Food Afield With John Schneider

Alex Nadeau and I are in the tent alongside a creek in the Yukon high country. We tell the amazing story of our first-night connection with a huge bull Moose and then we get into a discussion on staying positive while in the field on long hunts. You can watch videos from this trip on our new YouTube channel, John Schneider's Wild Life. Alex and I share some of the tips and tricks we've learned about staying comfortable while glassing and performing other sedentary activities when we're hunting. Cold and discomfort can affect your success in a huge way. More time spent on the mountainside glassing means more likelihood that you will spot the animal that you are after. There is a definite skill involved with staying in a positive mindset in the wild. Loneliness, stiffness, and other discomforts will all present themselves as obstacles to success we're hunting...at some point along the way. Here are some ideas to help you spend more time in the field. Enjoying the adventure. Something new! We

Sitting in a tent alongside a small river in the Yukon Territories of northern Canada on a rainy afternoon, Alex tells us the story of his recent successful sheep hunt. Maybe you will never get a chance to hunt thinhorn sheep in your life, but it is pretty cool to hear the story from someone who does just that on a regular basis. The Yukon is a special place.Also in this episode is an update from me on the show rebrand and where we are headed on our journey of wild food exploration. I've purchased a boat, or I should say that we have purchased a boat. It is an emotional story that is best told by Sass herself. You can head over and subscribe to our YouTube channel "John Schneider's Wild Life" and catch up on the episodes there to hear the whole story. Thanks for sticking with us on this re-brand break. We're back and we'll post new episodes on a slightly reduced schedule until I can afford to hire some content managers as part of the team. Cheers!JohnSomething new! We've lau

This is a good episode! I recently had the chance to chat with Pope & Young Club's past President, Jim Willems. Jim is an outstanding traditional bowhunter whose passion for bowhunting takes him far and wide. He's taken numerous world-class animals with his recurve and speaks eloquently about taking back the word "trophy hunter". That discussion alone, and hearing his take on hunting big bucks and bulls, is enough to make this episode great, but then we get to talking about ways that folks can access hunting opportunities around them. It is one thing to pick up a new bow and get geared up and proficient with arrow accuracy, and then it's a whole other thing to actually get out hunting. Hopefully, this episode helps you with that. Welcome to the Traditional Bowhunter's Journey...brought to you in cooperation with the Traditional Bowhunter Magazine.This episode is also brought to you by the fine folks over at Novem Archery. I am shooting one of their finger tabs right now, and

First off, May, Kevin, and I are at a favourite stream for a few days of fly fishing and wild food fun. The weather has been tumultuous, and the stream is running wildly and is the colour of skim chocolate milk! The fishing is challenging and even getting up and down the mountain river to the next hole is not without its hardships. The raging currents have changed the riverbed. The water is high on the banks, leaving sheer drop-offs along our path. It is a fun trip!Fly fishing in tough conditions requires adaptive fishing strategies and perseverance. We talk about some of those strategies and get into a few fish. Enough for a wonderful fish-fry breakfast and some smoked Rocky Mountain Whitefish.  May is with us for the first leg of this fishing trip and caught a little bit of the fly fishing bug. A few days after we were home, I got a call from her that she wanted some assistance in choosing her first gear. So, we headed to Reid's Fly Shop, and the owner, Reid Otto helped her select a beautiful combo tha

Clay Newcomb was super helpful to me when I wanted to publish a story in Bear Hunter Magazine about my big bear in '21.  At the time, he was the owner of the magazine and I didn't know it then, but he was mostly complete with his discussions with Steve Rinella and the Meat Eater company. It wouldn't be long after that that the magazine was sold, and he became a full-time content creator for Meat Eater and the Bear Grease Podcast Clay took some time out of his day to join us on the Traditional Bowhunter's Journey podcast. I wasn't certain which series this interview belonged to. I know Clay from his youtube videos where he close-hunted black bears with his traditional archery gear. We did chat a bit about bows, but mainly I was interested in his take on hunting tools and the philosophy that we share when it comes to deciding on which equipment to take with us in the field.I do hope you enjoy hearing some of the behind-the-scenes stories from Clay Newcomb on the path he took and how he

