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What's up,
So I get to host Raised in the Woods, a show about the outdoors of the Great Midwest, Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, Illinois, and Iowa.
Some of the most underrated, undervalued outdoor experiences in the entire country happen here.
Ellie Lawton is the cohost of the show.
She is an award-winning acclaimed
French certified French Culinarian, which is fantastic because an important part of the outdoors hunting fishing is bringing that forage to the table, bringing that game to the table.
We help you do that in an interesting and easy way so that you're not afraid to step outside the box and do that.
We've got a phenomenal panel today.
Our star panelist of the show is Patrick Durkin, a life
Long outdoorsman 50 years he's been in the outdoor industry writing about it experiencing it
talking on TV shows.
We're going to get into one of his most fascinating and topical things that Patrick Durkin is a part of meat eater.
Yes, I'm
One of the things we talk about on this show.
We've got Sarah Marinas here.
She's our homesteader.
Of course, Dan Tim is our local archery expert and adventure man.
And Megan, the Somalia pirate is here as well without her lover Dave this week.
So shout out to Dave.
Sorry you weren't here.
We're having a blast without you though.
So, uh, so we'll see you next time.
Uh, I want to go into Wilds of the week because I did something this last week that I absolutely love and I look forward to it every year.
I don't.
know if those of you out there have watched the show or listened to the show or seen the show, no, food is my favorite dish.
And I had an outdoor television show that aired on Channel 12, the ABC station in Milwaukee for 13 years called Kill It, Clean It, Cook It.
I was out there probably before Stephen Ronella.
made a life out of his nationally.
There's sound.
Yes.
And the teleprompter was chiseled into rocks.
Yes.
That was a very fun thing.
But I'll be honest, as the creator of that show and the host of the show, writer of the show, and I had a
fantastic friend Peter Kafka's who he and I did that show together and Jason Hunter from channel 12 the chief videographer at channel 12 we put that show together and when I reminisce about it I think to myself what a cool thing it was to kind of be ahead of the curve of culinary being such a big part
of the outdoors and hunting
and
fishing and how it has really taken off into one of the greatest television shows, in my opinion, ever created Meat Eater.
Patrick Durkin is here from that.
And we're going to hear from him about Meat Eater, what he does for them, how he got hooked up with Stephen Ranella and Meat Eater, how he got to be such a large part of the outdoor industry.
But first, let's do those wilds.
I'm going to say it.
You know, I try to eat low carb and then I fail at that mission a lot because I love food too much, but I made low carb.
Pizza, pudgy pies.
I busted out the pudgy pie irons and made pudgy pies.
I love pudgy pies.
For those of you who don't know what a pudgy pie is, it's two small hand-sized cast irons that hook together with iron rods and you basically put two pieces of bread in it.
fill it with it, whatever you like, sweet or savory, cap them together and throw it in a fire and it makes this handheld crusty pocketed pocket.
It's a
Yeah.
I mean, you guys talked about it on last week's show a little bit, but in the wake of the World Cup, I'm just getting out and kicking the soccer ball around with my son.
I really go back
Did you play soccer?
What did
position?
I was marking back on defense.
So like the, the, the right guy in the backfield.
Sure.
On the right hand side of the field.
Right full back.
Yeah.
Right full back.
Yep.
Yeah.
I played keeper.
Oh, I, I, I wanted to play keeper, but you know it.
14 years old.
We had a guy that was like six four.
So yeah, he was automatically the key was
Yeah.
No, he was great guy.
Shout out Brandon.
Well, you were the
the backup keeper.
There was even a time I went in and made some miraculous saves made my mom nervous.
I was going to be in the position with all the stress, you know, of the, of the, of the goalkeeper.
But yeah, an affinity for keepers coming from the defensive position.
So
Yes.
I loved it.
Well,
out Crusaders,
And Tony Viteri, our starting keeper, was about 6'4", and I came in at 5'10".
Needless to say, I didn't play much and didn't play after that.
Not a bad position to be, though.
However, not much food gets past me.
I'm just a keeper of food.
I'll just say that.
Lacey, Tim, you brought along your lover today, and she's quite an interesting character too.
I wonder why you've been hiding her from us, Dan.
No
get it.
So my, while of the week was we had a date night on Friday at an outdoor wedding.
One of my previous interns got married in Bear Boo.
Oh, beautiful area.
Yeah, that was nice.
Very
Enjoyable.
Each summer, we try to spend at least one week with our grandkids who like to hunter fish.
And so far, we'll have nine grandkids now.
Do
No.
So far, the three boys who are older all love it.
My other grandson's only one, so he's not going yet.
But what I found fascinating is I took two of them, the two eight-year-olds, out on Lake Michigan off of Mantowoc.
I hadn't been out on Lake Michigan in quite a few years, so it's kind of like the shakedown cruise where you try to get...
Back and get
cuz you know as you know when you do
So hopefully that helped but that never taught me how to run run multiple lines But what I found fascinating it was a tough morning They're catching salmon like crazy this summer like Michigan.
Yes that morning.
It was dead calm hot Nothing was happening.
We got three before dawn.
We still didn't didn't do any good But what was most satisfying was when the morning came and went
You really have one strike and one little flash of excitement.
The two boys couldn't wait to get back out in the afternoon.
great.
And that's nice to realize that I think these guys really like to like to fish.
They aren't just along for the ride.
They don't just go along when you're catching fish.
And so that meant a lot to me that I thought.
Because I think hunting and fishing, it does, if it doesn't have some of the element of failure interspersed with
the big moments is not really hunting and fishing then.
It's just so much you can't control.
That's a
Patrick.
Right.
And so like when two eight-year-olds start discovering that and you see evidence of it, that's really satisfying.
Yeah, I'm still not, public speaking for me was something I really had to work at though.
