Texas Style Deer Jerky

The Regular Rifle season opens for most Texans this Saturday. Some have already taken a deer during the Texas archery season and a few more were harvested by the Texas youth hunters this last weekend in the Texas special youth season. At the start of every deer season I get emails asking how to make things like deer jerky, venison sausage and other recipes for deer meat.

Everyone must like jerky and many want to know how to make their own. This has been my go to recipe for years and it sure doesn't last long around my house. Most of my hunting buddys and family now make it this way so it must be pretty good. If I take a bag of it along to deer camp or on a fishing trip it seems to disappear almost like magic. You can change it by adding other flavors and or spices. Many add soy sauce or red pepper for heat. Some even add barbecue sauce to the brine. You can come up with your own special flavor.

Here is the basic no fail way I make it.

Cut lean strips of venison, beef, chicken or turkey. The pieces should be at least ¾ inch thick or more and as large as you want them. Trim off all fat as it will turn rancid as the meat dries. Fill a large mixing bowl with water and stir in 1/2 cup of Brown Sugar and 1/2 cup Kosher non iodized salt. Stir in 1 Teaspoon of Garlic powder,½ Teaspoon of Allspice 1/8 Teaspoon of ground Cloves. Add meat and soak in the brine for 8-24 hours in a refrigerator. The longer it is in the brine the more salt it will absorb. Remove meat from brine and rinse very well in cold water. Roll or shake on coarse ground black pepper to taste. Do not use table ground black pepper or it will have too strong a pepper taste. Remember coarse ground pepper adds flavor, fine ground adds heat. Arrange meat on a smoker and slow smoke with your favorite wood keeping the heat under 170 degrees until fully smoked. I smoke mine overnight. I use very dry oak or seasoned mesquite with no green left in the wood. If you do not have a smoker you can do this in your oven, just add liquid smoke to the original brine and dry on your ovens lowest setting or warm setting. Place a wood spoon in the oven door so moisture can escape and dry meat to the texture and hardness desired. You can then place jerky in a bowl in the refrigerator for up to a week to finish dehydrating. It never lasts that long at my place. Place any extra in a bag in the freezer and take out about 2 hours before you intend to eat it. It is worth it to take the time to slow smoke the jerky as the wood smoke flavor enhanced meat can never be matched by that made in an oven. Enjoy, Wild Ed

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The Texas Orange Throat Darter

I recently set up a freshwater aquarium at the house so the grand kids and I could stock it with native Texas fish from the lakes, rivers, creeks and streams that we visit here in Central Texas. I thought it would be a good teaching method for the grand kids. It has however, become an educational obsession for me instead. I have acquired two books which I highly recommend to anyone that fishes in Texas or wants to learn about the many species of fish that occupy the waters of this State. The first is a pocket guide titled “Freshwater Fish of Texas Field Guide”; the second is a book titled “Freshwater Fishes of Texas”. The field guide I carry in my pocket and the other I use as my desk reference. You may purchase either at the following links.



Through my fish sampling of a few local creeks and rivers I have found fish I did not even know existed in this area. I am now on a quest to collect some special little fish for my aquarium known as the Orange Throat Darter. It is a very small fish that lives in mostly clear, fast-flowing creeks and streams in the Central Texas Hill Country primarily in the Edwards Plateau. Texas biologists claim that Texas populations are stable and they are not a protected species. I can not imagine any tropical fish you could buy for an aquarium being any more beautiful than this little native fish. It frequents shallow gravel bottoms in riffles and fast water. A colorful fish all year the breeding males literally bloom into color in the spring time. The female has a dull olive color with patches of orange and blue, while the male darter has metallic blue and green bars on the sides of its body with fins that are bright blue green in color with red orange hues throughout. The color may vary in the different drainages and watersheds the little fish calls home.

It is a very small fish in the 3.5 inch and smaller range. I hope to find a few before spring time so I can have them for my grand kids to study when the colors are the most vivid. Maybe I can catch a few Texas Cichlids and some grass shrimp at the same time, or maybe some freshwater prawns and some mussels or maybe…

If you see an old grey bald fat guy throwing a cast net or pulling a seine in the middle of a creek around Central Texas you will know who it is. Have a great second childhood, Wild Ed

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Texas Special Youth Deer Season Opens

This Saturday and Sunday, October 30-31, is the Texas Special Youth rifle season that kicks off the 2010-2011 rifle season for deer here in Texas. I have a problem with parents that have to have a special season in order for them to take their kids hunting. My kids and others in my family were always included in the season whenever they wanted to go hunting. That being said if you have a child that has an interest in hunting you should have them out there this weekend. Make sure you have given them good safety training and a chance to practice with the rifle they will be shooting. Remember that many counties in Texas have Antler restrictions that you will be responsible for knowing and making sure your children abide by those restrictions. Keep it safe, but above all, make sure your kids have fun. After all that is why we are there in the first place, Wild Ed

Respite in the New Mexico High Country

I recently spent a few days at the Montaraz Ranch near Capitan, New Mexico. I was taken in by the beauty of the country and wildlife. The views and vistas of the Capitan Mountains and the other surrounding high country have a way of restoring the soul of a person that lives in the city yet longs for the country lifestyle. The ranch is privately owned so I won't go in to all of the details but my stay bordered on spiritual renewal.

