tried to defrost an elk roast quickly in the microwave because you forgot to take it out earlier? Doesn’t work so well. (Ask me how I know!)
4. The best benefit? My guys love it. We are an active hunting family with 4 sons. Much of our meat is provided by the men of hunting age in our family.

Meat, poultry, and game are low acid foods and must be canned or processed in a pressure canner to assure it is safe to eat.

11 pounds pressure with a dial gauge pressure canner
15 pounds pressure with a weighted gauge pressure canner for required times.
Choose only good meat for canning, and handle it quickly and with total cleanliness, because bacteria grow rapidly in meat held at room temperature. If you have a large amount, store the part you’re not working on in the refrigerator.

You can:
Start with properly cleaned and chilled product.
Can fresh meat and poultry within 2 days or freeze it.
To can frozen products, thaw in the refrigerator until most ice crystals have disappeared, then handle as if they were fresh.
Trim gristle and fat off meat before canning. Fat left on meat melts and climbs on the sides of the jar during processing and may interfere with the sealing of the lid.
Salt is optional in canned meat and poultry.
Fish should be canned immediately or frozen until processed.
For large game animals (deer), follow beef processing times and methods.
For small game animals and birds, follow poultry processing times and methods.