Here is a delightful episode from a day spent fishing in the East Kootenays of British Columbia with Paige Johnstone and Lisa Tink. This starts as a lovely day on a small stream. It was so nice to be back in BC and spend time with friends. I had planned this episode immediately after I met Paige last summer while fishing with Curtis Hall. The little stream we fished is in Paige's backyard. She grew up here, long before she became a fly fisher. Paige has been fishing for three years now. Her attraction to fly fishing though goes back to when she was a young girl fishing with her father and watching folks fly casting elsewhere. Then she met Curtis, a professional fly fishing guide, and the rest is history. She is now very accomplished for someone relatively new to the sport. She talks like a guide and acts like one too. I'm not surprised though. Paige reminds me of me...she wants to figure something out and then does it. Unlike me, however, she does things very well indeed! As we fished up and down th

This episode is a good one. Johnathan and his family have a wonderful story of how they have grown 3Rivers Archery into the company that it is today. We chat about that origin story and all of the ways that this family-owned business can help you get started with your own traditional archery journey. There are some incredibly innovative aspects of the 3Rivers Archery website that will help you make equipment decisions that are right for you. We also spend a good amount of time hearing about Johnathan's best hunting memory...it is a unique one. Now I am stoked to give this hunt a try. If nothing else, just to be able to make Gator Nuggets! The 2023 People's Choice Podcast Awards are here again. From July 1 to the 31st you can enter your vote for the Food Afield Podcast in each of the categories, the Adam Curry People's Choice AND the Grammer Girl Education category. Last year we were a top ten finalist in the education category and it would be great, with your support, to try to win this year. Thanks! VOT

Humanity and its preoccupation with fear, carrying bear spray, and why we hunt big animals. A little bit of everything in this episode including exclusive information on some plans that Shawn James has for his show, My Self Reliance. The 2023 People's Choice Podcast Awards are here again. From July 1 to the 31st you can enter your vote for the Food Afield Podcast in each of the categories, the Adam Curry People's Choice AND the Grammer Girl Education category. Last year we were a top ten finalist in the education category and it would be great, with your support, to try to win this year. Thanks! VOTE HERE  Support the showPlease be sure to check us out on Instagram. If we've earned it, give us a follow and share the account with your friends and family.Another great way to access more of our content is at the website. There are some great how-to articles along with recipes and gear reviews revolving around traditional bowhunting, back-country camping, fly fishing, and other wild food adventures.Wild

Part one of my recent conversation with Shawn James. For those that don't know, Shawn is the creator of the My Self Reliance channel on YouTube. He has over two million followers, while our channel is pretty close to that...at almost 200. In this episode, Shawn and I chat about the current state of hunting, and social media, and perhaps dish out a little controversy with our opinions on such things. It was supposed to be a discussion on his spring hunting success, but happily turned into something equally interesting and perhaps more insightful. Of course, whenever Shawn is on the show I have to be a fanboy and ask for some details of what is happening behind the scenes with his YouTube channel. Shawn is always gracious in sharing what he is thinking as he produces his videos and what future plans he has for the project he is working on. The 2023 People's Choice Podcast Awards are here again. From July 1 to the 31st you can enter your vote for the Food Afield Podcast in each of the categories, the Adam C

Tim Lewis has written six books and published many articles, mostly to do with traditional bowhunting. This week on the Traditional Bowhunter's Journey Dr. Lewis joins us to discuss the topic of following up after the shot on big game. Getting to the point of getting a shot at a deer or other large animal is difficult. Now we have to do the right things in the correct order to be able to recover the animal for the freezer.Following up on a recent article that he published in the Traditional Bowhunter Magazine "Traditional Bowhunting 101 column", Tim and John discuss blood trailing and a few other good habits you need to know after making the shot.Sorry for some of the distortion when Tim speaks, it was not a great connection at times. But still, the quality of Tim's wisdom and the words he speaks makes it easy to pay no attention to the odd glitch in transmission. I did my best to clean it up in post-editing. You can get Tim's books at 3Rivers Archery or by emailing him directly at ti

