Where We Live

The perfect burger starts before the fire, not on it. These are four things you need to know if you want to graduate from decent burger chef to Transcendental burger chef with the cast iron. Step 1 for Burgers on Cast Iron: Meat Preparation I'm guilty, you are. Don't try to deny it. You stuff all kinds of stuff into your burgers blue cheese, bread crumbs, eggs- you basically make individual meatloaf and put it on a bun. Stop that. Instead, let the meat be the main course build your patties with good quality hamburger meat (Jason recommends 85/15 burger) and don't handle them so much. Adding ingredients to the meat changes the way it cooks (and these extra additions are typically used to help retain moisture, which will no longer be a problem cooking on cast iron). Pro-tip: Watch the video below to learn the "plate trick" and make perfect... Read more

Montana is an exceptional place to hunt big game. Residents are spoiled with low tag prices, ample species to pursue with over the counter (OTC) tags, millions of acres of public land, and seasons that last for months. It’s also home to special draws for moose, sheep, goat, bison, elk, antelope, and more. On the top of that list, and arguably at the top of the list in the world, is the bighorn sheep. Most notably, the Missouri River Breaks, “The Breaks” bighorn sheep tag. It’s a tag so coveted that it once went for nearly a half million dollars at auction and consistently sells every year for hundreds of thousands of dollars. In 2018, I drew this permit… Before you head out - Find out what our favorite Top 5 Bows from ATA are. Photo by Jerrin Uecker Lesson 1 - How to Draw a Tag for Bighorn Sheep If you’re someone who applies ... Read more

The Best Buttermilk Pancakes Obviously, I am always writing about food. So what's it take? What's it take to make the best coffee and the best buttermilk pancakes in the Northwestern US and plate it all rustic? It takes a little local knowledge and some great food products we stock at your local 40 namely, Wheat Montana Buttermilk Pancake mix, butter pecan syrup and one of our locally roasted coffees. The local knowledge is how to plate it all rustic. The clay jars you see pictured here are all made in Hinsdale, Montana at Klind Pottery. What makes these the best pancakes and coffee in the Northwest? Let us, ladies and gentleman, begin first with the mixture de pancake. Watch this video provided by Wheat Montana which will explain what sets this buttermilk mix ahead of your general pancake mixes.  You will see that this wheat is grown... Read more

Tested by Locals: Carhartt Force Review Read more

We all learn, when we are little, that a pot of gold lies at the end of any rainbow. Those who do pursue a rainbow’s terminus will only be met with frustration. In many respects, I feel the same way about rainbow trout fisheries in Washington state. Don’t get me wrong, I love catching rainbows and pound for pound you won’t find many harder fighting fish in the state. However, rainbow trout are so widespread in the evergreen state that it's hard to avoid them, frustratingly so. You might think it odd to be frustrated with catching fish, but I’m a person who likes a little variety in his life. After all, you can only chase the pot of gold for so long before it gets boring. Alternative trout fisheries in the state do exist, many are underutilized, and some provide the potential for trophy fish. Here is a rundown of some alternative W... Read more

  Fall is my favorite time to go fishing. After long, hot and smoky summers the air finally clears, and fish go on the feed fattening themselves up for the coming winter. Not typically as windy as the spring, the weather is more cooperative and the pressure on local lakes is reduced as anglers are distracted by hunting opportunities and crockpots of cheese dip and meatballs followed by football. Opportunities abound in eastern Washington this time of year for the intrepid angler. Here is a rundown of five must-do fall fisheries:   5. Potholes Reservoir Walleye Potholes walleye can be finnicky, but then again, what walleye fishery isn’t finnicky? Walleye fishing gets a lot simpler this time of year as walleye get less picky about what they eat. Trolling is the name of the game on this lake. Bottom walkers trolled at 0.8 to 1.... Read more

