Wild Boar Hunt: Czech porkedosis

Yep. It's true. I went on a wild boar hunt. Sounds pretty cool, eh? Well, it always does. Well, I'm no Odysseus; I didn't have a spear and have to plant my weapon in the face of a charging boar. No, it wasn't quite like that. It was, however, a hunting party, where the hope of the group was to shoot wild boars, or at least wild pigs. The pictures below are actually of two hunting excursions, one which I got to go on and the other I came late to but made the party. I will show the pictures and explain as needed.

There it is... that's a wild boar.

He's not alive, of course, so for the squimish, you may want to sit this one out and try to forget where your meat products come from.... just look at these next pictures and realize, that while you might not see this side, the above makes the next three pictures possible.

MMMMM. no it's not the party after the hunt; this is just pure gratuitous pork. These next few are for Darin, Chris, Ryan and Jason. Pictured above is Old Prague Ham. New, old, it was real good.

Nice!

Now back to the hunt. There is some question just who shot the boar. See each claimant below and judge for yourself who the real hunter is.

hmm. There are four here. That's already confusing. But yes, when these guys all see a wild pig, it's just possible they get trigger happy.

Only one claimant here. And it's Heidi... and she clearly has that look of victory. Besides, she has a gun and those chumps above don't have squat. It's clear then who mastered this game.

"Wait Heidi! Don't shoot! Its already dead!"

Heidi says it was looking at her funny. She has a gun. I'm not going to argue.

Ok, back to the beginning. There is a bit of protocol here. The local men have a hunting club in the Village of Nove Syrovice. I guess it's fairly common for many villages. Below is the hunting lodge; we arrived around 8:30 in the morning.

Here is a picture of it inside before many arrived.

Someone is stoking the fire in a small wood/coal stove.

Between 8:30 and 9 everyone starts to wander in. It is customary to greet and shake everyone's hand in the room when they arrive. Tea and coffee only, no drinking yet. Alcohol and firearms, not a good idea before the hunt.

At 9 sharp they all gather out in front of the lodge.

That's a lot of hunters.

"Stara Myslivecka"
The old hunter blows his horn
...and they all line up.

The hats come off, announcements are made - I suppose some directions like, no shooting each other, important stuff like that.

Then we all, or most of us, pile into this wagon and are taken somewhere, not sure as there aren't any windows, and we pile out and the hunt starts.

And then we all go out and they kill lots of things like wild boar, hare and foxes. I won't bore you with any more of that stuff.

Now that the hunt is done it's back to the Lodge. Time to eat and drink.

Anything look odd in the picture? Heidi with 40 men. Frank said that Heidi should come, that lots of guests would come and there would be other women. ...perhaps something was lost in translation... but that is how it sounded. No one seemed to mind.

Dumplings, sourkraut and some stewed deer and boar meat.

Frank puts Mark to work. I poured...countless trays, and Frank served. That green stuff is peppermint. oye vey. But he and most of them were very insistent on having it. I was always happy to see a bottle finished. But they always brought out a new one from somewhere.

But there were several kinds to choose from. Yes, that's peach. It wasn't really popular

Just so we're clear, I'm no freeloader.

Mark gets put to work again. Some notion of having a guest, eh? Funny, they didn't ask Heidi.
Behind me is the cook. He's a good man.

There is Mark working and Frank telling me that he really doesn't care for cleaning. Frank is feeling no pain. That's a stogy in his pie hole. I started calling him Clint Eastwood.

Ah, Stara Myslivecka, tooting his horn again.

Well, perhaps this doesn't seem as exciting from your vantage point. From here it has been one of my favorite experiences. I don't think this will easily be duplicated, unless I move to Nove Syrovice.

My thanks to Frank who has really made a place for us here.