I wanted to hear the stories of Mark's successful turkey hunts after I left turkey camp this spring. But, the conversation started off with an essential discussion on some respective mental health challenges we've both recently faced. Not easy conversations to have, but they are terribly important to share. Just talking about these things can help. If nothing else, you will quickly realize that you are not alone when you feel down. Everyone faces these challenges from time to time. We thought it was an important conversation to share. The solution for both of us seemed intuitive as well...hopefully, this helps others find their own answers.We also had a chance to get to those turkey stories! I had left turkey camp and Mark still had several weeks of the season left. He was able to be there when his Daughter connected on a Tom and then got one himself a week later. Hearing those stories of success got me anticipating next spring already! Turkey hunting is addictive. Support the showPlease be sure to

This week has been a little weird. I've been recording a ton of Traditional Bowhunter's Journey episode content along with all of the other day-to-day tasks that I have. That, along with a mix-up for an outing to fly fish for Pike means that I had no Food Afield Podcast episode lined up for this week. Yesterday I got out of the office and took the new mountain bike for a spin at Nana and Papa's farm. I rode the old gas lease road down to the slough. I needed a hazel branch for a new landing net project and it was a good day to multi-task and record some content for this week's show. Here is an update of what I am working on, along with what is planned for the future. Now I am back to the editing suite to work on next week's episode which will be released while Lisa and I are fly fishing in southern BC and Alberta! Please be sure to check us out on Instagram. If we've earned it, give us a follow and share the account with your friends and family.Another great way to access more of

David Tetzlaff is back on the show. David is the Co-editor of the Traditional Bowhunter Magazine. This makes him one of the key people in our lifestyle of traditional archery and bowhunting. He is in nearly constant communication with all of the expert authors and industry leaders involved in our passion for hunting with traditional and primitive archery gear. He is also the Past President of the Traditional Bowhunters of Florida and has been involved with hunter education as a way to give back to the traditional bowhunting community. In this episode of the Traditional Bowhunter's Journey, we chat about hunter education and the important role it can play in making your hunting experience enjoyable, ethical, and safe. Please be sure to check us out on Instagram. If we've earned it, give us a follow and share the account with your friends and family.Another great way to access more of our content is at the website. There are some great how-to articles along with recipes and gear reviews revolving arou

Josh Kirchner is passionate about bowhunting, especially backpack bowhunting. He has spent years devoted to learning and experiencing all that he can in this regard, and he has written a book called, "Becoming A Backpack Bowhunter". Josh is highly respected for his expertise in the world of backcountry bowhunting. He has written many articles on the subject and his YouTube channel @DialedInHunter is filled with spectacular video productions from his adventures. When it comes to learning exactly how to go about backpack bowhunting, you could do a lot worse than to follow Josh on his various platforms including Instagram @dialedinhunter and his website, www.dialedinhunter.comOf course, you can also learn a great deal on the subject by listening to this podcast episode! Join us over at Instagram too and follow along with our wild food adventures. Mentioned in this episode:Folding Mountain Brewery, Kitchen and TaproomThe next time you visit the world-famous Jasper National Park, be sure to stop in at Fo

Jeff and I go way back. We were in our 20's when we started hanging out, guiding, and outfitting big game hunts. Today, Jeff owns Primitive Outfitters and we are both considered "old-timers" in traditional bowhunting. It was great to visit with Jeff, to reminisce about some of the good old days of our lives, to tell a few stories, and to discuss some things we'd have done differently when it comes to shooting tradbows in our youth. I hope you'll enjoy this conversation between two old friends talking about traditional bowhunting and past hunts. Cheers!Mentioned in this episode:Traditional Bowhunter MagazineHeritage. Lifestyle. Community. We at Traditional Bowhunter Magazine strive to provide the best traditional experience for you. Our goal is to encourage a welcoming community focused on a lifestyle that honors the heritage of the traditional bow.In the bi-monthly magazine issues, you can read about hunts in faraway places and close to home, wild game cooking, How-to’s, technique adv

