Cooking with Chef David - Elk Pie
Farmhouse Architecture with Chad Everhart
Using Mammals to Manage for Ducks by Robert Smith
Property Profiles - The McKenzie Farm by Ben Wolfe
Friday Night Lights by Brent Glover
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Elk (or Venison) Pie
1 pound of Elk*
1/3 cup butter
1 cup sliced carrots
1 cup frozen green peas
1/2 cup sliced celery
1/3 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 3/4 cups beef broth
2/3 cup milk
1 tbs. fresh thyme
2 tsp. salt
l/2 tsp. black pepper
2-9 inch frozen pie crusts
In a heavy bottom saucepot on medium heat add the butter, carrots, celery and onion and sweat for 8 to 10 minutes or until they start to loose their color.
Add elk and sprinkle the flour over the bottom of the pot. Stir to combine with fat to make a paste. Add the milk and stock and whisk while heating on medium heat. Add thyme and keep whisking until liquid simmers then simmer uncovered for 20 minutes. Add salt, pepper, peas and remove from heat. At this point the filling can be frozen for future use or used right away.
Preheat oven to 400o. Line a pie dish or dutch oven with one of the pie crusts. Poke holes in the bottom of the dough with a fork and pre bake in the oven for 8 to 10 minutes or until the shine goes away from the dough. Fill with the filling and place the other crust on top. Seal the edges as best you can and bake in the oven for 30 to 35 minutes or until golden brown. Let rest for 10 minutes before eating.
This dish is in the same category as apot-au-feu or a French stew of vegetables and meat or game. With this dish a Cote-Rotie would be divine. The wine comes from the northern Rhone Valley in France and is mainly Syrah based that lends afresh, spicy, low tannin wine.
*This dish calls for cooked elk. If you are using cubed or stew elk sear it off in a hot pan with a little oil and then add the beef stock. Bring the stock to a low simmer, cover and cook on low heat for 45 minutes or until tender. If using ground elk just sear it off in a hot pan with oil and drain the fat off. You can also use leftover elk for this dish. Just shred it up and add it in.
About the Author
David Olson of Park City, Utah, is the Corporate Chef and underwater cameraman for Fischer Productions. David, and NC State Graduate went on to attend the Culinary Institute of America in New York where he graduated with honors in the top 5 of his class. David can be seen sharing fresh catch recipes on the TV show, Offshore Adventures.
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| Farmhouse Architecture with Chad Everhart
Coming Spring 2010
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FEATURED LISTING
THE LINDSEY FARM
The Lindsey Farm is a choice piece of real estate just minutes from downtown Greensboro and is being offered for the first time in over 50 years. Its proximity to major NC cities and its numerous property attributes including a seven acre lake make this farm a premiere investment and recreational property. Click here for more details.
Using Mammals to Manage for Ducks
by Robert Smith
An orange glow in the eastern sky promised warmth and that legal shooting light would soon arrive. Our anticipation was heightened as whistling ducks tumbled unseen out of the dark sky, landing with soft splashes and widening ripples. We were standing with chilly water up to our waists tucked back up in the button bushes along the edges of an opening that we had painstakingly hand cleared and seeded months earlier, and our payoff was about to occur.
The piedmont isn't known as a waterfowl destination, but several thousand ducks and geese winter here. When many people think about a "duck pond", they envision something that would be better for fishing - deep, open water. In fact, that is where most people see ducks simply because ducks do use open water at times and are easy to see on open water. But most ducks spend more time "hiding" in shallow water with lots of weeds. They feel secure, and there is more food for dabbling ducks in wetlands with emergent vegetation. The beaver ponds scattered along streams make great waterfowl habitat. These beaver ponds are often used by wood ducks, mallards, teal, other dabbling ducks, and Canada geese. Beaver ponds that are five or more acres are used more frequently by waterfowl and generally have higher quality habitat.