I could tell stories to get in front of a group of people and talk.
It was a long time working at it.
And then so when I see a good speaker and hear a good speaker, the people who can get up there and off the cuff and tell a good story,
I find I should have realized I can do that off the cuff if I have a story.
That's something to talk about.
God knows you have stories.
Yeah.
And the people, though, there are things I'll say about public speaking, though, is if you get asked to give a talk in public, you better have something to say.
Right, yeah.
And not just get up there and try to wing it.
Do a little preparation.
Yeah, preparation's big.
Yes.
I really believe in that.
I couldn't agree with you more.
Sarah
you dress
We have got a phenomenal show set up.
Patrick Durkin is here, a 50-year veteran of The Outdoors.
Works on the show Meat Eater.
We're gonna talk a lot about that.
And we've got your recipes of the week.
Patrick's gonna talk about his as well.
This is Raised in the Woods.
You're listening to Civic Media.
Stay up to date on the latest news and information for your local community and Wisconsin by signing up for our free email newsletter.
Visit civicmedia.us slash email to get started.
We get to broadcast
into the wonderful states of Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois and Iowa.
Thank you for coming along on this journey.
My name's Joel Clayfish.
Running the show or at least at least let me think I do once in a while, but not really.
Co-captain Ellie Lawton is here by my side.
She is the
culinary in with the most is to help us bring that field and forage to the table in a way that you can learn it and do it at home, which is.
phenomenal asset.
I thought I knew how to cook until we started making some of the amazing recipes with Wild Game since Megan Salazar and Ellie Lawton became part of the show.
And that's just fantastic.
We eat good.
Yeah, we sure do.
Hey, if we if you missed the show live Saturdays at 11 o'clock on your civic media stations, where can you catch it?
First of all, you should check out the Facebook page to see what kind of crazy stuff we're up to.
I don't ever get to check it because I'm not on Facebook, but I hear it's pretty cool.
And then if you miss us on Saturdays, you can check us out on Spotify, Apple or civicmedia.us.
Just search for raised in the woods.
Come along for the ride.
If you're new to the outdoors or hunting or fishing or foraging, please understand we are a safe space for everybody interested in the outdoors.
This show talks about everything from camping to kayaking to hunting, fishing, and it is a wide tent.
We've talked in the past about how political philosophies from the right and the left are starting to come together in the world of organic harvesting and eating of wild animals.
And those harvests are so well in check that they're necessary to create conservation
for the states that we broadcast to and somebody who has experienced conservation across this United States for five plus decades is Patrick Durkin, an outdoor writer, television radio guy.
And Patrick, you made the drive to come to the studio tonight.
to record with us.
And I want to say thank you for that.
I'm honored to have you here.
Your stories are incredible.
I want to talk specifically now for a little while about the show Meat Eater and your role there because that's the largest that that is the show that broke the mold from the outdoor industry.
And you know, you could you could argue the Robertson family and Duck Dynasty and Duck Commander paved that way.
But meat-eater makes no mistake about what it is.
It is about eating wild game that you hunt or fish.
How on earth did you get hooked up with that?
Well, I should say it.
I'm a writer.
Excuse me, I never been on the actual TV show, but in the podcast multiple times.
But my main contribution immediately is for their website, you know, writing.
And I started writing for them back around when they first launched, they kind of relaunched me either.
I don't know if you know the whole history, but Steve started the show back around 2013, 2014.
And then it rolled along on the outdoor channel and other places in Netflix.
And then in 2018, they kind of did a rebrand, got a big investor, and it really took off.
It got big.
And at that time, this was like on June 2018, Steve invited me to start writing for them.
And so I wrote.
basically every two, three weeks I read a full-length feature about some topic that we agreed for me to write about.
And I'm still writing, but now I'm 70, some kind of been backing off a little bit now.
But I think I've written over 150 articles now for me either over the past nine years.
And I still like writing.
I've always thought that I have a hard time calling it a job or work, because I think one thing I will always say about
having the Navy background was in the Navy you work your ass off and I really realized that what I do isn't compared to compared to real work.
I don't try to feel sorry for myself about how many hours I work on my job because I think it's a lot of time behind the computer.
The story I'll tell that illustrates how you got to make it as an outdoor rider.
You have to spend time
as much time, more time, beyond the computer than you do in the woods.
It's the only way you're gonna make enough money at to pay for things out in the woods.
But my youngest daughter, who's all of Lacey's age, she came home from high school back in the early 2000s, had a classmate, some boy that wanted to job shadow me for a day.
And my daughter told him,
why would you want to do that?
He sits in the basement all day and stirs at his computer.
And I do.
That's, you know, being a reporter, being a columnist, it's on the phone.
It's covering meetings.
It sounds like it's all fun and games, but I think, ah, the hunting and fishing is a big part of it, an important part of it.
But when it comes right down to it, you don't make money out unless you work.
and you work every day of the week.
You get up early, stay at the desk late, works at the weekends many times.
So it's not as romantic as you might think, but I don't apologize for it.
I think I'm one of those guys that when they say on your deathbed, you won't have these regrets about not having worked too much, I think.
I don't know.
I might have a few regrets about things that didn't cover stories that didn't get out there and work on, that other things took their place.
Because I think what I do for a living, I've been lucky.
It's fun to have a talent that you can do something with it.
I get almost sentimental when you talk about it, you know, we have somewhat parallel paths.
I spent a great deal of time as a reporter.
And what's interesting to me that I want to talk about more, I want to
talk about the experiences more is that so many people want to be famous in the outdoors, right?
And I don't think that there is such so much of a realization as to how much work it is compared to the fame aspect of it and the money aspect that accompanies that.
But I'm excited to delve a little deeper into that with you and to talk about some of the great stories you've covered and some of the outdoors that is
imprinted on your soul, which is the real reason people who care about the outdoors do it.