As someone with a Hungarian background, garlic is part of the Holy Trinity (garlic, onions, and paprika) of cooking. We use it in dishes from breakfast to supper, along with eating it for its immune boosting qualities. Whether it’s the pungent hardnecked varieties or its versatile softneck sibling, garlic is one of those must-have ingredients in the kitchen. The good news is garlic is easy to grow pretty much anywhere in the country, and it’s one of those crops were putting a little time in the fall reaps the benefit next summer, making it one of those enjoyable autumn tasks. Plant Softneck Garlic to Last the Winter From mild to a hot there is a multitude of garlic varieties between the main subspecies with hardneck and softneck garlics being the most popular. The type you choose depends partly on your climate, as well as your taste ... Read more

Hi everybody.  I’ve been getting lots of e-mails and calls asking me what the steelhead run is looking like this year and what we can expect in the future.  So, I figured it was time to give you all an update. This particular update is going to focus on Idaho’s hatchery returns as they are the ones that provide us our fisheries and these are the fish most people are asking me about.  I am going to break this update down into two sections.  One will focus on the hatchery steelhead that are returning to the Salmon River and Snake River upstream of the Salmon (A-run populations) and the other will focus on the Clearwater River return (B-run population).  A-Run Populations (Upper Salmon River and Snake River) For those of you who have been tracking the dam counts, you are probably aware that this year’s steelhead counts at Bonnevi... Read more

A couple of hours working up 2,000 feet of switchbacks takes me from the valley floor to Alpine Lake, nestled in its cirque below Packrat Peak, and the smaller “frog ponds” just beyond. But it’s not until I climb the final mile, up to the crest of the ridge itself—well above 9,000 feet—and peer into the Baron Lakes Basin, that the scope of the rugged Sawtooth Mountains hits home. The imposing summits of Monte Verita, Warbonnet and Tohobit dominate the massif, rising above Baron Lakes, while Decker Peak looms across the valley to the south, and Braxon and Horstman fill the eastern horizon. From my ridge-top vantage, the wild beauty of the landscape offers mute if irrefutable evidence why the cognescenti, those mountain lovers lucky enough to know the Sawtooths, speak of them with frank awe. The cluster of 10,000-foot peaks in ... Read more

When it comes to food safety, I take it to a whole ‘nother level. Never shall meats and vegetables touch the same surfaces during preparation, and after making chicken, the kitchen smells like a swimming pool with copious amount of the bleach I use in the clean up. So, when home fermentation started becoming popular many years ago, even with all of its nutritional benefits, I didn’t know if I was going to be able to do have food soaking in brine on the counter for a week or more, possibly with white fuzz growing somewhere on the liquid, and actually eat it. Thankfully, speaking with Sandor Katz (a.k.a. Sandorkraut), author of Wild Fermentation and The Art of Fermentation, alleviated my fears. His decades of research and international experience convinced me that I wasn’t going to kill my family, and in fact, fermenting food will act... Read more

Pomeroy, Washington is a Norman Rockwellesque farm town that doubles as NASA’s testing ground for Mars rovers. At the end of the last Ice Age, 2,000-foot-high glacial dams shattered repeatedly, sending cataclysmic floods ripping across the Pacific Northwest. The wild water often hit 65 miles an hour, gouging lakes and razor-edged ravines, and revealing a starkly beautiful landscape of buttes and basalt-pillar colonnades. These “Channeled Scablands” are so otherworldly that NASA tested robotic rovers bound for Mars among the region’s coulees and dry waterfalls. The torrents also eddied, piling fertile dirt several hundred feet deep, while the wind blew the lighter silt and volcanic ash into dunes. This produced the undulating farmland of Eastern Washington’s Palouse, where spotted horses once helped harvest the nation’s riches... Read more

The lettuce and spinach are finally planted, but it’s still going to be weeks before they’re big enough to make a salad and, truthfully, I am ready for vegetables that haven’t traveled more than I have. To satisfy my taste for something fresh, I decided sprouts and microgreens are the perfect remedy for a quick, fresh treat any time of the year. Microgreens are fast growing and super nutritious. What is the difference between sprouts and greens? Sprouts and microgreens are the very early growth of seeds, whether those are Asian greens, alfalfa seeds, broccoli, or beans. The difference is how you grow them. Sprouts are a soilless method using a jar and some sort of screened lid to drain out the water. Microgreens are grown just like any new plant, but they are harvested as soon as the first true leaves emerge. Both pack a boatload o... Read more