2011 – Page 7 – Sporting Road

The Blackberry Farm Cookbook (book review 5/5*****)

Sam Beall, 2009 Clarkson Potter One reviewer said, "Farm-to-table is one of those irritating culinary trends that is hard to really stay irritated by. Fundamentally, it's just so darn right: we should be eating seasonally and locally, we should be supporting sustainable agriculture and the preservation of heirloom vegetables. The most delicious food is the stuff that's been harvested (butchered, cultivated, fished) as close as possible to the kitchen that's cooking it." I find this review troubling. Why is the idea of farm to table irritating to anyone? It makes sense. I believe, it makes sense to everyone, even vegans. This book is separated into seasons, the seasons of our life--the seasons of our food. It is about food from Knoxville, Tennessee, a bit dressed up, as the author is the son of the Ruby Tuesday's restaurant founder. Not exactly what you would call a hunter-gatherer tradition, but one he seems to now claim. Anyway, the recipes are separated into seasons, starting with summer's Blackberry Cobbler and a diatribe on smoking at the Barbie. But the first one I found interesting was infusing peaches into his BBQ sauce or blackberries. And I like the southern sweet tea infused with various things from raspberries to blue berries to strawberries, all set to cure in canning jars with the old French lids. First a discussion on smoke, which is "almost a sacrament below the Mason-Dixon Line." Cherokee fires in a pit banked by river rock topped with large joint meat and buried, to wood-fired clay ovens, brick ovens, fireplaces and smokehouses. From pig cookers welded by locals to kettle grills, the Kamado ( a clay and ceramic style tandoori cooker), to wood cookers and it goes on. And the explanation of the two kinds of Tennessee fried chicken. The Kreis's Tennessee Fire Fried Chicken is worth repeating,

By Sporting Road|July 2nd, 2011|Categories: Book Reviews, Fur and Feather, Wingshooting|Comments Off

Peace Maker American Bourbon

Peace Maker American Whiskey (it's really Bourbon, so don't let the name fool you into thinking it's just for cowboys). This stuff competes with Maker's Mark. Pour it into a glass of ice and enjoy. No burn, no bad taste, and it's half the price. Dress it up for the Kentucky Derby in a julep, or just pass it around as a shot at the shoot. It makes a great stirrup cup at the fox hunt. Devised and distributed by local kids here in Colorado, but made in Kentucky, where all Bourbon should be born.

By Sporting Road|June 15th, 2011|Categories: Uncategorized|Comments Off

Purdey versus Holland & Holland Side by Side Shotguns

Both catalogues arrived this week, one from Purdey and the other from Holland & Holland. Tell me how bad the economy really is, when you look at the price of London Best guns each year skyrocketing. The matched set of the Purdey Side By Side Game Guns going for just £129,000, just $211,126 at the time of writing. And the matched set of the Holland & Holland 'Royal" Side by Side Shotguns at £122,500, just $200,557. The photography and stories are exquisite. These are simply the Best London side by side shotguns. Of particular interest is the 150th anniversary of The Field Magazine, shotgun with is a side-by-side, round actioned 12-bore embellished with bespoke engraving with flushed pheasants on one side, a fox and hounds on the other, and a stage at the base with a salmon caught in action leaping across the trigger guard. How about a pair of those? Purdey produces 70 bespoke guns and rifles a year. It takes between 18-24 months to complete a Purdey. And the good news is that while the price has increased by 50% in the last 15 years, the dollar has risen against the pound by about the same, so the net affect is not too much greater for us Yanks, if you are looking for a matched pair of the finest side-by-sides. Or you can go the more country Squier method with a Greener or Churchill but for now I’ll stick with the Garbis. The Old Man said that if you just confined life to preparation you’d never really be disappointed when the actuality arrived.

By Sporting Road|June 14th, 2011|Categories: Wingshooting|Comments Off

At the Grave of the Unknown Fisherman (book review 5/5*****)

John Gierach, Simon & Schuster, NY 2003 This book is classic Gierach and good reading. It features his BFF, Mike Clark, who is a self-taught bamboo rod maker, now living in Lyons, Colorado, near Gierach, who meets Walt Carpenter, who worked for two of the greats in bamboo, Leonard and Payne, and then built his own rods using the old F.E. Thomas Milling machine. He mentions his favorite light bamboo rods: a 7’9” Legacy by John Bradford, a 7’9” by Mike Clark, and an old 7 ½-foot F.E. Thomas Special, circa 1940—all two-piece 5 weights, which is not what I would consider light, but he is a dyed in wool dry fly fisher with larger favorite flies than mine. And there are stories about his other buddy, A.K. Best, who talks about his mentoring under Koke Winter. And an old guy, who said to Gierach, “Boy, I’ve forgotten more about fishing than you’ll ever know.” Or the retort that “Fly-fishing can be upscale and exotic if you want it to be and can afford that, but at base it’s homegrown, backyard stuff: something people used to do when the chores were done; a way of goofing off that was barely justified by a couple of fresh fish for supper.” There is more than great characters and quotes, such as discussion of Muriel Foster’s Fishing Diary and videos on fly fishing which “seems a little like movie sex: fun to watch, but a long way from the real thing” wand which can amount to “information without proper instruction.” I like the comment of the fly shop customer who asks how long to get really good at this and Gierach responds, “Ten years, if you fish three or four times