It is not for the likes.
It is not for the listens or views on the TikTok.
It's for the real true love and passion of the outdoors, which is what Raised in the Woods is about.
We love having you along and we've got more with Patrick Durkin.
This is Raised in the Woods.
Hey, if you listen to raised in the woods, we're happy to have you along.
You can follow us on Facebook raised in the woods.
You can listen to our show.
If you don't catch it live at 11 on Saturdays on your civic media station throughout the great states of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, Illinois and Iowa, you can check out the podcast.
Let me tell you it's worth it.
You're going to have a laugh at my expense and that's just fine.
We are having a fantastic time talking to Patrick.
Durkin, one of the most prolific outdoor writers of the Midwest and the United States, works for Meet Eater the Show, was talking about, Patrick, I'm just going to delve right back into it because this show goes so fast.
And I want to hear more from you.
You made the drive all the way to the studio today, a several hour drive.
We really appreciate that.
I'd sit here till four in the morning recording shows with you if I could.
I know that's not possible.
So talk to me, we're just starting to talk about how so many people now with social media want to be an influencer, want to be a huntress or a hunter who gets clicks and likes and is beloved by everybody.
It is not easy.
to make money and make a career in the outdoor industry?
No, it never has been.
When I started off, I wrote my first outdoor piece in 1982 when I was about 25 years old.
I was back in college and I knew in that era my big dream job was to get to the Milwaukee Journal, becoming the outdoor writer or editor of the Milwaukee Journal.
Eight, nine years later, I ended up having a job offer from Deer and Deer Hunting Magazine.
So I went there and was editor of the magazine for like almost 11 years.
And then I started freelancing in 2001 and been doing that ever since.
The thing that when all this internet stuff really started to boom,
And as far as social media and Facebook, it wasn't until 2019 my youngest daughter built me an outdoor website and got me a professional Facebook page and all these kinds of things on Instagram.
And I still cringe when I see...
myself identified by someone as a content creator.
I
that.
Hey
Everybody's got
What is frustrating sometimes is that people think that their voice is bigger than it actually is.
And the reality of it is, in order to have credibility and to maintain integrity, you have to be somebody who spends their time in the outdoors and at a computer writing or in a notepad, literally writing through the years that you've done this.
What are some of the stories that you look back on and think to yourself, man, that was really cool that I got to do.
That was a really neat
piece to write.
Some of the best ones that you don't realize in the moment that they are a really cool story.
And but you also, I think if you're a curious person, which is I think the number one quality you have to have as a writer, as an editor,
someone who's altered gathering information, you have to have the curiosity to ask questions and not be afraid to pick up the phone and call people and sometimes ask questions that annoy people, but to do your job, you have to get down into that stuff that people really are curious about.
And so I think sometimes being a journalist,
People expect you to ask tough questions a lot of times.
So I think if you don't ask the obvious question, the one that somebody's reading the article and they're thinking, yeah, what about this?
What about that?
If you don't answer those obvious questions, you know, I think it starts leaving people behind.
But I think one that really still amazes me, I think it's the biggest thing I've ever had done, ever done for meat eater.
This is a weird story a few years ago of a fawn that was like about 30 feet up a tree dead, hanging in a crotch for tree.
What?
I feel like I heard about this.
Yeah, and I call various people to get their thoughts, like avian raptor experts and stuff like that, and feline bobcat experts.
What could have put this
up this tree near, I think it was up by Neilsville, Wisconsin, up in that region.
Because there's wolves up there, there's all sorts of animals up in that central forest.
But turned out the best theories was that it was a small enough fawn that maybe an eagle had picked it off.
And then at some point in flight, realized I can't hear this damn thing any farther and just dropped it.
Another one was a, another theory was that a bobcat
totally got out of character and for some reason dragged this fawn up the tree and then left it up in the crotch of the tree and got spooked and ran off and never came back for it.
And so you had, what was kind of interesting about it, you had these various experts I interviewed, actually got a little bit
You know, I don't think she's just said a word pissy They got pissy about it, you know, they the one guy thought that the idea of a bobcat dragging your trees is totally unrealistic They just don't do that kind of thing.
They don't cash their kills the way like a mountain lion does so you have these real experts Getting a little bit torqued with each other not directly, but through me
just kind of saying, oh, come on.
I found myself in the middle of this.
But that ended up being, I think, one of the main, the most red downloaded article I ever wrote for them.
Wow.
And it just went crazy on the internet.
Another one that just fell in my lap was a very similar story where a woman was sitting on her porch in summer up in Northeastern Wisconsin, here's summer home, watching the lake.
And Moses fawn, paddling along in the shoreline.
And down comes this bald eagle.
And this woman so captivated, I should have stopped and said, she was so captivated by watching that fawn swimming across the side of that lake.
She thought, well, is that ever neat?
And she got her iPhone out and started videotaping it.
Well, right in the middle of it, here comes this bald eagle.
Oh, no.
Swimps down into the scene.
drowns the fawn.
It's almost painful to watch because if fawns are so cute, you can't help but feel sorry for it because it balls a couple of times and that's dead.
The bald eagle that's held in their wad and then if you're seeing a bald eagle swim.
Oh,
It's this big exaggerated thing that drags it up on the shore and that's the end of that fawn.
But this one has had this
Just very lucky moment where she videotaped that.
Well, that's thing I wrote that for my weekly newspaper column, which I've been writing After do my flex here, I've been writing that column since 1984 without without missing a week Wow, and so and so that that column went in the Green Bay Presquizette and It was amazing how many people called me that from all over the country
different content creators, really, hello, you want to call them.
I wanted to get the right to that video.
And I said, I kept referring to this lady and she called me back and asked, well, what kind of money should she be asking for to rent at least this video out?