I spent time alone in the high country each day, most of my time was spent observing all of the birds and many mule deer I shared my mornings and evenings with. One of my best moments was a stare off with a mule deer doe from just feet away. She had come down to water at a small watering hole hidden in a draw surrounded by tall pine trees. I was in full camo, but she had me pegged as something out of place so I could not move. I sat in one position so long that my rear end went to sleep and I thought I would just fall over. Finally, satisfied that I was just a weird bush she finished drinking and walked on down the trail. While sitting at the water hole I had all manner of birds land in the tree I was sitting under and go on with their lives unaware that I was spying on them. I was intrigued with the tiny mountain chickadees. The minuscule birds are very entertaining to watch as they flit from limb to limb.

I did some reading each night on the original peoples of the area and even found a pottery shard from some of the very first Indians to settle the region. I also took some pictures of the ruins from the later white settler's structures and equipment. The pictures do not do the old buildings justice but I hope you enjoy them anyway. It is so hard to imagine how difficult the struggles of daily life and survival must have been for those early residents of the area. Looking out over the landscape you can almost see the early Indian villages and the later settlers structures. It was very easy to get lost in your imagination. You just had to be there to feel what it was like. Wild Ed

Brad's Burgers Lampasas Texas A #1 By Me

Yesterday my wife and I were up at the family place in Lampasas to fill the deer feeders and check on the oats in the food plots. We have had no rain since planting and only a few oats have sprouted due to the moisture in the ground. We worked up a pretty good appetite and decided to eat in Lampasas on the way back home. We usually grab a bite at a fairly famous burger joint or a chain chicken place there in town. My Uncle Bob had told me the next time I ate in Lampasas to stop at this place many of the locals go called Brad's Burgers. It was easy to find just a half block off of the west side of 183 across from Sonic's side parking lot. At first sight Brad's is a hole in the wall drive through Burger Joint where you order from your vehicle and one of the guys brings your food out to the truck. There is a place to sit outside but it is not much of one. You may prefer to go to the park or eat in the vehicle. That aside the Cheese Burger was one of the best I have had in quite a while. The French Fries were the frozen crinkle type but served golden brown, hot and salty, they were done to perfection. My wife commented several times on how good her food was compared to what we usually got at the other place. The prices were reasonable and the servings more than adequate. I have since been told that next time I need to try Brad's Onion Rings and Chicken Fried Steak Dinner, I can assure you I will soon. Just thought if you are going through that part of the country you might like to try them out. Wild Ed

The NRA Just Doesn't Get It

I have been a member of the NRA for about forty years. In the last few years I have been getting irritated by the constant duns for money in the mail and from phone calls on behalf of the NRA. I did not renew my membership after there was talk of the NRA endorsing Harry Reid. I thought I would wait and see how that worked out before I renewed. I now know I will no longer support the NRA with my membership due to the swing to support left wing politicians with the endorsement of 58 Democratic candidates. I do not take this lightly and think that all gun owners should think about the support the NRA has given to the left by endorsing these 58 Democrats for election. Most of these are incumbents and are seeking re-election, some are career politicians. It is not like there are not conservative, pro-gun candidates running against them in the race. Does the leadership of the NRA not understand that if the liberal left shreds the Constitution and the Bill of Rights there will be no second amendment to fight for anymore? Can they not see that if all 58 of the Democratic candidates endorsed by the NRA are elected the left will still be in control of Congress and Pelosi will still be Speaker of the House? Do you really believe that all 58 of these Democrats will stand up for your gun owner rights when their colleagues start the next round of gun control and vote against gun rights and for new firearm regulations? Most of these Democratic candidates consider themselves Blue Dogs yet they have voted right along with Pelosi on most issues. If you feel that this country is on the right track then keep your membership and go along with the flow. I for one, along with other shooters and sportsmen that I have heard from, will be supporting some other organizations besides the NRA until there is a big turn-around in the thought process going on in the current leadership. Think about it and make up your own mind, Wild Ed

Freshwater Fish of Texas Field Guide Review

My wife and I ,or mostly me, have become interested in keeping native fish in an aquarium. She is great about supporting my wild ideas about all the stuff I bring home. I felt like it would be a great way to get the grand kids interested in learning the different species of native Texas fish. I ordered a little field guide that has impressed me with the pictures and how well they actually show the fish. We have been able to identify every fish we have caught in our nets with this little book. Many of the minnows, chubs and shiners are hard to identify but this little guide shows the differences well. It has a lot of information on each species and where they are found along with great color illustrations of each fish and sometimes both sexes if they are colored differently. The pages are coated with some kind of waterproof substance that performed very well on the creek this last weekend. As no one gives me books to recommend I only recommend what I buy and like. This is one of those you should have. Have a great time on the water, Wild Ed

Sampling Brushy Creek for Native Aquarium Fish

My wife and I made a trip to our local creek today to gather rock and gravel to re-create the Brushy Creek bottom landscape in a 55 gallon aquarium. I took the cast net along to see what native fish I could find after the recent flooding. In about 30 minutes we cast netted several different species and return them to the water as this was just a trip to see what was available. We found Largemouth and Guadalupe bass, channel catfish, Creek Chubs, Blacktail Shiners, Threadfin Shad and multiple species of Sunfish. We soon had a following of kids as we threw the cast net and returned the catch to the water. As soon as the Aquarium is cycled and ready for fish we will be going to look for those special looking fish to bring home. Get out and enjoy the outdoors in the beautiful Texas fall weather and take some kids with you, Wild Ed