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Market Gypsy: Insight from the Hunter’s Moon

“Deer Jerky,” not as a missed spelled opening in a formal greeting but as an important October item.
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“Deer Jerky,” not as a missed spelled opening in a formal greeting but as an important October item.

The October full moon was yesterday, known as the Hunter’s Moon, also known as Harvest Moon in agricultural history, the Old Farmer’s Almanac, and in particular societies in North America and Europe. These names for the full moon during this time was rooted in world cultures during colonial times. It was a time for Food.

Harvest was over: the grains, vegetable and seeds were stored carefully. The second portion of the month was a dedicated to time to go hunting for meat, to ensure an adequate supply of protein, fat, and bones for nourishing broths to sustain the tribe or family through the months when nothing would grow. Truthfully, long before the publication of the farmer’s almanacs, throughout human history, we were hunting. We were nomadic hunters. It was who we were and meat was at times, well in these parts of the woods, the only food source found.

Bone broth is now being touted as a powerful food source helping to heal many aliments. But our ancestors already knew that. They knew the value in using every bit of the animal and how to store it properly. Bone broth was used to not only comfort the tired, cold and weary, but to heal us. It was to offer a warm nourishing drink to those who communed around the glow of a wood stove or the crackling fire. It was nourishing in many ways beyond a simple soup.

Deer jerky, salted fish, smoked elk, moose or fish were stored to get us through the long cold, dark winters. It was a time to slow down and use the darkness to communally help each other. It was a time to share what we have but respect the true worth of that gift given or received. Hunter’s Moon was a powerful time to sustain your family yet to value the communal hunt and work in preparing the smoked or salted meats.

Pemmican is the original protein bar. It was an exported item by the First Nations Peoples long before European settlers came to Canada. It is dried meat and berries pounded into a powder then mixed with rendered fat that got many nations through long cold winters. It was also a product that early settlers would trade for and use to nourish themselves in the Canadian frozen climate. Pemmican could be eaten as a power protein bar of sorts. It could also be added to boiling water to make a nourishing broth as a last option to sustain a family.

It was the hunt that was important to supply a family or community with protein. It was the hunt which brought everyone together in a wide radius to say ‘we are in this together.’

While we still have the Hunter’s Moon insight, take a moment to look up at it and consider ancestors who may have used the glow from it to continue to harvest or to hunt for their families and community.

Perhaps, even for a moment, consider how blessed we are to have the option to turn our furnace up, to drive to a restaurant, or to purchase our soup broth within minutes. Perhaps, even for a moment, you may consider sharing a meal with other families in your community or more so, with those who may be less fortunate and out in the cold night of the Hunter’s Moon.

Sharlyn lives in Red Deer and is a Northern foodie with a gypsy soul. You can find more on social media and the web as Market Gypsy.