Thanks!

Last fall Cody went bear hunting and came home

with a bear skin (still in the freezer) and

various cuts of bear meat

(most still in the freezer too).

We have very willingly shared

our bear meat with others.

My Dad sent this note today:

----- Original Message -----
From: Vern Riddle <vrriddle@acegroup.cc>
To: Cody KlevenSent: Sat Apr 12 13:33:24 2008
Subject: I was so hungry I ate a bear!

Today was the day. Up to this time we had always had a convenient reason to skip the bear and eat chicken, beef, pork, turkey, polish sausage, italian sausage, bacon, lunch meat, venison, buffalo or veggie burgers. But today, Jennifer was attending a local fashion show (jeans or bike shorts? - - I don't know) and suggested that I might fix myself some bear meat. So I did.

It was simply "Guy Cooking". The first thing I did was to fix myself a stiff bourbon and water, this at 11:30 AM. Then I dredged the bear chops in flour, salt and pepper, and fried it in a sea of butter. When they were nearly done I added some gravy, and finished them off in that while I baked a potatoe, and made another bourbon and water. Shortly, very shortly, it seemed, it was time to eat.

Riley was very excited! Bear has somewhat unique aroma which neither of us was familiar with. But, I "tucked in" as they say Down Under. The flavor was distinct if not delicious, and I chewed the meat well while trying find a comparable flavor from my memory of things eaten. I chewed and masticated beyond what was necessary, because the meat was very tender, and finally swallowed. Not bad. I finished off the first chop, then the second. By then I had decided that Bear was indeed edible, even if I probably wouldn't order it off of a menu. I tell you this because in hard times, you could feed it to your family.

Thanks for the gustatory experience. I hope the rug turns out nice.