Missouri wild foods overlooked bounty

When my wife Donna, prepared her family's Thanksgiving dinner, she didn't have to do much grocery shopping.

Most of the food that was put on the table was collected in the wild.

As on past holidays made persimmon bread, wild plum pudding, wild grape wine and hickory nut pie -- all as a result of her fall outings as well as her famous venison stew in a pumpkin shell. But, its the main course of the meal -- a wild turkey she shot that inspired the most pride.

"I think it adds something when you can collect most of the food for the meal from the outdoors," Donna said. "Its more like a traditional Thanksgiving."

For her, the holiday dinner is the end result of an ideal turkey hunt. It started early in the morning hours when she and her husband slipped into a patch of woods the birds had been using. Not long after a decoy had been set in place a soft call resulted in a flock of turkeys coming into view.

"We could hear them talking as they got closer," Donna said. "Then we saw their heads bobbing through the brush. There were at least 15 birds in the flock and they headed straight for the decoy. They didn't pay any attention to us."

With the turkeys just 20 yards away, both hunters picked out a target and fired. Seconds later two birds lay on the ground, bringing the hunt into a successful end.

"It was so exciting ... my heart was pounding," Donna said. "The fact that we both were able to get a bird made it special." But it wasn't the first time the couple had experienced getting their fall birds. Last year she took her bird in each week of the season.

"The thing I like about fall hunting is that the birds are in flocks an I can hunt with Ken," she said. "It's not like the spring when you are trying to call in a big gobbler."

Donna has taken many birds in the spring including a 25 pounder on her first hunt.

"Its fun because you almost become part of the woods. Last year I had a deer come within a few feet of me while I sat there in my camouflage and he stomped his feet, trying to get me to move." Not only are the foods from the wild, many of the decorations at Thanksgiving reflect a bountiful harvest.

Donna gets wild grape vines and uses them to make outdoor theme wreaths as well as items like bittersweet to decorate the house.

Already this year the Whites have harvested black raspberries, blackberries, wild grapes and plums, black walnuts, hickory nuts, pecans and hazlenuts, elderberries and persimmons to name a few.

The Whites also dry or freeze morel mushrooms and their supply of wild game nearly fills a freezer. Game like rabbits, squirrel, quail, pheasant, deer, turkey and even lots of waterfowl including snipe. Using items like persimmons, a variety of nuts for cookies and all kinds of berries for jam and jellies bring back memories of their outings while enjoying them on cold winter days and nights.

Missouri has a lot of overlooked bounty for those who take the time to enjoy the outdoors to the fullest.