Fly Fishing for Arctic Grayling in the Yukon!Welcome to the Food Afield Podcast, and the conclusion of our fishing expedition north of the 60th parallel with Alex Nadeau and Erin Flaherty. Anticipation filled the air as we bumped down the dusty two-track road, leading us closer to the valley's heart. With the river's water levels just right, Alex, armed with his experience as a wildlife biologist, anticipated that the Grayling would be there. And indeed, they were—in great numbers. A small bridge spanned the tiny river and once we were above the water, we could see the Grayling, by the dozens, maneuvering in the currents. After several days of immersing ourselves in the grand northern landscape, the absence of fish tested our patience. But, our perseverance was about to be rewarded. Adventure with us into the Yukon, sit by the campfire, and wade the cold northern waters as we land trophy Arctic Grayling and enjoy backcountry camping. Mentioned in this episode:CreditsThank you to our listeners, espec

We'll take a break between the Yukon Grayling episodes this week. I've been trying to get James Alofs on the show for over a year. We've been friends for several years and chat on a regular basis. He is hilarious and we always get each other going when we speak. This episode is a fairly radical departure from the serious tone that I usually follow, which is weird because I've always loved making folks laugh and was continually in trouble in school for trying to be the class clown. Here is a raunchy, raw, and colourful conversation with James. Just two guys, full of crap, having fun chatting about wild food and outdoor wild food endeavours. This episode has some language, so not one for the car with the kids. James and I chat about his youtube channel, the cabin he is building along with his random Chinese life, and being the host for the Backstreet Boys Reunion live stream that had tens of millions of viewers! James is an interesting guy, to say the least. This isn't a new direction f

Check out the Food Afield Podcast on Instagram! Follow along for all of our wild food adventures.Beka Garris is a busy person. Her two young children, outdoor activities, and writing career mean her time is precious. I was grateful then that she set aside a little of her time to chat with us about her tradbow journey here on the podcast. Beka faces a lot of barriers when it comes to being out in the woods with her bow. However, she was determined to keep that part of her life intact and to share it with her kids. Relocating the family, not having access to private land, and naysayers trying to knock her down, it didn't matter to Beka. She is just out doing her thing with a traditional bow in one hand and her daughters in the other. The entire focus of traditional bowhunting for Beka is food, but perhaps even more important, at least right now, is showing her two daughters this sustainable lifestyle. Having young children is not forever, one day she will have all of the time in the world to be out hunting

Come and listen to the Food Afield Podcast episode about fly fishing the wonderful Arctic Grayling in Canada's far north with Alex and Erin. The days were already getting noticeably longer that far north, but it still took us a few days to find spring, let alone the fish. Here is the first part of our trip, an introduction to the Yukon and some of the beautiful scenes that we experienced on our journey. We started off in great anticipation of big Grayling jumping from crystal clear waters. Those visions were quickly dashed as our boat confronted a mass of ice, still frozen across the lake. Intrepidly, we carried on. We fished hard. We had a blast.Hey...we are currently trying to grow our Instagram account! Will you go have a look and see if it's worthy of your follow? Here's the link. Food Afield Podcast. Let us know what you think...and don't forget about our website which has a whole lot more content that is unavailable anywhere else. Thank you!Mentioned in this episode:Support the show,

Monty Browning is an author and traditional bowhunting legend. He is one of the old guard within our traditional bowhunting heritage. His inexhaustible ability to tell fascinating hunting stories is just plain fun. This conversation could've gone on for hours. If you're lucky enough to have met Monty in person, you know exactly what I'm talking about here. Monty's longevity in bowhunting is a definite theme in his life. At 73 years old, he is still climbing one hundred-foot trees with a chainsaw for his arborist business. He is also still chasing big game with his recurve bow in faraway places, something that he has done almost his entire life. He holds, or has held multiple world records for Cape Buffalo, Water Buffalo, and Alaskan Brown Bear despite the fact that "he has never packed a duffle bag with the idea of killing a world record animal". You can purchase Monty's first book, "Bowhunting: A Passion For Life" right here. Please be sure to check us out on Inst