Ep. 682: MeatEater Radio Live! Turkey DNA, Turkey Habitat, and a Risqué Turkey Photo Contest

Summary

The MeatEater Podcast - Episode 682 Summary

Title: MeatEater Radio Live! Turkey DNA, Turkey Habitat, and a Risqué Turkey Photo Contest
Host: Giannis Patelis
Guests: Dr. Randall Williams, Brody Henderson
Release Date: March 28, 2025

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Introduction and Overview

In Episode 682 of The MeatEater Podcast, host Giannis Patelis welcomes listeners to a live broadcast from Meat Eater headquarters in Bozeman, Montana. Joined by Dr. Randall Williams and Brody Henderson, Giannis outlines an action-packed episode celebrating Turkey Week. The primary topics include Giannis’s recent Texas turkey hunt, an exciting new Turkey DNA study, prairie habitat conservation, an update from logger Wyatt Seep, and the unveiling of a risqué turkey photo contest with enticing prizes.

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Recap of the Texas Turkey Hunt with Jesse Griffiths

Giannis kicks off the episode by sharing his recent turkey hunting adventure in Texas alongside Jesse Griffiths and Jesse’s friend, Eli Cairo of Olympia Provisions. Despite facing a severe drought that left the landscape barely green, the team managed to locate and harvest a turkey, thanks to strategic placement and a bit of luck.

Notable Quote:

“[04:00] Giannis Patelis: Honestly, the turkey hunting was just so, so mega drought in Texas right now. It was barely greened up down there. They were flocked up, hammering hard on the roost, landing nothing.”

Giannis also delves into a humorous discussion about improving his biscuit-making skills, inspired by Jesse’s hot tips, highlighting the community's blend of hunting and culinary expertise.

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Bears vs. Turkeys: A Springtime Dilemma

A spirited debate arises among the hosts regarding hunting preferences—bears versus turkeys. Brody Henderson expresses his passion for bear hunting, citing the adventure and freedom it offers in the mountains.

Notable Quote:

“[07:04] Brody Henderson: There's a sense of adventure and freedom with getting out in the mountains in the springtime.”

Corey Jacobsen sides with turkeys, emphasizing their importance to the ecosystem and the rewarding challenge they present. This discussion underscores the diverse interests within the hunting community and sets the stage for subsequent conversations on turkey conservation and management.

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Exploring Wild Turkey DNA with Dr. Phil Lavretsky

A significant portion of the episode features an in-depth conversation with Dr. Phil Lavretsky about his pioneering Wild Turkey DNA study. Building on the success of the Duck DNA project, this initiative aims to explore genetic diversity, hybridization, and the genetic integrity of wild turkey populations.

Key Insights:

• Project Collaboration: The study is a joint effort involving the University of Texas, University of Georgia, Ducks Unlimited, NWTF, and other organizations.
• Participation: Hunters can contribute by submitting turkey samples through wildturkeydna.com, aiding in creating a comprehensive genetic repository.
• Findings: Preliminary data indicates high levels of genetic relatedness within eastern turkey populations, raising concerns about genetic diversity and population viability.

Notable Quote:

“[14:49] Giannis Patelis: Wow. No, I wouldn't have either.”

Dr. Lavretsky discusses the discovery of rare three-species hybrids and the potential implications for turkey conservation. He emphasizes the importance of habitat preservation and genetic diversity in maintaining healthy turkey populations.

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Prairie Habitat Conservation with Kyle Libarger

Giannis transitions to a conversation with Kyle Libarger, a dedicated advocate for native plant conservation and prairie habitat restoration. Kyle highlights the critical role prairies play in supporting turkey populations by providing abundant insect life, essential for poults' diet.

Key Points:

• Habitat Restoration: Kyle shares insights into restoring oak savannas and prairie remnants, emphasizing the return of natural fire regimes to maintain ecosystem health.
• Biodiversity Benefits: Restored prairies support a multitude of plant and insect species, enhancing the food sources available to turkeys and other wildlife.
• Conservation Efforts: Kyle recounts successful projects, including the conservation of federally endangered plants and the creation of thriving habitats for turkeys.

Notable Quote:

“[41:55] Wyatt Seep: Well, to me, it's. It kind of puts it in to more simplistic terms, but it's, you know, that's the foundation. If you want great cattle, you have to have great pastures, and you have to have healthy pastures. If you want great turkey populations, you need to have a lot of insects because that's what the poults are eating.”

Kyle’s dedication underscores the interconnectedness of habitat health and wildlife sustainability, making a compelling case for continued prairie conservation.

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Logging and Habitat Improvement with Wyatt Seep

Logger Wyatt Seep provides an update on the ongoing logging operations at Giannis’s property in Wisconsin, detailing how these activities are designed to enhance turkey habitat. By converting dense forest areas into open oak savannas, Wyatt explains the benefits for turkeys and other wildlife.

Key Highlights:

• Habitat Management: The logging project aims to create a mixture of mature oak stands and young oak savannahs, promoting diverse food sources and nesting sites for turkeys.
• Wildlife Utilization: Initial observations indicate turkeys are beginning to explore and utilize the newly managed areas, though they remain somewhat skittish as the habitat adjusts.
• Long-Term Goals: The project seeks to mimic historical fire-managed landscapes, fostering both plant and animal biodiversity.

Notable Quote:

“[61:51] Giannis Patelis: Yeah, turkeys are everywhere. They seem to be a little bit more skittish.”

Wyatt’s efforts highlight practical strategies for habitat restoration, demonstrating how thoughtful logging can support turkey populations and overall ecosystem health.

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Turkey Photo Contest: Highlights and Winner Announcement

The episode culminates with the reveal of the turkey photo contest results. With over 200 submissions, the hosts narrowed the entries down to three standout photographs, which were then voted on by the live audience.

Top Submissions:

1. Jacob Zetterman: Featured a striking composition with a turkey and a humorous caption about switching from flintlock to percussion rifles.
2. Ed Snell: Showcased a turkey hunter in boxer shorts, adding a risqué and entertaining element to the contest.
3. Austin McDaniel: Displayed a turkey shot near an "Adult Diner" billboard, blending humor and hunting prowess.

Winner Announcement: Austin McDaniel’s photo took first place with 43% of the vote, earning him a first light tree line turkey vest, a Moultrie Edge 2 Cell camera, and additional gear. Jacob Zetterman secured second place, while Ed Snell’s humorous submission took third.

Notable Quote:

“[70:37] Brody Henderson: I liked Ed’s smile really delighted me.”

The contest not only engaged the community but also highlighted the camaraderie and shared passion for turkey hunting within the MeatEater audience.

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Closing Remarks and Listener Reflections

Giannis wraps up the episode with heartfelt reflections on cherishing moments with family and the fleeting nature of life’s stages, emphasizing the importance of being present. He encourages listeners to savor their experiences and stay connected with loved ones.

