December 1, 2022

Several years ago, I traveled to Paso Robles, California, to partake in a different kind of wine tour. The feral hogs that call the California coast their home had ravaged several local vineyards and the growers needed help from hunters to get the burgeoning porcine populations under control.

“I’m calling it my Grapes of Wrath tour,” said the second- generation grower as he showed me where the pigs had rooted under the fencing to get at the succulent grapes. “By the way, when you shoot one, try our Chardonnay when you cook its tenderloin.”

While transforming nuisance hogs into swine dining isn’t new to California wine country, the locavore movement (sourcing locally grown, sustainable foods) that accelerated during the pandemic has continued to grow legions of followers since. Eating healthy meat free of steroids, antibiotics, and chemicals even has hipsters ditching farm-raised meat for the original free-range protein.

Urbanites who might not want to grab a Winchester and head to the woods in search of venison are cozying up to their relatives in the country who see each autumn as a chance to fill their freezers with deer, elk, duck, pheasant, quail, and myriad other game animals that are as abundant as ever in America thanks to hunter-led (and funded) conservation efforts.

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