gfron1

One of the issues we talked about in the original topic was that my recipes cover foraged, farmed and hunted. The publisher thought that a focus on the more trendy foraging was necessary in the title. However, my recipes include elk, javalina, pigeon and other animals. And more importantly, every recipe has substitutions for every foraged or hunted ingredient. I HATE books that have ingredients that I can't find.

We've had a few serious lookers, but looking is cheap. A check on the table is what I'm waiting for and we haven't had an official offer yet.

Bulrush (the name of my new restaurant) is the non-USA name for cattails. And they taste just like cucumbers, so if you have a pure water source then there's no reason not to eat them! I mentioned just this issue in the Most Exclusive Restaurant topic. In the desert I had so little to work with. Whenever I found any item, I gathered what I could and used it in so many ways thinking ahead because I would most likely not see that plant again for another year. Cattail pollen is the best example. It shows up for less than two weeks each year. I gather all I can and find multiple ways of using it throughout the year. This strategy is important because when i got to Jan and Feb there was so little that I would have nothing to serve. It is non-stop searching, and non-stop planning, and when you find your bounty you maximize it! So contrary to your question - I will have far more bounty in St. Louis, but I think the strategy is the same. I came from the land of rattle snakes. And, much to my spouse's chagrin, I tended to forage way off trail, often hours of hiking off trail. Once I was off trail deep in the woods north of my favorite spot with Lexi (my foraging pooch) and I ran across an unknown cliff dwelling (Mimbreño). That made me even more curious so I kept going. A few miles back I found a large patch of wild strawberries and they had fruit - very unusual since bears get to them first. I kept walking exploring the patch to see how much fruit was there, and with one step I heard the scariest sound - a rattle. I looked over and Lexi was one step to my right. Both of us were less then three feet from a large rattler who was already coiled. In that split second I realized that I had to get Lexi away, then myself otherwise we were hours from help in a spot that no one would ever find us. I let out a gutteral yawlp to scare Lexi away and jumped backwards. We were both fine but very shaken and didn't bother with the berries. I tried to be better at letting my spouse know where i was going, but it's not that simple since you have to go where nature and instinct calls.

(having some editing problems) @Lisa Shock That's easy. I absolutely adore my Fujiwara White #1 Gyuto. She ain't cheap, but the best balanced, sharpest and easiest to sharpen, hand-crafted knife I own. Absolutely nothing that I own or have used compares in quality to that knife. My kitchen focuses on vegetables so it's perfect. If I were a meat kitchen I might have a different answer. I've been trying to fall in love with my Carter, but it's simply not as well balanced in the hand. The Fujiwara just dances in the nook next to my thumb.

The overall ethic and strategies transfer perfectly, but as for plant identification let me give an example. A few weeks ago I found a plant that looked and smelled extremely familiar. In St Louis I'm posting my unknown plant photos on either Wild Edibles Missouri on Facebook or Missouri Native Plant Society on FB. Immediately someone IDd it as Shiso. I did some more due diligence and wasn't completely in agreement. Another poster then said it was an inedible (toxic) plant which led to more research, which agreed that it was not shiso. Even my beloved stinging nettle doesn't look quite the same here. So to answer the question, I'm having to use the internet as a "suggested pointer" that leads me to my own trusted sources. But because there is so much flora here I have to be really, really careful and not just trust my previous experiences.

Just a fantasy. Not reality

I loathe downtime whether it's a daily moment or a longer life period, so right now I'm most looking forward to getting into my new building and serving food again. As far as the book goes, I'm looking forward to Terry Gross calling me for an interview

Not yet. I am shopping for buildings already but I'm still hoping to sell my building in NM before I open up so I have a stronger operating cash reserve.

As a child I would bring back a small bucket of crawfish from time to time, which my mom lovingly worked into dinners, but my formal foraging happened at the Curious Kumquat. It just made sense there. Pristine wilderness. Vast amounts of diverse environment. In the book I have an essay about Doug Simons, who mentored me in foraging. More importantly, he mentored me in ethical foraging which is so often lacking. As I am struggling to learn new plants right now I remember how learning to forage is like building steam bking up a hill. It takes a while to get the wheels moving, and once you do you get stronger and faster, and then finally you can zip along and enjoy the ride. Back in the Gila Wilderness finding super sweet and juicy juniper berries did that for me. That moment that you're asking about is realizing how amazing nature's food could be if you struggled along for a bit (eating a lot of nasty juniper berries and getting legs covered in chigger bites).

I touched on the bigger picture of distribution and Amazon dominance in the Making of topic. My publisher doesn't even have their copies yet. The printer ships them to Perseus Distribution, who shipped Amazon their batch while EVERYONE else (me, the publisher, Amazon's competitors) waits until the 20th. I've been told that the publisher will get theirs on the 17th. They will then ship to me. I'll inscribe until my hand cramps, then I'll ship them out immediately. I'm also working on the extras like the food photo tutorial from my photographer, and the bonus recipes.

My spouse is splitting his time between StL and KC for his job, so he keeps both teams ball caps in his car for use depending on the audience. Even though my degree is in sport and exercise I'm not a big fan of team sports anymore, but if I have to have a team there is no doubt it will be the Cardinals (baseball) and Blues. I gave up on team sports in early 90s when teams decided that they could move to whatever city built them the best stadium. Football Cardinals are dead to me. Rams were never my team when they were here - dead to me! But the baseball Cardinals are owned by a family that is firmly rooted in St. Louis and I appreciate that.