Additionally, Giannis introduces the new MeatEater Roasts cooking competition show, which blends hunting, cooking, and light-hearted competition, further expanding the MeatEater brand’s content offerings.

Final Thoughts:

“[67:00] Giannis Patelis: But, yeah, you can't help yourself, right, Brody?”

The episode concludes on a positive note, celebrating community engagement, conservation efforts, and the shared joys of hunting and outdoor living.

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Conclusion

Episode 682 of The MeatEater Podcast offers a rich tapestry of stories and insights, blending practical hunting experiences with groundbreaking conservation research and community engagement through the turkey photo contest. Listeners are left with a deeper appreciation for the complexities of wildlife management, the importance of genetic studies, and the joys of outdoor camaraderie.

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Note: For more detailed discussions, including quotes and timestamps, listeners are encouraged to tune into Episode 682 of The MeatEater Podcast.

Transcript

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[Turkey Hunter Advertisement]

Turkey season is here and it's time to break out those calls. Every serious turkey hunter knows every bird is a little different and you never know what will get them going. You may need a trusty old box call, light purrs from a pot call, or maybe some sweet yelps from diaphragms to seal the deal on that old gobbler. But sometimes the hardest part isn't calling them in, it's finding them in the first place. That's where our locator calls come in. From curl calls to owl hooters, we've got everything you need to get those shot gobbles out of those old toms unwilling to give up their position. Get fully geared up this season with the best tricky calls in the game. Check out the full lineup@phelpsgame calls.com and make every call count.

[Giannis Patelis]

Smell us now, lady. Welcome to Meat Eater Trivia Meat Eater.

[Dr. Randall Williams]

Podcast.

[Giannis Patelis]

Tell me when to start, Phil.

[Phil Lavretsky]

Okay, three, two, go.

[Giannis Patelis]

Welcome to Meat Eater Radio Live. It's 11:00am Mountain Time on Thursday, March 27th and we're live from Meat Eater headquarters in Bozeman, Montana. I'm your host Giannis Patelis and I'm joined today by Dr. Randall Williams and Brody Henderson. And we're celebrating turkey week. I love these birds so much. I was pushing for turkey month, but all the bear hunters here at Meat Eater, like Randall and Corey here, thought that a week was enough citing that they don't even have a bear day yet here at Meat Eater. Maybe we need to run that up the chain and see if next week we can get bear day or bear week. On today's episode, I'll recap my recent Texas turkey hunt with Jesse Griffiths. Converse with Phil, Dr. Phil Lavretsky about his new Turkey DNA study. Touch base with Kyle Libarger, one of my favorite dudes on the Internet about prairie habitat for turkeys. Check in with my logger Wyatt Seep in Wisconsin to see how my logging. Sorry. To see how logging my place is improving turkey habitat. And finally, we'll rate the top submissions from our turkey photo contest and pick a winner to receive a first line, first light tree line, turkey vest, Phelps game calls and a moultrie edge to cell cam. It's an action packed episode, folks. We're going to be ripping and running here. Couple of things right off the top though. Texas turkey recap. Honestly, the turkey hunting was just so, so mega drought in Texas right now. It was barely greened up down there. They were flocked up, hammering hard on the roost, landing nothing. I got lucky because the first morning Jesse was like, hey, if they don't, if it doesn't happen right off the roost, they like to come through this little zone. I shot one here last year, you know, might be a good idea to set up there. So of course, once it didn't happen off the roost, Max and I went, did a little loop around, set up and like 30 minutes later, here comes the flock. Um, what was way cool was hanging out with Jesse Griffiths and his buddy Eli Cairo who owns Olympia Provisions. Some of the best sausage cured meat, you know, production that I've ever had. Incredible stuff. So if you're any sells in Whole Foods. So if you're in Whole Foods, look up Olympia Provisions. You won't be disappointed. But a couple things that I learned from my little trip down there. One, and I think, which hot tip are we doing? We doing turkey tender hot tip or we doing the. Or the one around biscuits?

[Dr. Randall Williams]

Well, we better make that a decision here pretty quick.

[Phil Lavretsky]

Well, no, it's too late for that. We're doing biscuits.

[Giannis Patelis]

We're doing biscuits. Okay, great. So Jesse's got a great hot tip about how to make biscuits easier. But what I learned, and it has changed my biscuit game since I've been home. Now for a week from that trip, I think I've made biscuits three times.

[Brody Henderson]

My goodness.

[Giannis Patelis]

Yes. I now fold my biscuit dough about a dozen times.

[Phil Lavretsky]

Oh, yeah.

[Giannis Patelis]

And I used to always think that that would, like, sort of overwork it and it would just be too dense. But what you're doing is you end up making these layers every time you fold it. Kind of smash it out. Fold it.

[Corey Jacobsen]

Yeah. It's like the Pillsbury ones with the layers.

[Giannis Patelis]

I'm telling you, when you make.

[Brody Henderson]

What I like to do with my biscuit dough is I pop the can, then I just flop out the little hockey puck.

[Giannis Patelis]

I'm kicking you out for that one. Anyways, amazing food, great sausage from Olympia Provisions. And I learned a lot about cooking, and we'll get to more about that when we do Jesse's hot tip. But we have a little bit of a spring dilemma to discuss. And I know, and we have people here in the room that sit on both sides of this discussion. Bears or turkeys? Randall, where do you sit?

[Brody Henderson]

Bear man. Bear man.

[Giannis Patelis]

Why is that? You grew up in the Midwest. You grew up in turkey country.

[Brody Henderson]

There's a sense of adventure and freedom with getting out in the mountains in the springtime. I like to hike. I like to glass. I like to shoot things with rifles, preferably across canyons. So bear hunting really speaks to me. I also just enjoy watching bears. It's been a couple years since I've killed one. And just watching a bear do bear stuff on a mountain, see him roll over logs and negotiate terrain and stuff like that, it's just endlessly fascinating to me. So that's my case.

[Giannis Patelis]

All right, Brody.

[Corey Jacobsen]

Turkeys 100%.

[Giannis Patelis]

You killed a spring bear.

[Corey Jacobsen]

Nope.

[Giannis Patelis]

You're a fall bear guy.

[Corey Jacobsen]

Yeah. You get that fat in the fall.

[Giannis Patelis]

Yeah, I hear you. But you can get some fatty bears in the spring, too.

[Brody Henderson]

Yeah. Yeah. And I think if I had, like, a go to turkey spot and I picked up the basics, I think I'd take to turkey hunting quite well.

[Giannis Patelis]

Okay, well, aren't you attempting to get your first turkey this spring?

[Brody Henderson]

Yeah. I mean, probably make a day of it. I don't know how committed I am, but.

