By Gerald Almy Photo by the Author
I
’ve never been good at family menu planning. Other than suggesting grilling burgers or steaks, I leave that to my better half. So, when Becky whips up something fancy that doesn’t appeal to my meat-and-potatoes palate, I don’t believe I have the right to complain. I simply swallow hard and say, “It’s delicious.” But there’s another kind of menu planning I love and to which I devote much of my free time: providing the most nutritious variety of food possible for the whitetails on our land. The aim is to meet all their food needs year-round, with as much variety as possible. The reasoning is twofold: to keep deer on our property as much as possible and help them reach their full potential, whether that means a heavy-racked buck or a doe that will raise healthy fawns. Writing such a menu or recipe for success isn’t difficult, thanks to the hard work of the people at the Whitetail Institute and the bounty of Mother Nature. And I’ve never had a deer dinner guest complain. Providing a year-round bounty of forage is a relatively new concept for some in the hunting and food plot community. In Continued on page 38
34 WHITETAIL NEWS
/ Vol. 30, No. 1
www.whitetailinstitute.com