And I have no background on that.
I told her, I don't know.
Just don't know.
But people wanted to buy that video.
And if you Google it, if you Google my name and bald eagle fawn, you'll probably find that story.
But I never wrote that one up for meat-eater because that was kind of before I was really writing for them But I've written that column and that that's one thing about a newspaper column in that era You know if the first 35 years of my career was that's how people got their news Yes, it's only in recent years with the newspapers really really tumbled and you lose the circulation you lose, you know the different outlets I used to have that I used to
have all those things and don't know.
Yeah.
PatrickDurkinOutdoors.com has all my newspaper stuff.
And then if you ever go to the meat eater site and just Google my name or just go on Google and type meat eater Patrick Durkin, it'll pop up a big queue.
of the stuff I've written for Meat Eater.
I'm gonna ask a question that's off topic to what we've been talking about in your career and that is how do you best like to spend your time in the outdoors?
What's your favorite thing to hunt or forage or fish or what if Patrick Durkin has his dream day and someone else is gonna write about that?
What are you doing?
Probably
Probably whitetail hunting of some sort.
I've never been a deer hunter who is really Locked into the big buck thing.
I've killed some I've been looking to kill some really big bucks my life But the thing I just like hunting and I love now love deer hunting here here.
I love bull hunting I love muzzle loading.
I love rifles.
I have lots lots of deer rifles, especially as don't I'm not into the Most this most other stuff, but the other thing that picked up late in life
I'm not that late, I was 50 years old.
But I ended up hunting elk till I was 50.
And then I hunted elk, I've been hunting elk now for the last 25, 22 years.
And it's just fascinating.
And anything that calls back to you, it just makes it a little more exciting.
very exciting.
And then they add a challenge of you have to be physically fit enough to get up in the mountains and go after them.
And then pack them back out if you get one.
Something that until I was in my fifties.
I just didn't do I so I so locked into the whitetail world when I was at the magazine and then before that at the newspaper that it those opportunities just didn't have time for much too much into the dear world
Yeah, is
Yes, I think most guys that's for
There are some real similarities there.
And the guys who are really good elk hunters and really good turkey hunters, you can see why they'd be good at bull.
Because I really love turkey hunting.
Yeah.
And turkey hunting, for me, in recent years, has gotten to be a lot more fun for me.
For whatever reason, in the more recent years, I've just gotten a lot more into it.
Well, that's fascinating.
You live a fascinating life.
Thank you.
There's no doubt about it.
And I think that for those of us here in this studio and for the listeners who get to have an appreciation for the outdoors, I think one of your legacies in the writing world is that you explain things.
You're such a good storyteller that you're getting people who aren't necessarily interested or who haven't necessarily gotten into it and you're getting them into it.
And we're at the precipice now.
of losing hunters.
And I think this way of taking organic food to the table is a new way to interest new people.
Yeah.
If there's one thing I really have loved about my career, and I miss though, is that when I was having my newspaper column syndicated for the Green Bay, Madison, Wausau, a lot of the bigger state newspapers.
The biggest group of letters I would typically get each week was from older women.
It was because of
No, it was the boat.
A lot more widows.
And
they liked reading my stuff because it kind of reminded them of their husband.
You get these really nice sentimental letters sometimes from women, older women.
And then when the newspapers fell away and those letters stopped coming, I had never gotten over
That was tough, I bet.
But I think the lesson there is when you do something with a passion and all of us here are passionate about the outdoors, you really do make an impact.
You may not see the people you impact when you do it, but the love for the conservation and the continuation of the species and the proliferation of the species and being able to continue the lifestyle that we get to lead.
bringing food from the field to the table.
Really does make a difference, and I've said it before, and I'll say it again, one person can make a difference.
This is raised in the
woods.
You're listening to Civic Media.
Find the latest news, information and archives of all your favorite shows on the Civic Media website, civicmedia.us.
Raised in the Woods would not be the world-renowned show that we are if it were not for the food we talk about on this show.
I love the last segment of the show because it is about field and forage to table and we've got Patrick Durkin, the icon in the outdoor industry, works for meat eater, has made a career of writing about the outdoors, experiencing the outdoors, and I'm told
Chef Lawton, who usually captains the ship of the food
Because it has something to do with yourself under the bus.
Yeah.
Way to run yourself over there.
So my wild of the week going to go back.
I recently spent some time out in the beautiful state of Iowa.
So shout out to our Iowa listeners.
But on my way,
I had to go to the oldest hamburger stand in Wisconsin.
Oh, I've always wanted to go there.
So I went to Pete's hamburgers.
They open in 1909.
So everything is still the way it was.
It is still a boiled slash steamed burger.
And you can get it with ketchup, mustard,
or fried onions.
There's no cheese.
There's no funny business there.
That is what you walk up to the window and you tell them what you want, the two little things you can get, and that's what you're getting.
So I had the opportunity to go there and try that.
So then they cover it a little bit.
It kind of boils and then they have the onion sautéing.
It was really good.
So I will say, I am like,
crispy kind of smash burger girl if i if i have my choice that's the route i go but this was very good it took me back actually um so i grew up on a farm i went to a lot of like auctions with my dad as a child and at these auctions they would always have like a hamburger trailer and they would make these like steamed hamburgers in them and it took me right back there so
If you're ever in Prodigy, go to Pete's hamburgers.
It was so great.
And then my second, um, I've been eating a lot this summer.
I don't know.
Well,
So we went out to celebrate actually, um, Pirate Megan and we went to three brothers, Serbian restaurant in Milwaukee and Bayview area.
It's my first time there.
I've been wanting to go for a long time, and we finally got the opportunity, and it was so worth it.
It's so fantastic.
The food was great.
We got the burrick, which is the traditional.