[Giannis Patelis]

Okay, well, I'm gonna help you get. Get committed right now. I brought with me a Meteor Phelps three pack. I believe I saw one of these available. Bob Wards the other day. So I imagine you can still get them at shields too. But it's the three pack. It's got the Latvian eagle call in it. It's got Steve's Jake break. And then the other one is called the loud and clear. I believe I'm gonna give you one. I would choose either Steve's Jake break or the loud and clear. Don't go. The Latvian Eagle. That's a little bit more of an advanced call. It's. It's just that it's a little bit harder to call because the. The latex is a little bit thicker.

[Brody Henderson]

Loud and clear.

[Giannis Patelis]

Okay. And so I. I love the lan Eagle is still my favorite call. That's why I made it and put it in here.

[Corey Jacobsen]

I thought you were going to put that in the wrong way for a second.

[Brody Henderson]

Oh, no, I'm not.

[Giannis Patelis]

That last longer now. Okay, I'm trying to give you the fastest ever turkey call lesson here ever. You played football?

[Brody Henderson]

Yes.

[Giannis Patelis]

I don't know. Did you play quarterback?

[Brody Henderson]

No.

[Giannis Patelis]

No. Okay, but you heard the quarterback often say hut, right? So we're going to say the same thing right now. Just do it without the call. Hut.

[Brody Henderson]

Hut.

[Giannis Patelis]

Hut.

[Brody Henderson]

Hut.

[Giannis Patelis]

You feel how like you push the air out of your diaphragm and then your tongue stops. The end of the word. Okay, now you're just going to put this diaphragm into the roof of your mouth and say the same exact thing. But you gotta push the air from your diaphragm across it. Come on. You're messing with me now.

[Corey Jacobsen]

Have you used an elk like you.

[Brody Henderson]

Never used a rifle, Man, I love rifles.

[Giannis Patelis]

This thing is pressed up in the roof of your mouth. Correct, with my elk don't choke gag. This is. This is a thing that happens with folk learning to use diaphragms for sure. It's uncomfortable and it can get a little gaggy. Take it out and talk. Oh, yeah. Take this in out that. Take the second Zen out. That might help. Goodness, Randall.

[Corey Jacobsen]

They should make a mouth call with, like, Zin.

[Brody Henderson]

I didn't think we're actually doing this. I wasn't prepared.

[Corey Jacobsen]

Oh, good.

[Giannis Patelis]

I wanted it to be a surprise.

[Brody Henderson]

Press it up against the roof of my mouth.

[Giannis Patelis]

Yeah, yeah. And just let it sit there. And then you have my tongue on it.

[Brody Henderson]

Should I have my tongue on it?

[Giannis Patelis]

Not before. At the end. The. At the end of the hut. It'll. Your tongue will stick to the top of it. Okay, so what do we have on.

[Brody Henderson]

Our schedule for today?

[Giannis Patelis]

I'm failing. I'm not good at Teaching people how to turkey call in a limited amount of time.

[Corey Jacobsen]

There you go, Randall.

[Giannis Patelis]

Let's move on.

[Corey Jacobsen]

That's what you need.

[Giannis Patelis]

Good job, Randall. There you go. Okay, you're doing that one wrong, too. I would actually say for all beginners, go with the slate. It's hard to mess up a slate pot call like Brody's got there.

[Brody Henderson]

Oh, yeah.

[Giannis Patelis]

All right, let's talk to Dr. Phil Lavretsky about his new wild turkey research. Phil, you there?

[Dr. Randall Williams]

I'm here.

[Giannis Patelis]

All right.

[Dr. Randall Williams]

I was just laughing at that whole scenario.

[Giannis Patelis]

Yeah, well, it's meant to be funny. I'm glad it was entertaining for you. We got Phil here. You might remember Phil from Meteor podcast episode 490, which was titled Duck DNA. Are wild ducks really Wild? Well, now we're going to find out if wild turkeys are really wild. Wild Turkey DNA, which is the title of Phil's project, is the first citizen science project for turkeys ever attempted. It's a joint effort between Phil's lab at the University of Texas and at El Paso, Dr. Michael Chamberlain's wild turkey lab at the University of Georgia, Ducks Unlimited, NWTF, and others. So, Phil, welcome to the show. Quickly, remind us. Remember, you're on. We're on a tight schedule here, so you got to be succinct. What. What was duck DNA all. All about? And tell me, like, the most interesting thing that you've learned from doing that project.

[Dr. Randall Williams]

Almost interesting. So this is just going to be about, like, 40 minutes long. Yeah. So duck DNA was this combination between Ducks Unlimited and myself thinking about how can we monitor the genetic integrity of mallards and other waterfowl and sort of build one of the largest genetic repositories for a group of species? And that's sort of where duck DNA was born out of and where we are in our second year. We just finished up. Just to give you a bit of a highlight, we went with 700 kits this year as compared to 300 kids. Still 4,000 plus people applied and over 2,000 samples analyzed. Just this year, we're getting over over 2,000 to 3,000. Close to 3,000. With the two years of data, it's pretty remarkable.

[Giannis Patelis]

That's awesome. Congratulations.

[Dr. Randall Williams]

Yeah, it's been hugely successful. The hunters love it. You know, the biggest thing is that it's a direct communication with hunters, and they're learning more and more about the bird that they have. And, you know, every time they post something, people can. Can, like, pretend to think that they know what they are, and then. And then they come in and Say aha. This is what it is, right?

[Giannis Patelis]

All right, so what's the, what's the like the top thing? What is the most interesting aha thing that's come from this research?

[Dr. Randall Williams]

Actually all the hot. I mean, one of the things is the monitoring of this whole game farm mallard issue with, with wild mallards and across the board and understanding that. But two other things were super interesting. We now know that brewers duck, mallard, Gadwell go both ways. So the male could be a Gadwell, the female or the male could be a Gadwell, the male could be a mallard pintail. Same thing. But the other cool thing is we started finding second year hybrids, meaning those hybrids are obviously fertile and making more kids out there. And so we're starting to learn some of the things that was. That is very difficult to do so as a single individual in a lifetime, let alone through plumage alone, because they start looking like that parent as they back cross more and more. The one of the cool things I think we posted on this, I hope I'm not jumping the gun, but we got a three species hybrid, a true three species hybrid of all the blue wings. So it was a cinnamon blue wing hybrid that bred with a northern shoveler to make a hybrid that this, this guy harvested in the San Francisco Sacramento area of California. That was super cool. Didn't see that coming.

[Giannis Patelis]

Wow. No, I wouldn't have. I wouldn't have either. All right, so now you're wanting to do this for turkeys. What are you hoping to learn with doing wild turkey DNA?