Beaver ponds can be enhanced to provide better waterfowl habitat to attract more waterfowl to those ponds and encourage them to use those areas longer. Managing the water level in a beaver pond is the key to increasing waterfowl use. A Clemson beaver pond leveler is made of PVC pipe, netting, and a riser that when installed properly makes it hard for beavers to find the "leak" in their dam, allowing us to drop the water level in a pond around 2 feet during the growing season. As fall approaches, the riser height can be increased to raise the water level back up. In some beaver ponds, managing the water level and vegetation is relatively easy, and in other beaver ponds it is practically impossible.
There are two approaches to vegetation management in beaver ponds - using native vegetation as in moist soil management and planting crops as in a "duck pond." Most managed beaver ponds have a combination of both. Habitat and vegetation diversity are important for attracting and holding waterfowl When the water level in a beaver pond is dropped in early summer, native, seed producing vegetation like smartweed, seedboxes, sedges, foxtail grass, and panic grass often respond favorably. Alternatively, the newly created mud flats can be seeded with Japanese millet or another crop that is used by ducks and geese.
Techniques used for wildlife management in uplands can also be used in beaver ponds to shift the vegetation to favor plants used by waterfowl for food and cover or to prepare a seed bed for planting. Sometimes prescribed fire can be used in drawn down beaver ponds. Selective herbicides can be used to control brushy, woody vegetation or to release some seed-producing plants.
Other herbicides can be used to create open water landing areas or to prepare an area for seeding with Japanese millet or other seeds. Some ponds have firm enough soil that equipment can be used, but all too often manual labor and handheld equipment are the only way apply herbicides, cut existing vegetation, and spread seed. Tracked equipment with a mulching head can make quick work of standing vegetation when the soil will support it. Mowers, grain drills, spreaders, and drags can be used behind tractors or all terrain vehicles in some drained ponds.
The most common seed planted in beaver ponds for waterfowl is Japanese millet. Other seeds planted for waterfowl include: rice (domestic and wild), chufa, corn, soybeans, grain sorghum, pearl millet, and foxtail millet. Other plants such as smartweed, red root, and some sedges may be planted in the pond as rootings, plugs, or containerized plants.
Fertilizing the oaks, beeches, and other seed producers on the pond margin may help increase nut production. Using a hack-and-squirt herbicide treatment to the non-seed producing trees along the edge of the beaver pond will encourage seed production in the remaining trees and increase the quantity and quality of annual, seed-producing plants in the beaver pond.
While most beaver pond management for waterfowl in the southeastern United States is to attract and hold wintering waterfowl, these same beaver ponds can be important wood duck production areas as well. Installing properly constructed wood duck boxes on poles with predator guards in and around a beaver pond can result in several broods of wood ducks being raised on a pond, which often means more wood ducks using the property that winter. Wood duck boxes should be cleaned out & repaired late every winter to prepare them for the next clutch of eggs.
Beavers can be a significant problem when they kill timber by cutting or flooding, raid a corn field, or clog a culvert but sometimes you can turn a beaver "problem" into a benefit. Besides ducks and geese, many other species, including deer, turkey, and song birds, benefit from active beaver pond management.
After the sun broke the tree line, the black lab had a busy morning retrieving several wood ducks, a greenhead, and a pair of Canada geese. Based on the numbers of waterfowl we had seen using the enhanced beaver pond, we knew we would enjoy several more mornings in our private honey hole that season, and we did.
About the Author
Robert Smith of Greensboro, NC is a forest and wildlife biologist who helps landowners integrate their wildlife, timber and agricultural management objectives. Robert earned his bachelor's degree with an emphasis in wildlife from Mississippi State University and his master's in forest ecology from the University of Georgia. Robert is the wildlife and forest biologist for Wolfe Speciality Real Estate and Consulting. |
PROPERTY PROFILES
by Ben Wolfe
Showcasing a premiere recreational property in an effort to promote and share sound land management strategies.
The McKenzie Farm
This winter's property profile highlights a choice piece of real estate owned and managed by Kevin McKenzie. The McKenzie Farm is 507 acres and is located in Western Caswell County, an ideal part of the state to do some serious wildlife farming. The whitetail genetics are excellent in this part of the state, wild turkeys are plentiful and land is still somewhat affordable which explains why so many sportsmen throughout the state are gravitating towards the Northern Piedmont to acquire their own recreational property. Kevin purchased the property in 2007 and has since taken a hands-on approach to improving the overall quality of the land and its wildlife. Lets take an inside look at why the McKenzie Farm can be considered one of the area's premiere recreational properties.