We got the beef burrick, so that's phyllo dough, several layers, just layers and layers and layers.
It takes an hour to make, so you got to like, you can call and pre-order it, or if you go there, you can set the hour and wait.
They have so many great things.
Megan, what was your favorite thing we had?
Oh, the wiener schnitzel.
Oh, yeah, that was great.
Just slow this food train down.
We're going to get there.
But there's so many great places to eat.
And yes, I didn't have a recipe today, but man, I've been doing some great eating.
And if you ever need some tips or a new place to go and die and reach out to us on the Facebook page, and we will point you in the right direction.
And
My recipe isn't an original for me, but a few are ever in crossplains, Wisconsin, just west of Madison.
and you go into the Pigly Wiggly there and go into the meat department where all the sausage is.
Up on the wall there is a picture of an old butcher, the big butcher knife.
That's my maternal grandfather.
Oh, cool.
His name is Joseph Frank.
And most of the recipes for sausage in that store are still his old recipes that came down to the years.
Wow, is that neat.
It's really a proud part of my heritage, you know.
For a number of years, after I killed my first elk, I remember leaving behind the liver, and I kept looking at that thing.
It's an elk, an elk liver is monstrous.
And I just had this guilt that, why am I not somehow using?
I took the heart, but I left the liver behind.
And I started thinking I should learn how to make liver sausage.
and put the stuff to use.
You can mix hearts, you can mix all those organs in together with it.
And so this Tim Sauer, the sausage maker at the Pigly Wiggly now in Cross Plains, they used to make it, all that liver sausage from my grandfather.
They quit making it about a year or two ago.
He said, well, let's tell you how to make it.
It's not hard.
Oh, good.
Yeah.
So it's really, it's really simple.
You basically take, you know, let's say you have 10 pounds of elk livers or deer livers and hearts, whatever you are putting in.
And you basically add 50% to that.
So like for, if you have 10 pounds of liver, you have 15 pounds, you have 15 pounds of pork shoulder.
Okay.
And that's your proportion.
Then for you also want to put in 2% of salt 2% of that weight should also be salt and salt into it and this guy recommends the onion salt sure and then and then you use like point zero zero five percent for the Pepper mixture then some then there's some boiled onions, but you take the all the meat and you cube it and
cook it and basically boil it for an hour, hour and a half, and then you mix it all together, you grind it all up, then you grind it all up again, and eventually you, I think I might sit for like two days or overnight, and then basically stuff it all in these sausage casings then, hang it for three days in the cooled area, and that's pretty much ready to use.
I'm going to make that.
It's good.
I absolutely love liver sausage.
And I mean, I've been accused of eating weird things before in my life, but I will tell you, I also love when it becomes mainstream in the Midwest, liver sausage, brown swagger is very commonly eaten.
And I think that sounds delicious.
And I've been looking for something to do with whitetail livers.
You know, we've made liver, goose liver patties before.
And that's delicious too.
But while that sounds fantastic,
I cannot tell you how great it's been having you, Patrick Durkin.
Thank you.
On the show.
Thank you so much for coming.
Check out his stuff on the Follow Life Podcasts as well.
Travel Wisconsin Editions.
Folks, we love having you along.
This has been Raised in the Woods.
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to hear otherwise.
the seat of the Midwest.
You should note that on your diaper, your pocket diaper.
Okay, just listen.
You know,
of us had to.
No, we weren't.
You didn't even let him finish.
This is a
Okay.
am telling
The wheat fields are down.
I'm scouting, scouting, scouting, taking video, noticing bands on their legs, GPS backpacks, neck collars.
I haven't seen any of that yet.
But we're even seeing those.
That's my mile of the week.
Beat the heat.
Stay in your car.
Put in some windshield time.
It will definitely
pay off.
And I want to shout out to the Wisconsin Waterfowl Association and the Waterfowlers Academy, who are running the Fowl Life Scouting Series, which I
can do
Kyle Schmidt's
They probably
Yes, they do.
It's awesome.
A small token of appreciation.
What's really cool is that you knock on doors to try to get permissions and then you get to start to learn about the people.
who manage the land and grow the products that we eat and the farmers.
And it's just wonderful.
It really is a great crossroad.
That's my Wild of the Week.
Dan, Tim, what have you got?
Well, related, strangely, I was golfing this week.
I get out maybe three or four times a year.
It's easy, Joel.
You take your club,
hit the ball, and you try and get towards the pin.
And then eventually, you just hit it in the hole.
But I think it's a great excuse to get outside, be outside for three or four hours.
On these days again, when there's not that much to do comfortably, it's fun.
Golf courses are beautiful.
And
courses?
See, that's the thing.
I snapped a pic.
I must have seen probably six or seven dozen geese.
And I just snapped a pic of it and sent it to Joel via text message.
I said, they look delicious.
I didn't expect them to zoom in and notice, but like three or four of these birds had bands on
Now I know.
Now I know.
So yeah, that was my wild of the week getting out, getting golfing, good times and a side scouting mission for.
My friend Joel here.
Yeah, I appreciate
course.
You said you were one short of a goal for bands.
Yeah, I'm
that I
now we know.
We know where they're hanging out for that.
I actually took an herbal mocktail class outdoors.
What?
It was the coolest thing ever, honestly.
Oh my goodness.
Mocktails are.
my jam.
Well, and just like to know where it, like we were
in a garden
outside
in the garden.
Oh my gosh.
This
and I had it.
Why aren't we having those?
With
It would be my pleasure to make that.
It was so cool.
And we literally got to go in the garden, pick the herbs that we were using, mix them up.
It was so fun.
And it was a beautiful day.
a bunch of girls and men were there too.
And we all just learned and- Do you like how she said that, Dan?
were there too.
A bunch of girls and
were there too.