[Dr. Randall Williams]

Yeah, we're just expanding on the edible bird consortium, so to speak. So moving into turkeys, this was, I have to tell this short story. I got a call by Mike Chamberlain on Super Bowl Sunday and he was like, hey man, there's all these weird heritage birds and things that look kind of weird. Is there any way we could figure out whether they're just domestic birds that people are harvesting, maybe hybrids? Maybe they are just wild birds that have super weird plumage and that is where wild turkey DNA was born. I was like, that's an interesting question. Very similar to what we're asking a duck DNA. And we've set up everything, you know, DNA's DNA, so, you know, whatever. Five, six weeks later, the partnership between Ducks Unlimited, NWTF, Mike, me and as well as Lowcountry Game Bird foundation made it happen for this year. So this is our pilot year. We'll see how it goes. But the initial ask is if anybody shoots or harvests a super weird looking or Cool looking bird to just go ahead and get in contact with us through the wildturkeydna.com website. We'll send you a kit, you'll just cut off the tip of the tongue just like we are doing with duck DNA. Send it to us and we'll start to analyze these turkeys. In the long term, we're hoping to go across all the subspecies, understanding not only hybridization and whether domestic birds, these heritage birds, are a problem for other species, the Rios, the Miriams and so forth, but also whether genetic diversity might be an explanation of, of declining populations. We already have preliminary data for easterns in South Carolina, Georgia, New York and others that they large segments of that population are very much looking like second cousins, even half siblings. And that's a real problem when it comes to wildlife. If you don't know, the Florida panther was essentially half sib, full sib. And that was when we started seeing real genetic problems there. And turkeys are, are trending towards that way. And that's a real problem if that's the case.

[Giannis Patelis]

And so that's happening because the population, it's almost like a double whammy because the population is getting smaller and thus you have just less diversity in that smaller population. Is that, is that the origin?

[Dr. Randall Williams]

That's the, that's the origin. So if, especially for easterns, if anybody knows the history, most of those easterns originate from mountains of PA where they were like remnants and then they were basically spread out. So they already went through a bottleneck. And then effectively all these birds have smaller and smaller home ranges. They don't necessarily like to cross streets, highways. They don't, they stay within. And the longer those birds are, the more the connections are severed, the worse they become genetically because the probability of dad mating with their kid increases and increases and increases. Plus they're leking system where in essence a few males contribute every year. So if it's the same brothers constantly with their sisters, it's a problem. Right, so those are some of the questions. Habitat is always number one key. But if you've got a bird that is, you know, starting to have issues in nesting and fecundity, how many eggs actually hatch, then that is a compounding effect, right?

[Giannis Patelis]

Oh man. I was hoping for some good news out of you, Phil.

[Corey Jacobsen]

I got a question if there could be some good news in places where there's multiple subspecies of turkeys that are mingling, like. Yeah, like in Nebraska, you could, you don't know what you're getting in places, right.

[Dr. Randall Williams]

That, that's a Great question. So one of the things that I've always been curious about because I, I've known about the history of stocking, right. Even in Washington they went and just like Washington, the Sierra Nevadas of California, they basically were like I don't know what's going to take here. So let's just throw a Miriam, Rio and eastern in all these places and see what happens kind of thing. So it'd be, it's, it would be really cool to get some birds out of those areas to see like exactly what happened. Did one of them actually take or are they just like a hodgepodge of these three subspecies? The other cool thing will be to go after places that are core habitats known for Rios and Miriams, Goulds, Easterns, Osceola is included but the only one not oscillated. So we'll go for all the north, the North North American ones is to understand, you know, what is that genetic diversity look like versus you know, populations of Miriams on the sky islands of New Mexico or the Rios that are in all these little pockets like you probably saw in Texas. So that'll be something really cool. On top of it all is just understanding something that I was not keen on until Mike Chamberlain sort of opened my eyes to it is the number of what is known as a heritage bird. Just so everybody knows a domestic bird is your white bird at Costco, a heritage bird is a mix of that domestic with a wild at some point creating a weird looking bird. And so apparently people are putting out these heritage birds to become feral or feralized for one reason or another. And so now the question becomes how widespread is that like people, you know, harvesting cool looking birds, are they just all just weird heritage birds or are they hybrids or are they just wild birds with those cool plumages? You know, we'll start to ask the answer to those kinds of questions.

[Giannis Patelis]

All right, Phil, tell everybody how they can participate one more time before you go.

[Dr. Randall Williams]

Yeah, yeah. So please go to the new brand new website wildturkeydna.com youm can also watch us on Instagram @wildturkeydna or ovretskylab. You can, if you harvest something go ahead and contact through those means and you'll be able to get a free, free kit. That's what I wanted to also mention. Anybody that gets selected with the everything's completely free, we'll send it to you, you'll send it back to us. And that, and that's a product of both National Wildlife Turkey Federation as well as others that have contributed donations to make this free for the hunters. So I hope the turkey hunters out there are going to get just as excited as the duck hunters for the duck DNA project that we were doing.

[Giannis Patelis]

Oh, I can guarantee it 100%. Randall gets his first bird. It doesn't matter what kind of color that thing, right?

[Corey Jacobsen]

Pure white, Randall. It's gonna be pure white.

[Dr. Randall Williams]

Oh, man. I'm taking my daughter out for her first turkey hunt this year and I'm definitely, hopefully she gets one and that thing's going in no matter what it looks like.

[Giannis Patelis]

Thanks again, Phil. Ladies and gentlemen, Dr. Phil Lavretsky. Appreciate it, Phil.

[Dr. Randall Williams]

Thank you guys. Enjoy.

[Giannis Patelis]

Thanks, Phil.

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[Giannis Patelis]

All right, Phil, the other Phil. Hey.

[Brody Henderson]

Yeah, I was getting confused there.

[Giannis Patelis]

It can be tricky. Yeah. It's time for listener feedback. We have any at this point in time?

[Phil Lavretsky]

We've got a few. Just a reminder to everyone, go ahead and get those questions into the live chat. Our first question, though, is from Andrew. He says what are good points to bring up in a persuasive speech on reintroducing bison to Colorado? This is for school.

[Giannis Patelis]

Man. Instead of going AI, he figured he'll.

[Brody Henderson]

Just ride into Method Artificial intelligence.

[Giannis Patelis]

He'll go with, I'm going to pass this one. I'm going to pass this one off to Randall.

[Brody Henderson]

Sure. It's a tough one. I think you could point out that bison are native and good for the land. Good for the land.

[Corey Jacobsen]

I tell them to go read some stuff on a PR's website.

[Brody Henderson]

That's a great point, Brody.

[Corey Jacobsen]

Yeah, American Prairie Reserve.

[Brody Henderson]

It's tough because they're not really reintroduced anywhere as like a wild species. If you're talking about like a APR style model, I would go to APR and read about their program. Plus, it's good for bison. The more populations we have, the more genetic diversity we have.

[Corey Jacobsen]

You will run into some pushback on that issue. I'll just let you know.

[Brody Henderson]

Yep, yep. But it's an excellent topic.

[Giannis Patelis]

I'm guessing he has like, he's been asked to write a persuasive speech and he just happens to be choosing this topic. Yeah.