Thanks to Dave and the team for setting up this Q&A. It seems a bit odd since many of you have known me for a long time now, and I'm certainly not short on words, so I think many of you know what I'm thinking at times. I would like to start off by sharing two pictures from the cookbook: Acorns & Cattails is bookended with my appreciation to eGullet for a reason. As Tri2Cook mentioned, when I first found the forum back in 2005 I was a foodie to be sure, but not hard core, and with zero formal training. I had never consciously foraged. I had never taken other people's money for food. In fact, I was just a guy who ate out a lot for work. My degree is in the Social Psychology of Sport and Exercise, and most of my pre-food career was running non-profits which resulted in my taking people out to lunch to beg for money. But when I found eGullet I was surrounded by experts. Some known, like Grant Achatz and Dorie Greenspan, and the vast majority unknown to the larger culinary world. I remember how I learned to properly use a knife from Chad Ward, who ultimately put out a fantastic book. And I remember when I was the recipient of a giveaway for Ann Amernick's book, which I ultimately baked my way through doing every recipe. I had so much fun baking the book, that next I baked my way through Pierre Herme's books. I can't remember who recommended those books, but someone on eG suggested them to me. Those two books were also when I met Dorie Greenspan here in the forum, and was surprised how willing a famous author was to engage with this community. And then somewhere in this mix of events was the moment that I know launched me into a new paradigm of cooking, and bolstered me previously shaky confidence - the moment that Ling picked me to do a pastry challenge. Fast forwarding a decade, I have had some success with my restaurant and career, and am preparing to start all over now that I've moved to St. Louis and enter this major market with a slew of amazing chefs with serious creds. Acorns & Cattails will be the closing of my previous New Mexico life and the launch of my return to the city where I am born and raised. I am starting at square one (well, maybe two) learning new plants to forage, and studying how to invest serious money in a serious restaurant in a city with serious restaurant reviewers. Scary and daunting, so my attention to details and planning are crucial. But back to the giveaway. I'm writing all of this the day after I met Elliot, a 13-year old self professed foodie who has already held his own pop-up dinner. I mentioned the name Flynn McGarry and he bristled at the comparison (ironically he later compared me to Michael Gallina to which I bristled). I guess we all want our own spotlight. Once we both put our egos aside, I invited him to cook with me at my first pop-up coming right after the book tour. I remember how important it was for me to have the eGullet forum root me on, educate me, and critique me to improve. I have always tried to pass that along to aspiring cooks that I have worked with in the past. And so this book giveaway comes because much of my career is owed to that Amernick book, but moreso this community.

I would encourage you to wait. There's something on the horizon that will be announced Tuesday here at eG.

She is my baby and I will be so lost without her - she's 13 and doing well but much slower than the good ol' days of her an me on the trail.

Of course I'm insanely jealous. He's always come off as a very nice and generous man.

@Shelby I had to laugh because I opened your post to this table setting. The only difference is I've finished more of my coffee

That is exactly it. I very often take the dj off my cookbooks because I'm going to use them in the kitchen with messy hands. So I wanted the boards to stand on their own as something beautiful. Where the designer upped my idea was the gold inner paper off the board (there's a technical term for that page but I don't know what it is) that played off the gold emboss. Such a nice touch and a good example of the relationship between me and the designer on this project. Stay tuned for possibly another topic that might do what you suggest - it's a great idea and is being discussed by the managers and hosts. I will, however, have a bit more to say on this thread about the business of making a cookbook now that I enter the sales end of things.

Welcome and you'll find a number of 2nd/3rd/4th careerers here in the forum who finally moved over to their passion. Cheers.

I doubt anyone will notice it so can I toot a very small horn? I wanted the 2/3 dust jacket for my book. I didn't know if it was more or less expensive than what they normally would do, but the publisher agreed. They were already set to emboss the board, and I suggested the logos of an acorn on front and cattail on back. The original draft had the logos dead center. I suggested that they bump them up to just above the DJ to add a sort of depth to the appearance of the cover. They then ran with the idea and moved my name to the top of the spine to stick out above the DJ. All in all I am very happy with this effect. My agent and I keep saying how unusual and impressive it is to have a publisher who let's you have so much say in the design process. SkyHorse was fantastic to work with. Now, as many of you are getting your hands on the books (I can not thank you enough!) any favorable reviews on Amazon are appreciated to help set the tone. I've already decided I absolutely can not read the Amazon reviews. I've seen how harsh those can be, and quite frankly, unlike my restaurant where I read every review and make adjustments as necessary, I can't do anything to fix the book if there are weaknesses, so even the kindest critical review will be hard for me to read - in fact, that's why it's so hard, I would want to fix things and know that I can't (unless there's a reprint).

The editor sent me the test print (a final version from the printer before they do the full run). Now that I'm touching it - so love this! The paper quality, the color choices, of course the photography. The font...it's even more than I could have asked for. Now I just hope my recipes live up to the design!

From my publisher

As my previous health inspector used to say, "There are some questions that you don't want to ask." Almost all of my meats came from 4H youth and were not USDA processed and I was always vague to the media, but upfront to my customers. Possible but for such a high profile publication he'd be pretty stupid to not be more careful with his words.

This whole thread has been about learning, and even as we near the end it appears I'm learning about distribution. I'm interested to hear from my publisher when I will get my books for the folks who ordered through my site.

Timely, since just the other day I watched THIS video of Gordon Ramsay hunting and eating puffins!

I learned late on Friday (after my publisher's office closed in NYC) that the book will be shipping next week - 3 weeks early! I'm sure I'll hear more on Monday, but if you were waiting til the last minute to order - now is the time. And if you ordered through our website and want a custom inscription for a gift or yourself, please send that asap. Thanks again for all your support to this point, and please encourage your friends to get one as well to show your appreciation for good scratch food, foraging, beautiful photography or just me