Well,
fine.
You gotta wear a flowy dress so you won't fit in.
He's got one on right now.
Oh, yeah.
Love that color on you.
And a matching dipey.
Wow.
Oh,
circle.
Sorry, Joel.
Sorry, Joel.
I was really ganging up on you, Joel.
You got to hit him
with
the
mustache.
What is happening?
What are
I think you know what it is.
I'm in Megan's seat.
that
sense.
Hey,
It's a pretty legit mustache, though.
Thank you.
It really is.
Thank you.
It's got
Is it really?
You know what really is?
He's going to
Is it?
He
speaks for the trees.
Okay, I like that.
He makes mocktails.
in a flowy dress.
You should go as him for Halloween.
Okay.
We're
on to
something.
Usually it's a theme and I don't have much of a say in it, so.
Pitch
idea.
You know, I met
She's a creative one.
She's a
my thing.
I would like to join
It sounds majestic.
That would be amazing.
go again.
Here we go again.
We'll bring diaper and
mustache
with us.
Wait a minute.
quick from that.
Oh my goodness.
Before that
sticks.
in high
Hey, you gave it to yourself.
That's true.
Dan Tim didn't have a choice,
though.
No, I was born like this.
You were born with a mustache.
You should see the pictures.
well, they'd have to decide on.
what they want to start with.
Is it more they want to be closer to where their food comes from?
Is it more that they want to get away from toxic cleaning chemicals, environmental chemicals, or just beneficial?
Was that really your
Yes.
Was
away from all the crap they put in junk?
Unfortunately, yes.
I mean, I feel like we shouldn't have to.
Isn't it
surprising, too, I feel like the more natural, fewer ingredient cleaning supplies
work just as well, if not better.
Right.
But sometimes they greenwash and there's hidden crap in them and it doesn't come out until years later.
What does that mean greenwash?
Greenwash means like they will mix up the wording on the package saying that it is real cheese.
But in reality, they it's real cheese, but they also have a bunch of fillers and chemicals in there.
And it's just like a stir of
it doesn't stick together.
Yes.
Oh, yes.
Oh, yes.
Never ever buy pre-shredded cheese.
You always get the block yourself and try it.
That sounds
like a great first step.
But also... It's a great first step.
Also, it doesn't... See, mustache nose.
We don't buy shredded cheese.
yes, I think so.
I just bite it off the block.
Honestly.
Who needs a protein
has the most.
It has the most protein.
It's been like the trending thing.
stuck on purse Parmesan.
It should
It definitely should be a thing.
Well, in my 20s, I'd keep a burger in my purse for a drink and night.
Stop it.
So, Brandy, you have a huge online presence in the homesteading community.
What I have noticed in the wee bit of time I've spent online is that the sourdough bread thing
like really went off and went crazy.
So was that maybe something that sparked this kind of
I don't know, sparked or maybe kept the homestead ball rolling or what have you seen?
Because you've been doing it for 12 years.
So that was pre-COVID.
Yeah.
Because I feel like COVID or right around there is really when it sparked a lot of stuff.
I'm using Spark a lot.
It was a little bit different back then, but definitely you are right on the money with the sourdough.
Yeah, it's better for your gut.
Yeah.
The only thing is it takes legit two days to make.
Yeah, it does.
It's like a and it's like the humidity plays a role.
It is such a big task.
So I never
advise people that are just starting out to jump into sourdough.
It's very
belt.
Yeah, it's up there.
It's like a brown
So
I know.
There's
many learning things.
People take these things with them.
They make us sourdoughs.
I
all the time.
And then
I ended
of your sourdough.
Yes, it's a sourdough.
It
real, Joel.
Do you
Yeah, we have.
Yeah, of course.
He has
one at the whole time right
now.
He does.
Yeah.
It's getting baby sad while he's here.
I also know there are
sourdough.
My sourdough
the dose inn.
It does.
Do you get it?
Dose in instead of dose in?
But there are some sourdough starters that are 100 years old.
Oh my gosh.
You
going
really that dish.
But sourdough is like its own living thing.
Yes.
And you can kill it.
Yes.
And it has to be active or you can't use it, right?
Do
On
Maybe.
sourdough starter, we're
And Brandy is going to bring us our recipe of the week with Chef Lawton.
This is race to the woods.
This is raised in the woods, the segment I hold my breath for.
My stomach yearns for the cooking segment of the Raised in the Woods show.
Of course, Shelley Shelley
one.
That one was good.
don't think that's true.
No, it's fine.
Well, thank you.
A lot of my followers, well, maybe not followers.
A lot of the comments section would probably disagree.
Well,
engagement at the end
didn't just envision that.
you know something that's interesting is I actually took a keen interest on sourdough and I made it almost I felt like every single day because it takes two days to make that yeah and I did it for so long and then being just like a health lifestyle right
you kind of start realizing that eating bread every day and baking every day and all that stuff isn't really good for you.
started doing it a whole lot less.
I hit it hard for probably a year.
I was putting sourdough starter and muffins and cookies and bread and everything.
I was like, you guys need something made?
I'll bring bread.
I'll bring muffins.
And it's like, I can't with the, I couldn't.
I gave it up and I do it occasionally now and that is the good balance to
have.
Absolutely and it's the same and that's why homesteading takes so much time.
So if you're really not going to eat that much bread which
gee whiz yeah maybe focus more on a chance of thing else but i do have a really cool recipe it's a sourdough starter from scratch which is pretty cool
um and this is like back in the vintage days you
just you have to find somebody you're like phone a friend a phone a friend hey who's got a sourdough starter that's
long live long enough yeah but i can
Grab some,
what you need is just one gallon glass jar and you choose a flour of your choice.
Get some filtered water and a wooden spoon.