[Corey Jacobsen]

Yeah.

[Giannis Patelis]

So it'll be. It'll be good practice for him. What else we got, Phil?

[Phil Lavretsky]

Joe asks Giannis, are you running slash training for any races in the near future, buddy?

[Giannis Patelis]

We don't have enough time to talk about this today. We need a separate meeting going on.

[Phil Lavretsky]

About how we don't have any time, but I have yet to see any evidence to that. I think we've got all the time in the world.

[Giannis Patelis]

Oh. Oh, good. Well, listen, we just have a all company meeting and I want this to end in time so that I can get pizza. Some pizza in my belly for that meeting. We're all going to go get pizza.

[Phil Lavretsky]

Of course. Can I join?

[Brody Henderson]

I literally, when I drove into the office today, I opened up my calendar and I looked at the timing of the meeting and I was like, one, yeah. Oh, yeah, we're going to go get pizza.

[Giannis Patelis]

We'll be getting pizza at the Bozeman Market in Delhi. If you pass through town or if you're a resident here, go check them out. Great sandwiches and I love their pizza.

[Corey Jacobsen]

Let's refocus on the running thing.

[Phil Lavretsky]

Yeah.

[Giannis Patelis]

Yep.

[Phil Lavretsky]

Tip number one, pizza for lunch.

[Brody Henderson]

The AK Running Fuel.

[Phil Lavretsky]

Yeah.

[Giannis Patelis]

Hey. When I ran my 50 miler last year, I ate a slice of pizza halfway through and it definitely helped me to the finish line. Joe? Yes. I am training, running the. I've signed up for the Crazy Mountain 100 this year and so, yeah, my knees are a little bit sore. I've been getting after it. Did some intervals yesterday. Five minutes uphill, as hard as I could go, then five minutes chill downhill, and did that eight times in a row. I was tired afterwards. So, yeah, that's at the end of July. So I'm feeling like I'm in a really good spot at the moment. And I've still got, I don't know, three or four months to kind of keep building on it. Coach says I have a coach. I have a logger, I have a coach, I got a sound engineer. It's great. Heavy lies the crown, but she says I could do it right now. She said it would hurt a little bit, but she said I could pull it off. Right.

[Corey Jacobsen]

What's your. What's your goal?

[Giannis Patelis]

My goal is 30 hours.

[Corey Jacobsen]

30 hours?

[Giannis Patelis]

Yeah. I haven't said this publicly yet. Might as well do it now. Cam Haynes ran it the inaugural year of this race, which was four years ago, I believe he ran it in about 34 hours. The course was slightly different, so I'm giving him an hour for that. Um, we're going to be roughly the same age. He might be a little bit older.

[Brody Henderson]

So adjusted. Adjusted for the course change. You're trying to beat Cam Haynes by three hours.

[Giannis Patelis]

I'm trying to beat Cam Haynes's time seems reasonable. If I can do it in 30 hours, I'll solidly do that. But yeah, that's my goal is 30 hours.

[Brody Henderson]

If I'm around that weekend, I'll be packing in a pizza for you.

[Giannis Patelis]

Yeah, buddy, that's what I'm talking about. There's some great spots to spectate that race in the crazy mountains, so. All right, are we, we got time for one more. Phil. We need to move. Phil.

[Brody Henderson]

Got a good one.

[Giannis Patelis]

Giannis.

[Phil Lavretsky]

This is probably the fastest we've ever gotten the listener feedback. So like, oh, what?

[Giannis Patelis]

Yeah, don't we have multiple listener feedback sections?

[Phil Lavretsky]

We've got one more at the end, but I mean we've got, we've got time. I know you want pizza, but the, the audience deserves a show yet.

[Giannis Patelis]

No, listen, I know, but I feel like the pressure to keep this show moving along, that's all I hear about it.

[Phil Lavretsky]

You're doing a great job. I'll, I'll let you know if it starts to drag. We've got lot of these questions.

[Corey Jacobsen]

Spencer hasn't commented yet.

[Phil Lavretsky]

That's what you know, we've had a lot. This is again a blanket question. It could go on forever. But for some pros, if you had some tips for very. I mean, Randall's in the room. Maybe Randall's got some questions. We've got a lot of questions about first time turkey hunters. Kanye Northeastern, interesting name, is asking specifically about Miriam's. But we've had several questions about just first time turkey hunters in general. Like maybe don't overload them with info, but any sort of like, like first time tips.

[Brody Henderson]

What do you got?

[Giannis Patelis]

Well, I already gave one. I, I would say if you're, if you're just starting out with the calling business, get yourself a pot call, a slate. Mind you, I feel like they are the simplest to use. That's why I started my wife on like the second time she walked into the woods with one.

[Corey Jacobsen]

Make a lot of different noises with them.

[Giannis Patelis]

Yeah, she had a conversation with the gobbler the first time. She should try it maybe second time. Other hot tips for beginners, like with any game, do the homework and find the game first before you go out there and hunting. I think it's really easy just to walk into the woods and start squawking on a box call and not be anywhere near a turkey.

[Corey Jacobsen]

Yeah. And one I would say that I still have trouble with is the old adage that you kill turkeys with your ass, not your feet. Patience.

[Giannis Patelis]

100%.

[Corey Jacobsen]

You know, granted, this he was asking about Miriam's. And you gotta. Sometimes you gotta cover ground hunting those.

[Giannis Patelis]

But sure.

[Corey Jacobsen]

Like, yeah, like, sit down and call. And if you get an answer, like, sit there for as long as you can because sometimes it takes them a long time to come in.

[Giannis Patelis]

100%. Yeah. That's a good tip, man. Your butt can kill probably more turkeys than your legs can. We all love to run a gun and call them all in, but that's how I killed my bird this year, was by just sitting. Sitting down and waiting. And sometimes you got to do that. Depends on what's more important to you. The entertainment factor of calling and seeing the show. Meaning when they're strutting, gobbling and all that. Or do you just want two lobes of a breast, two thighs, two legs?

[Brody Henderson]

Just bushwhack them two wings.

[Giannis Patelis]

Yeah.

[Corey Jacobsen]

You know, something that's paid off for me, that I think we learned from Mike Chamberlain is he told us I shouldn't even tell people this. He told us that, like, if you. If you have a gobbler or gobblers on the roost in the morning, they fly down, you don't kill them. They, like, go the wrong way, like they always do.

[Giannis Patelis]

Yeah.

[Corey Jacobsen]

He told us that those birds will almost always come back to that roost area, like late morning, early afternoon.

[Giannis Patelis]

Yeah.

[Corey Jacobsen]

Which has gotten me a bird or two.