Infrastructure- a key component of recreational enjoyment
Improving infrastructure not only adds value to the farm but also allows for greater enjoyment, which is why so many new landowners place this at the top of their priority list. One of Kevin's initial objectives was to build a modest but comfortable house/cabin for overnight visits and entertainment. The cabin would need to be functional and practical so he included a garage/workshop area on the ground level with the living quarters up above. This design offers excellent views from the second story while providing adequate storage, parking and a large workshop area below. When not in the woods hunting dusk and dawn are excellent times to be on the second level because you can view an abundance of wildlife visiting the surrounding food plots from the viewing decks. A separate equipment building was also constructed for the tractors and equipment.
Access into and around the property was another immediate infrastructure project due to the fact that the existing trail system was somewhat limited. A well designed and well maintained trail system is worth the time and money to create as the landowner will be able to better enjoy and manage the property. A well laid out trail system also adds immediate monetary value to the property. With a solid plan in place, Kevin moved forward by adding 3 miles of trails throughout the farm. These were put in by hand and with a track hoe and dozer and effectively serve as access trails, fire breaks and shooting lanes.
Enhancing Recreational Value Through Timber Management
Proper management of timber improves the overall quality of existing timber stands, benefits the wildlife and can also provide income for the landowner. Like many other tracts of land in the Northern Piedmont, the farm contained a number of Virginia Pine stands. These stands were immediately targeted for a harvest for a number of reasons. This would allow Kevin to generate some income while getting rid of a low quality tree species, introduce a new and higher quality species, and accomplish some wildlife management objectives.
In the winter of 2007 45 acres of Virginia Pine were clear-cut and 20 acres of hardwoods were select cut. With the help of Dr. Craig Harper (Univ. of Tennessee Professor of Wildlife biology and Forestry) Kevin elected to replant all 45 acres with loblolly and short leaf pine. The decision to plant short leaf was made in an effort to match the native short leaf stands on the farm. Some of the replanted acreage is now being managed to produce mixed hardwood and shortleaf stands for wildlife management purposes. Steve Thompson (county forester) came out to inspect the planting results and was able to confirm that the survival rates were excellent.
During the Spring of 2008 Kevin continued working with Steve Thompson while performing a controlled burn through a 30 acre section of shortleaf pine and hardwoods. Prescribed burns are highly effective at clearing out competing understories while also promoting the growth of new and more palatable forbes. This practice can be especially beneficial when used in conjunction with timber stand improvement practices. This 30 acre section is now a "hot spot" for turkeys. Kevin, impressed with the results of prescribed burning will perform future burns at other locations within the property.
Wildlife Management in Motion
Quality deer management (QDM) has become a practice that most sportsmen are now very familiar with. QDM is a practice that is extremely rewarding, contagious amongst neighbors, and highly educational which is why the landowners who have elected to implement it wish they would have done it sooner. Prior to purchasing The McKenzie Farm, Kevin was able to learn first hand just how rewarding QDM could be. Good friend Tom Ray had been practicing QDM along with an intensive food plot program on his Caswell County farm for some years and was instrumental in helping Kevin establish the vision for his property.
A whitetail manager must know what he's working with from the start so it is essential that he or she accumulate census data. For this reason feeding stations were established and monitored with trail cameras during the initial months of ownership. Personal observations were used in conjunction with trail cameras to determine that the buck to doe ratio was close to 1:1, right where it needs to be. Kevin was now "cooking with grease". With confirmation that the farm had a well balanced deer herd, it was time to get aggressive with a food plot program. The goal would be to plant as much food as possible in an effort to provide the necessary protein requirements for antler growth and fawning. This approach was preferred for two different reasons. Food plots were going to be less expensive than purchasing protein for feeders and Kevin wanted to completely avoid the potential for any disease potential relating to permanent feeder sites.
There are currently 40 acres of food plots on the farm that produce more groceries than the wildlife can consume. These plots consist of either clover or are double cropped with soybeans and oats. It is vital that deer have the necessary amount of food year round in order to achieve maximum body weights, antler size, and for attracting and holding the deer herd.