And then what you do is you add one cup of flour and one cup of water to your glass jar and you stir in the flour.
and make sure that it's super soaked and incorporated, and it kind of like ferments.
And it's
crazy because it starts getting like a sour smell,
bubbles come, and all of that good
That's the good stuff.
And you know what's crazy, and I learned this on my sourdough journey, is that you know when you see restaurants and pizza, mostly pizza, that's like,
baked today fresh, that's actually worse for you.
Your bread is supposed to ferment for at least one to two days in order to break down some sort of enzyme that can cause upset stomach.
And so when
really don't want that.
Really look for the pizza parlor that says we use we go That is fantastic and you were talking you had talked during the break about
There's this massive trend, you know, a few years ago, the fastest growing market in beer across the country was non-alcoholic beers.
It still is.
Still is.
And mocktails are not growing.
And the realm of deliciousness is just crazy.
I was saying, I had a mocktail today.
I took a coconut.
I drilled holes in the coconut.
Took the coconut milk and mixed it with lime.
I see
need to see a video on this.
Oh, let's do Joe in the
that is you didn't say sugar.
So
lot of these mocktails that you buy have a lot of sugar
sugar in them, that's just,
terrible.
honey though
all of my my cooking all of my breads all of my treats and desserts all of it is with honey or syrup
Oh,
had four more hours
100%.
We're going to dive in again and get done what we can in an hour.
Sorry, Dan.
Dan will be here.
I'm not worried about Dan.
Dan, what's he got better to do?
He didn't ask me.
I'm just moving in.
Well, you're the co-host.
You have to.
You're obligated to show up.
Noah's here.
What a fantastic show this has been.
Brandy, who's homesteading.
Queen on the internet.
Tell us real quick where people can find you.
Mother Hens Homestead on all social platforms and I am there and can't wait to see you.
This is Raised in the Woods.
What's up, everybody?
This is Raised in the Woods, the show about the outdoors, how to bring what you feel and forage to the table, what to do in the great states of Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, Illinois, and Iowa.
My name is Joel Clayfish.
Man, it's been a while since I've been in this seat, in this kind of heat.
It's hot throughout the Midwest, but that's not a problem because the falls right around the corner
It seems like a big seat to fill, though, too.
Well, you've got the beard
do it.
Pirates
though.
Pirates, yes.
have the beard.
purpose.
I don't know what she does.
on this show
buzzing about that.
That
What a
saw pictures on Instagram of his boat.
I actually
I DM'd him, I slid into his DMs.
With a picture
my theater strip, yeah.
Like this is how I, that's how I used to get girls.
Married now.
Well, he's seven years
right.
At least conversations.
Gets the chicks.
That's a
You guys, no joke.
I mean, we get one week, we got meat eater.
We've got Chad Belding, national host of The Fowl Life on the show.
We have Brandi Rondinelli who has more than, I'm not joking about this, more than a million followers combined in her social media platforms.
She
is literally the queen of homesteading in all the world of social media.
people know
What an honor and a pleasure for the show.
Talk about homesteading.
Of course, you know, Sarah Marinas, regular contributor to the show is on very often.
She knew Brandy and said, do you think you'd like her on the show?
And I said, do you think she'd come on the
mean, it's my honor, honestly.
all of them.
Gemini.
Gemini.
It means we want to do all the things.
Everything.
Which goes into... We want to be the best at all the
Right.
And then we want
all the things.
got our hands
I don't know.
I'm an Aquarius.
I like it.
read, I'm not into this stuff, but I have read that Aquarius and Gemini get along
really well.
They're like besties.
Yes.
Yes.
But Gemini specifically, any Gemini's out there for sure should be in the homesteading because we want to do all the things.
And you can dabble in every
and it's so much fun.
Yeah.
So
So I would say, I guess, got into it when my kids were born, really.
I started wanting to make everything myself.
So all their baby food.
And I was like, well, I want to just grow it.
Why not grow it?
Why not just make it?
Now I want to grow it.
I want to craft it.
I want to make it.
I did everything.
Like I started making moccasins
leather.
My goodness.
Cloth diapers too?
Cloth diapers, yes.
I did.
I
chef.
so
to what I was saying.
Brandy.
I started doing all the things myself, sewed the kids' fitted sheets, all the things.
So, I was just...
I don't know.
I was just, people say it's nesting, right?
But I just want to do everything.
So then had some tomatoes in my backyard.
I lived in like a city.
You
Yeah.
Well, I grew up in country living.
Okay.
And then when I met my husband, he lived in the city.
So does he been a city boy his whole life?
His whole life.
Really?
So it's been so interesting because we actually moved out of the city when we could.
I mean, people just think that
you just get this stuff handed to you, and it's not the truth.
Some
actually do work really
exactly us.
We didn't have much.
We lived in a city house, and then we finally built up what we could, made sacrifices,
about eight years ago moved to more the rural area again.
Wow.
And when we did live in the city, I was like, okay.
I still want to grow.
I don't care if we don't have that much yard.
I'm growing tomatoes.
Yeah.
you don't
a
of space.
No garden actually.
Not at all.
So people
chickens are?
Tomatoes.
Well, Italian.
Yes.
So you can make so much with tomato.
Or just the last
Yes.
And I get to claim it because both my children are obviously Italian.
I'm like, I am not going to be the only non
was it a gradual trip?
Whoa, no, we need some details.
Yep, the rest is history.
It shows over.
It's been 12 years.
time you listen to Raised in the Woods, which you can hear every Saturday at 11 o'clock on your Civic Media stations.
And if you miss us live on Saturdays, you can listen to our podcasts on civicmedia.us.
Make sure to check us out.
You will laugh.
You definitely will learn.
We have Brandi Rondinelli with us today.
Dan Tim is here as well.
But we are learning about homesteading from the ground up from an expert homesteader.
can say expert because this
I can't wait.