[Giannis Patelis]

Oh, for sure. We saw it in Texas. Max and I were. We got onto a bird that was gobbling hard at like 2 in the afternoon. He was. He was probably 2, 300 yards from the roost tree, but he had found. He had found a strut zone or that was his strut zone. He was like, in this nice little cove on the rivers, all green. He's in there just hammering. We got to within 100 yards of him and he. We couldn't break him. But when he decided to move, he basically went and did the same thing within 100 yards of the rooster.

[Phil Lavretsky]

Right.

[Giannis Patelis]

He was going to spend the rest of the day sitting there gobbling at the roostery, being like, hey, ladies, come back here. Roost with me tonight. So, yeah. And again, that's another way that your butt would kill him is just by sitting at that roostering. I can keep going on the other.

[Phil Lavretsky]

Side of the coin. Let's do one more on the other side of the coin. Canadian hunter asks any spring bear tips from Dr. Randall? I'm guessing for, like, first timers sort of intro.

[Giannis Patelis]

I need to listen here too.

[Brody Henderson]

I would say that you just need to have faith. I think, like, you can stare at a hillside for a really long time and there's not a bear there. And then all of a sudden there's a bear there. And I think, like, if you're used to glassing, like, like serious glassing, it's probably easier, but if you are not a glasser, just have all the patience in the world and know that, like, the bears aren't going to be there. Right. Well, sometimes they are.

[Wyatt Seep]

Right.

[Brody Henderson]

When you start looking, I mean, you just got to keep your eyes open.

[Giannis Patelis]

Yeah.

[Brody Henderson]

And.

[Giannis Patelis]

But I feel like it's a pretty casual glass. Right. It's not like you're having to pound. No.

[Brody Henderson]

You're not gonna, you're not gonna pick them.

[Giannis Patelis]

Yeah.

[Brody Henderson]

You're not gonna pick out an ear or anything, but like, like you could watch a whole hillside with a ton of little tiny pockets and you look at them all and you're like, there's not a bear here. And then all of a sudden there's one in that pocket.

[Corey Jacobsen]

Have you something. I've heard a lot about spring bear hunting. Have you found it to be true that the evenings are best or just when you find them, you find.

[Brody Henderson]

I. I feel like when you find them, you find them. Especially earlier in the season. I mean, I've. I've seen bears, like, I've been out backpacking and like woken up in the morning and seen two or three bears in the morning, you know, and I feel like mid afternoon you'll see him. A lot of times. It's. It's funny because I feel like that's the conventional wisdom. And you hear a lot of people that know a lot of stuff. A lot of, you know, people that know a lot about bear hunting will say that. But in my experience, at least, I've. It's kind of a crapshoot. It's like the more time you're out there, the more likely you are to see a bear. But I definitely know, like, a lot of guys that, you know, nap through the afternoon and get out in the early evening.

[Giannis Patelis]

I definitely feel like. And this is across many states where I've done spring bear hunting, but it seems like this, the evenings have been better. I mean, southeast Alaska.

[Brody Henderson]

Yeah.

[Giannis Patelis]

There's no doubt about it that those last two, three hours seem. Are more productive.

[Brody Henderson]

Yeah. Or the tide.

[Giannis Patelis]

I mean, that's a big one too.

[Brody Henderson]

Yeah. I killed my bear up there at like, probably 10 in the morning because we're just timing the tide.

[Giannis Patelis]

Hunting. Low tide.

[Brody Henderson]

Yeah. Because they're coming down on those rocks. Yeah. It's. I don't know.

[Corey Jacobsen]

Corey, what do you got to say about spring bear? You love it.

[Giannis Patelis]

Corey likes to. Likes to hunt some spring bears.

[Phil Lavretsky]

MIKE ON It'll be on for the YouTube audience, but not for the podcast audience. So apologies to the podcast. You want to get on a different mic or something lame? I mean. No, the only ones I have on are the ones are the hosts. That's okay, Brody. You didn't know.

[Brody Henderson]

Just talk with your chest.

[Dr. Randall Williams]

Love bear hunting. Now that I have a kid and it's harder to bear hunt with a kid, it's turkey hunting is a lot easier. And until I'm old and can't pound the mountains anymore, I'll keep bear hunting. When the day comes, I'll. Then I'll get more excited about turkey.

[Corey Jacobsen]

Was that an underhanded insult? A turkey hunting there? Sure sounded like it. All right.

[Brody Henderson]

I mean, I will qualify what I said earlier. Like, I'm not trying to get up and be glassing at first light. Like, I'm not, I'm not saying that.

[Dr. Randall Williams]

But when the sun goes down at 10:00.

[Brody Henderson]

Yeah, exactly. Like there's long evenings. But. But I do think, like, you're not wasting time if you're sitting there, you know, checking spots and.

[Giannis Patelis]

Yeah.

[Brody Henderson]

Just looking.

[Giannis Patelis]

Yeah. I find it to be very casual hunting. Like, bring a book, glance up from the book every 5, 10 minutes, glass your hill. Because again, like you said, it's not like you're going to see a part of a bear. Usually all of a sudden you look across the hillside like, holy, there's a big old black spot that's walking.

[Brody Henderson]

Yeah, exactly. And that's what I mean. I kind of like that about it because you can just sort of get out and watch the birds, like, stare off into the distance, kind of stop thinking for about 10, 15 minutes, listen to turkeys gobble. Exactly.

[Giannis Patelis]

Oh, if that happened, buddy, I'd be out. Oh, what tastes better? Turkeys? I don't know. I like eating bears. On.

[Brody Henderson]

Now you can find a turkey at a grocery store.

[Giannis Patelis]

No, not. Not the kind of turkeys I eat.

[Corey Jacobsen]

There ain't a bear nugget in the world that tastes as good as a turkey nugget, dude.

[Giannis Patelis]

Right. Right. Now, I followed Jesse's Jesse Griffiths recipe from the turkey book for fried turkey. I started yesterday when I did a brine. His brine has pickle juice, whole lemon in there. And then the basics, you know, some salt and sugar, bay leaves. And then it's been sit. That was for four or six hours. And then it's been Sitting in buttermilk and hot sauce overnight. And then later tonight, I'm gonna dredge those suckers in some seasoned flour that'll be heavy on celery seed and black pepper. I'm making some mashed potatoes. I might even do some gravy. I'm gonna do some of those biscuits we talked about. Let's go, baby.

[Brody Henderson]

What time is it?

[Giannis Patelis]

Turkey week.

[Brody Henderson]

What time is that? Tonight?

[Giannis Patelis]

Yeah, it's for my brother in law's belated birthday, so we already have guests, otherwise I'd have you over for that. But they're coming. All right, Phil, I think it's time to move on to Kyle.

[Brody Henderson]

Yeah, Phil, how's the timing looking now?

[Phil Lavretsky]

It's looking perfect now.

[Brody Henderson]

Fantastic.

[Giannis Patelis]

Damn, we're good. Good job, Brody and Randall.

[Brody Henderson]

Thank you.