Establishing fruit trees throughout a property is an excellent way to strategically improve the overall property while also serving as an attractant and nutrition source for the wildlife. Since 2007 the McKenzie's have planted 75 NC native apple trees, 25 pear trees, 50 plumb trees, and 100 American Persimmons.
Prior to 2007 the farm had been hunted hard and the herd had been negatively impacted by the use of deprivation permits. After giving the herd some time to rebound the population is now up considerably as is the age and antler class. Only three deer have been harvested since 2007. Moving forward, the plan is to allow one or two mature bucks to be harvested along an edge that gets hunted hard by the neighboring property where the deer haven't been surviving more than a year or two. On the remainder of the property no deer will be harvested for another couple years unless the ratio changes or a mature 140 class or larger is seen.
In an effort to help the native quail population the McKenzie's have planted 6 acres of native warm season grasses with a no-till drill that was rented from the Soil and Water Conservation Department. In addition, controlled burns have been performed in strategic locations.
Pond Management = Good Fishing and Great Eating
Water resources are often a landowners best friend as they allow for irrigation, fishing, watering holes for wildlife, possess conservation/preservation potential and even provide excellent backdrops for homesites. There are 4 ponds on the McKenzie Farm. All four ponds were shocked for census data and one was drained, seined, rotoned and then stocked with hybrid bluegills this past Spring. Bass will be added in 2010. One and two pound trout have recently been stocked in another pond for winter fishing and eating. These trout are expected to put on up to 1 pound by Spring time and should make for some phenomenal table fare.
In conclusion, I'd like to thank the McKenzie Family for allowing me to share their property with you. My hat goes off to them for their unwavering commitment to land and wildlife management. Keep up the great work guys!
Friday Night Lights
by Brent Glover
As fall rolls in down east that warm feeling comes over you, or at least it does me! The sounds of fall, northeast breezes, that gentle crisp chill that warrants you digging out your best tattered long sleeve tee. This past Friday night found me getting prepared for the game. Making sure my gear was right. Getting all the players fired up for what lie ahead. You may be thinking high school football... did I mention football? The game I am referring to didn't start until Saturday morning at sunrise. The location, well let's just say that it was "down east" on one of those now legendary rivers. My team was all there and ready to roll, that would be myself and my 10 year old lab. You see, when the water temps drop down east and the bait shows itself, there is no better place to be than trying to fool a speckled trout or a puppy drum into joining you for dinner. This time of year puppy drum are cruising the shorelines in and around the stumps. Flounder are laid up on about any sandy shoreline you care to fish. And the lime beside the pie would be the speckled trout moving back into the creeks in preparation for the months ahead. Outdoorsmen aren't the only creatures that get frisky when that first temp drop seems to flip a light switch. A few casts into the "game" and a few tense moments later, I seemed to have sold a lonely trout on the idea that a top-water plug makes a great breakfast. I tried to sell my lab on the specific technique that I was using, but she was more interested in chewing on the end of the dip-net. I was quickly reminded later on when the sun got up that a 1 5 inch puppy drum feels like a citation trout on steroids, minus the head shake. This particular morning the bites were scattered and the GPS was tired of me hopping from spot to spot, and I was forced to do what every self-proclaimed expert hates to do on the way home.... stop at the grocery store and pick up dinner. But as any outdoor enthusiast will profess, next Friday night will find me making sure my rods, tackle bag, cooler, and all the other stuff we "have to have" is ready for the big game. A few hours of sleep, tossing and turning, scared of missing the alarm clock, anxious to be waiting at sunrise to make the first cast, only to get home and have lots of chores waiting never sounded so good. Get out there and enjoy God's bounty. Maybe I'll see you on the river!
About the Author
Brent Glover of Washington, NC is a VP/City Executive for State Employees Credit Union and an avid outdoorsman. Brent is especially passionate about his inshore fishing and custom rod making. Brent builds quality rods under the name Pamlico River Rod Works. If not on the water or in the shop Brent can be found spending time with his wife, Catherine, and son, Will. |