Oh, yes.
This
is Raised in the Woods, a one-stop shop for everything in the great outdoors of the great states of Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, Illinois, and Iowa.
Great welcome to our new stations.
as civic media continues to expand its reach.
We are honored to be part of that.
My name is Joel Clayfish, sitting along co-host Ellie Lawton, and this show has really grown, and it's really starting to feel our oats.
We're getting fantastic guests.
But one of the things that makes me the most excited about this show is we get to share with people how to best use the outdoors.
Dan Tim is here, outdoorsman.
Howdy.
Adventurer, if I may say.
And of course, we would be remiss if we did not mention the fullness of his beard, which got him his lover.
So if you haven't seen it, you need to go on Facebook.
Check out Dan Tim's beard.
Not on Facebook.
He's not on Facebook.
Create your own hashtag.
And go, if you
can't find it there, hashtag Dan
Hashtag Dan Tim's beard.
Hashtag Dan Tim's beard.
Hashtag Dan Tim's beard.
Hashtag Dan Tim's beard.
Hashtag Dan Tim's beard.
Hashtag Dan Tim's beard.
Hashtag
Dan Tim's beard.
Hashtag Dan Tim's beard.
Hashtag Dan Tim's beard.
Hashtag Dan Tim's beard.
Hashtag Dan Tim's beard.
Hashtag Dan Tim's beard.
Hashtag Dan Tim's beard.
Hashtag Dan Tim's beard.
Hashtag Dan Tim's beard.
Has
Brandi, who is with us today, Brandi Rondinelli is one of the most sought after homesteaders on the internet.
And what's amazing to me, Brandi, thank you first of all so much for coming along today.
What a fun time we're having.
Thank you.
Homesteading is fascinating.
And what's funny to me is that homesteading is kind of like getting back to your roots, kind of using nature and being a naturalist in so many ways and finding how to use grain and wheat and grasses to make things that are applicable to everyday life, which is kind of counterintuitive to social media, really.
They're both opposite ends of the spectrum, but you have somehow
found a way to create this hybrid of using social media to spread your message of homesteading.
Yeah, I don't know how that happened.
kind of happened.
And I'm glad people think what I have to teach is important enough to actually follow along.
But yeah, homesteading is really self-sufficient.
So becoming more self-sufficient.
So people think homesteading, you have to have animals.
You have to have a huge garden, and that's not the case.
It
step at a time if you learn to just make your own bread, which is super easy.
People don't even think about it, but now you're one step closer to being more self-sufficient.
If you now make your own cleaning product, which is
literally the easiest thing you could ever do vinegar and some orange peels or lemon peels that you would normally just throw away.
Just stick them in a jar, cover it, let it steep and there you go.
And that's all you'll need.
So it's just getting everybody to notice that it's really not as hard as people think it is and to not rely on
an outsource, like a grocery store or the government, just in case.
I mean, we've had shutdowns and that's never fun for anyone.
But if we can get in touch with ourselves and we can rely more on ourselves.
And what I find fascinating about it is you can, I like to learn, okay?
As soon as I stop learning something, I get bored with it.
So homesteading.
you will never stop learning because it just plants alone, just that.
You could spend the rest of your life studying that and not be an expert.
And I think about, you're explaining home studying and all I'm thinking it is like hunting and fishing and stuff.
We all four of us on this panel, we all hunt, we all enjoy the outdoors and you can never stop learning.
And we're not experts.
We know.
certain things about certain areas.
But the cool thing is you can just keep learning and keep developing and building those layers.
And like you said, you can start by just learning how to bake bread or start by making that cleaning solution.
And you're already heading in that direction.
It's just building, building, building.
And I think people get discouraged by it because they want to take it all on because it's very overwhelming.
Homesteading is overwhelming when you think about it.
And when you think about if you want to
get up tomorrow and decide I'm going to be a homesteader.
I'm going to do everything on my own.
Number one, that's super overwhelming.
There's too much to learn for you to be an expert overnight.
And also there's there's a financial investment in it too, you know, like you have to basically like cleaning supplies, right?
Normally, if I'm going to go into making my own cleaning supplies, I'm like, okay, well, as soon as my store bought stuff is out, then I'm going to make my own, right?
But there are some people that wake up in the morning and decide, I want to do this because they are seeing people online posting these things.
And it's very interesting.
And it seems like a really nice route to try.
And you just get overwhelmed by it.
Right.
That's why I always tell people take one thing at a time, unless you're like me and you do 200.
94 things at one time, and that's what we call it.
So
Right, which is fun for them, but sometimes it's chaos for me, but I thrive in chaos, so it's fine.
But yeah, just picking one thing at a time, honestly, whatever is interesting in that specific moment for you, or if you saw a recipe online, or do a few, you
same.
area.
So if it's the kitchen, you know, make your cleaning or make a new recipe or can something new, all of those things can go into homesteading being self-sufficient.
With the internet being so popular and homesteading becoming so popular, yeah, because people think
It's more fun and you know what's going into it.
So a lot of the hype in home setting right now, especially when cooking from scratch or growing your own, is you know exactly what's going into it.
all of the stuff coming out about food, people are scared.
It's scary.
So when you get to decide that you've grown that or you supported a local farmer or you hunted or fished yourself, it's becoming like...
more of a trend, and you're more in touch with yourself and nature, right?
And if there's one thing that this show can do, it is to encourage folks to keep learning.
Every day I wake up, the more you learn, the more you learn, you need to learn.
And that is one of my credos, and I'm telling you, thanks, Dan.
You're welcome.
Thank you for that half-least subcast.
No, it's 100% wisdom.
I appreciate it.
This is so fantastic because I want to talk about, first of all, we got our Wilds of the Week still and we've got our recipe