[Giannis Patelis]

All right, we're on to Kyle Liebarger. Like I said earlier, man, this guy, I absolutely love his Instagram post. Are you guys familiar? You guys follow Kyle? Like, I don't know. I had never been that interested in native plants, and I guess pretty much mostly native plants is what Kyle talks about. But, like, when he puts it out there on the old gram, I'm like, hell, yeah. That's awesome. That's great. And then how. How. How much of a. A fighter he is. What's the word I'm looking for? Not protester.

[Brody Henderson]

What would you call it?

[Giannis Patelis]

Advocate. Yes. For these places that need, you know, help, you know, no one. They can't. The plants don't get to talk for themselves. So we need people like Kyle out there helping keep them. Keeping them around for future generations.

[Phil Lavretsky]

Kyle, really quick, your. Your mic is muted right now. If you want to go ahead and unmute that.

[Giannis Patelis]

Oh, I was just going to do all the talking for Kyle.

[Phil Lavretsky]

Yeah, just look at his face.

[Wyatt Seep]

Hey, as my friend says, I'm not a environmental extremist. I'm an extreme environmentalist. So maybe. Maybe that's a better way to put it, but I honestly am more of a conservationist. And. And. And those plants, I used to be in the same boat. I'd walk right past them and never even notice them or. Or pay it. Pay any mind to them whatsoever. But when. When I. When I was on a property, I guess back in, like, 2018, that just had a ton of wildlife, and I was like, what. What the heck's going on with this place? And I saw the color, man. Like, it just. A switch went off and. And it all. It all started to make sense. Why? Why? You know, that's the. That's the habitat without that, you don't have wildlife.

[Giannis Patelis]

So, so that's the switch that went off, is that you were there, you saw a pile of animals, and then you looked around and you went, oh, my gosh, look at, look at the habitat. Of course.

[Wyatt Seep]

Yeah, you. You could hear like, you could hear like, the, the amount of insects there, too, which is, which is crazy. When you're in a place that's got a ton of diversity, there's going to be a ton of insects and a ton of. Ton of birds because of that.

[Giannis Patelis]

Okay, hold on. That. That, that's the perfect segue. You use the word insects in a recent Instagram post. You said. Everybody's heard the, the quote. A cattle farmer is really a grass farmer. And then you said, yeah, and a turkey hunter should be a. You said, managing for insects, but should be like an insect farmer. So explain. Explain that for me.

[Wyatt Seep]

Well, I mean, to me, it's. It kind of puts it in to more simplistic terms, but it's, you know, that's the foundation. If you want. If you want to have great cattle, you have to have great pastures, and you have to have healthy pastures. If you want to have great turkey populations, you need to have a lot of insects because that's, that's what the poults are eating. And you need to have a lot of seeds and a lot of other things as well, like, you know, amphibians and. And salamanders down here. That's when they're, when turkeys are scratching around. They're eating a lot of salamanders and snails and things like that that you wouldn't even think about. But. And this is a. This is something I guess I observed in one of Cal's posts. I guess it was a couple years ago. It may have been a photo he was sharing that somebody sent into him. But he showed a turkey crop that had a bunch of that, that horsetail read have y'all. You know that those, like. It's a. It's called horsetail. That's what I call it. I forget the scientific name, but it's got those little segments.

[Corey Jacobsen]

Yep.

[Wyatt Seep]

You can, like, pull apart.

[Giannis Patelis]

Yeah.

[Wyatt Seep]

It's hollow. And. And it was. This turkey crop was, like, slap full of that stuff. And I just read about how Native Americans use that to, like, glaze the inside of their pottery because it had, like, high silica content. And. And I was just. I was like, I wonder if that silica. That has to be beneficial for turkeys. And. And of course, there was some research that somebody had done about Feeding, Feeding some feed to like domestic turkeys that had higher silica content, having better, better survival rates and poles and stuff like that. So I thought that was pretty interesting. Even, even plants you wouldn't think of. I don't know, you can never, you can never really know what all turkey is going to need, but if you just throw the whole buffet at them, they're going to have what they need most of the time. So.

[Giannis Patelis]

Yeah, why is it that we don't have. You're often talk about prairies and remnants of prairies and like, tell me why we don't have a lot of the prairies and then again, why. I guess you've kind of been talking about why they're so beneficial, but specifically about the prairies.

[Wyatt Seep]

Yeah, I mean, in the Southeast here, our prairies were gone before the camera was even invented. So if you want to, if you want to like, learn about the prairies that used to be here, you have to go way back to these, like, historic surveys and writings. You know, I read a lot of surveys that were done in the early 1800s, you know, and, and a lot of times they're, they're, you know, marking section corners and they can't even find trees close by and so they're having to use stakes. And so, you know, then that tells you that that area used to be a prairie, but all of it in the Southeast was turned into cotton fields. Pretty much all of it was, except for the rocky places and the areas that were too wet. And so now if you, if you find a prairie remnant or remnant grassland, it's going to be in those rocky areas or where like a power line goes across a mountain or like a steep spot where there's not flat ground that you could plant crops on. So it was our dominant ecosystem in the Southeast, and people find that hard to believe. But that's also including things like longleaf ecosystems, which people think of as forests. But like 99% of the diversity in a longleaf ecosystem is in the understory in that grassland that's underneath.

[Giannis Patelis]

So long leaves being longleaf pine, correct?

[Wyatt Seep]

Yep, yep. Longleaf pine. And, and so we had shortleaf pine savannas and oak savannahs, oak hickory savannahs. But we also had glades and prairies and fins and bogs and just a whole array of ecosystems. And it was just a mosaic, just a mix of those different ecosystems across the Southeast.

[Giannis Patelis]

Kyle, you've got some pictures, or you sent Phil some pictures, right, of some habitat work that you guys have been doing when these pop up here. Can you see those two? Walk us through a little bit of what we're looking at and what you would call that habitat type.

[Wyatt Seep]

Yeah, so that's a glade or a barren. And just like you can see the power line up in the top right hand corner. So that was a power line right away that, that kind of saved this prairie. That line of cedars you see in front of you that used to be like an impenetrable wall of cedars. And so the only grassland stuff left was what was right there on the power line. Everything else had turned into a shaded out thicket of cedars. And so you lost all that biodiversity underneath all that plant diversity. And. And then now we've opened it back up. You can see, you can see there's some openings in those woods now where we had some Mennonite loggers come in and remove some cedars. We reintroduced fire to it and place is thriving now. So. Yeah. Oh, that's a Nashville bread root, which is pretty uncommon. It's really only found like around Nashville and in a few little spots in Alabama. And it grows on limestone. But you'll have. I think there's a bread root out west. They had these huge tubers that was like, it was a, it was a main food source for, for Native Americans.

[Corey Jacobsen]

Is that what the yellow one?

[Giannis Patelis]

Bread root.

