Well, “Harvester Noms” doesn’t really trip off the tongue, does it?
Years ago it became fashionable for the outdoor press to use the word “harvest” when referring to hunting. Like many, I seized on it as a better way to describe what hunting is all about.
But something about it didn’t feel right, and I’ve come full circle. Even though the word fits with my focus on the meat, it felt like I was apologizing for something that needs no apology.
Nobody is surprised that each animal in a hunters freezer is, in fact, dead. Nor is it news that they achieved that state by being killed.
If hunting is a “bad thing” maybe hunters should use language carefully crafted to evade the issue, using only the most gentle terms.
But hunting is not a bad thing.
So I’ll leave it to others to pull gauze over the camera lens, cue the Native American flute music and speak of the sadness they feel tagging a freshly killed deer. Unless they are mistaking sadness for reverence, I just don’t know what they are talking about.
Hunting is a joyful act that ties us to the natural world in a way nothing else can. And the music in my head after a good hunt is not flutes — it’s pure Nugent.
So “killer” I am. Wild animals are not agriculture.
But one thing they are is killer noms!