By Sporting Road|June 14th, 2011|Categories: Book Reviews, Fishing|Comments Off

Ultraweight Rods Remain My Childhood Fantasies

My childhood fantasies still haunt me. Nearly every day in the winter, we would walk down to the neighborhood pond and play hockey until we were called in for dinner or until darkness made it no longer able for us to play. We do the same thing now with polo. And, in the summer, we fished the same pond from dawn to dusk for bass. And, I still do now with fly rods for trout, as much as possible with work and other hobbies, so sometimes I am left with fantasizing about them all. In my childhood, my buddy and I fished, nearly exclusively, with the Diawa Minicast rod and reel. And, now, I do the same with light weight fly rods, from 0-weight to 3-weight rods for trout. Sure we had other fishing rods, and do now as well, but these were our favorites, and still are. The fish felt bigger and we lost fewer of them. The Diawa Minicast it advertised that, "you’ll always have a high-quality ultralight set-up that's ready to catch fish wherever you are... which matches an ultralight reel featuring an aluminum alloy body and nose cone, smooth disc drag and easy push button ... with compartments which fit inside your suitcase or under car seat." I guess I still haven’t grown up, as I still fancy ultralight rods and flies. In 1982, Howard Steere designed the Orvis Superfine 2-weight, then the Orvis Superfine 1-weight, which truly transported fly fishing into the world of ultralight. Shortly thereafter, Jerry Siem moved from Winston to Sage evolved ultralight fishing by designing the first of three revolutionary families of truly unrivaled ultralight fly rods. First was the Sage TXL 0-weight. This was followed in of 1997, with the whole family of Sage SPL ultralights, which were revolutionizing in featuring the latest newest materials

By Sporting Road|June 10th, 2011|Categories: Fishing|Comments Off

Pocket and Pasture

Our foxhunters are out to pasture, while our polo ponies are now in work. And our daughter's pony, Pocket, is fat and happy in his green pasture, despite being asked to take a little work this summer.

By Sporting Road|June 7th, 2011|Categories: Foxhunting|Comments Off

Spring Lamb

Now is the time of year for spring lamb. Nick de Toldi, our friend in France, recently discussed with us one of the dishes cookable with the terrine de Soufflenheim, but there this "best seller" of the bourgeois dinner parties named "Le gigot de 7 heures." It is an old recipe that lived a sort of revival in the late 1980's. In Nick's opinion it was re-launched by a clever guy who purchased the original Auberge Ravoux in Auvers sur Oise (where Van Gogh died) and who wanted to serve only "vintage" cuisine. The guy was Dutch and very cleverly explored some old cook books and was serving a shortlist of very original and talented good things at very fair price. The mistake to avoid for this dish is to use a too expensive lamb. In France for a leg of lamb you have 3 levels of price: 1/ Prime French young lamb, for which the leg costs around 60 euros. 2./ Imported from Ireland or Scotland probably at 30 euros for the same sized leg. 3/ Imported frozen from Australia or New Zealand dropping at 12 euros for the same size leg. The most expensive is only for light cooking serving the meat "rosé". The UK ones can go either long or shot cooking and the NZ ones are very good for all sorts of heavily cooked or spiced tajines, couscous, curry, Daubes d'Avignon, gigot de 7 heures, etc... (and even for the French Asado, usually cooked somewhere along the sporting road). As for lamb stateside, try to find a small local producer. We have one here, selling ones which are every bit as good as the French ones. As for imported ones, Costco provides a nice de-boned leg of lamb which is perfect for the French Asado or gigot de 7 heures.

By Sporting Road|June 6th, 2011|Categories: Cuisine|Comments Off

Don’t Jump Ahead of the Horse!

This the time of year when we begin to get our field hunters into some show jumping and cross-country schooling. The Chronicle of the Horse just arrived in my mailbox and had this great story on "Don't Jump Ahead of the Horse" and is about J. Michael Plumb. I have to say it is the type of form I am striving for in foxhunting and show jumping. J. Michael Plumb was the first equestrian in the US Olympic Hall of Fame. This brief video is worth watching, and watch his leg position, which never slips the fraction of an inch. http://ahref=

By Sporting Road|May 30th, 2011|Categories: Foxhunting|Comments Off

The Fishing Lady on the Sporting Road

We went fishing this holiday weekend at one of favorite spots which shall remain undisclosed and we met "The Fishing Lady," the self-dubbed moniker of a semi-retired teacher from Miami who escapes life for the summer living out of a camper trailer, fishing the Western states. She's found the Sporting Road in her later years in life, as remembrances of her childhood vacations out West,. She was keen to giver her Size 26 Adams a rest and learn Rim Chung's nymphing technique since meeting Rim and his disciples. She just may have had a conversion from all that is Catholic to the Zen way of fly fishing. Time will tell if she enjoys it as much as she claimed, as this is a non-proselytizing religion and a nymphing method that takes the better part of a lifetime to truly perfect. Tight lines, Marcia.

By Sporting Road|May 30th, 2011|Categories: Fishing|Comments Off

The World of Polo (book review, 1/5 *)

The World of Polo, Past & Present by J.N.P. Watson, Salem House Publishers, 1992 This book is the pictorial history of Polo, but it ends in 1992, so few of the current players are featured. Most of the photographs are dated and it's really more of "who's who" of has-beens in polo. Not that this is bad idea, it's just it reads more like the society page than it does a real history of places, players, or ponies.

By Sporting Road|May 30th, 2011|Categories: Book Reviews, polo|Comments Off

Yearly Archives: 2011