[Wyatt Seep]

It's kind of like. It looks like lupine kind of. The leaves do. But there's a, there's one out west that everybody talks about. Maybe only in the botanical, like the botanist world, people that's the more common one. But this is that same blade man, Alabama larkspur that's only found in Alabama. And this is one of those places where there's just insects everywhere. It's just, it's, it's incredible. It's like a time capsule.

[Giannis Patelis]

And I'm sure the turkeys probably eat the plants, but they're all, they're there for the, for the bugs. Right?

[Brody Henderson]

Speak of the devil.

[Wyatt Seep]

Insects. Yeah, yeah, that's my buddy Alan, who, who bought one of these glades. So we got 24 acres next door that has federally endangered leafy prairie clover on it. He bought this population. I was just trying to. There's like 1200 acres that came up for sale at once that had, that had seven of the eight populations of leafy prairie clover in Alabama. So it, it was going to be split up in a million pieces. And I was trying to get everybody I could to buy a population of this and. And he ended up with this glade and it's It's a absolute incredible example of a. Of a limestone blade.

[Giannis Patelis]

How many of those population. Populations did you guys buy in the end?

[Wyatt Seep]

There's. There's six that are being managed now. Six of the eight. And two year. Two years ago, there were none. None of them were being managed. And so. So that leafy prairie clover that's on there is federally endangered, but there's just like a ton of other rare species that grow there, too. So we're conserving a federally endangered plant, but also, you know, hundreds of other plant species that are high conservation value. And then the. The benefits of that is there's a lot of wildlife there. There's still wild quail, and, you know, it's a, you know, great place for hunting and recreating.

[Giannis Patelis]

So not just good for turkeys.

[Wyatt Seep]

Yeah, yeah. It's good for people who like to look at plants, too, so.

[Giannis Patelis]

Right, right.

[Wyatt Seep]

If that has any. If that has any value in real estate.

[Brody Henderson]

It's hard to quantify.

[Giannis Patelis]

All right, well, folks, you can find more about what Kyle's doing at. Well, it's up on the screen there, but if you just listen, it's Kyle underscore livebarger. And then there's also. It's just at Native Habitat project on Instagram, too. Is that right?

[Wyatt Seep]

Yeah, yeah, Native Habitat Project.

[Giannis Patelis]

But go check it out. Like I said, even if you're not into plants, native plants, ecosystems. After you watch a couple Kyle's posts, you will be any other questions boys you guys have for Kyle.

[Corey Jacobsen]

I'm good.

[Brody Henderson]

No, we just got to get you back on one minute fishing again here.

[Wyatt Seep]

Hey, hey. I had. That's what I was going to say before I left. I have to. This is going to sound like a fishing story, but as soon as y'all hung up my first cast, it was within like 5 seconds. I caught a biggest crappie of the day.

[Brody Henderson]

That's what they all say, Kyle. That's what they all say.

[Wyatt Seep]

I know you wouldn't believe me.

[Giannis Patelis]

Hey, well, now that the ice is off. Well, I'm guessing you didn't have any ice down there in Alabama, but now the ice is off. I'm sure we'll be doing more one minute fishing. So thanks again for stopping by, Kyle. We'll be in touch.

[Wyatt Seep]

Yeah. Thanks, y'all.

[Giannis Patelis]

Thank you. Okay, now we are on to a Turkey week hot tip brought to you by none other than our. He's not our very own, but he's. He's part of our family.

[Brody Henderson]

Friend of the program.

[Giannis Patelis]

Yep. Jesse Griffiths. Chef Jesse Griffiths. Owner of Die Due A. Let me know when you got that ready to play, Phil.

[Phil Lavretsky]

Well, we got important business to get to first.

[Giannis Patelis]

Oh, which is what? Turn your head and give cough. What's that face?

[Phil Lavretsky]

Don't use Goff. There aren't many words that rhyme with off.

[Giannis Patelis]

H o T T I P Ah.

[Corey Jacobsen]

Let'S all do a hote bop H.

[Phil Lavretsky]

O T T I B O let's.

[Giannis Patelis]

All do a happy bop. Randall, your face there listening to that like a kid in a candy store.

[Brody Henderson]

Phil, when did you do that one?

[Phil Lavretsky]

Oh, it was a few weeks ago.

[Brody Henderson]

Oh, it's brilliant.

[Phil Lavretsky]

I appreciate that.

[Giannis Patelis]

Thanks, Randall. Phil is brilliant.

[Phil Lavretsky]

You know who doesn't like that one is our brodian Steve. Because it's too. It's too modern, it's too pop.

[Corey Jacobsen]

Yeah, I think you've done better work.

[Wyatt Seep]

Yeah, that's understandable.

[Giannis Patelis]

Is that a. I don't agree.

[Phil Lavretsky]

Chapel Realm.

[Brody Henderson]

Yeah, at first I was thinking it was like an 80s song, but no, that's just the. The vibe, dude.

[Giannis Patelis]

I got two girls, you know, 11 and 13 year old. I'm all in on pop right now. You know, it's like if you can't beat them, join them kind of a thing. So. Yeah, bring it.

[Phil Lavretsky]

They call that poptimism. Okay, that was an. That was an. That was an actual music journalism movement. And like the mid tooth. Sorry. Here's Jesse.

[Giannis Patelis]

Jesse Griffiths.

[I]

All right, Hop tip. Making biscuits, you need to get your butter incorporated into your flour. Use a cheese grater. Doesn't have to be a broken cheese grater, but this one is broken, but it'll still work. And so you grate your butter into flour, little bit of salt, some baking powder, and then it's already in the exact size pieces that you need to make the perfect biscuit, which goes great with fried turkey.

[Giannis Patelis]

Love that guy. Jesse Griffiths.

[Brody Henderson]

I got my own hot tip here.

[Giannis Patelis]

Oh, please. Add on Jesse Griffith. Oh, we're doing two hot tip today.

[I]

These are some beautiful fresh turkey tenderloins from a big old Rio that Yanni shot today. And I'm going to remove these tendons from these nice tenderloins with a fork. So you get on the pointy end, just grip that tendon. Come in with a fork, put the tines on either side, grip said tendon and just pull it like this. And it'll pull the entire tendon out like that. If you're making stock, this is great addition stock because it's collagen. It'll convert over to gelatin. So save those up your stock and then you have a perfectly tendon free tenderloin that you can now brine, dredge, and fry.

[Giannis Patelis]

Do you still have something to add?

[Brody Henderson]

I do. You know, you're making your morning toast and you realize that all the butter's in the fridge and it's too hard to spread. Well, you don't want to tear up that toast, especially if you're using cheap sandwich bread.

[Giannis Patelis]

Yeah, that's why I was thinking, man, just leave his butter out on the.

[Brody Henderson]

Well, sometimes. Sometimes you use all the counter butter the night before.

[Giannis Patelis]

Okay. I'm tracking.

[Brody Henderson]

So if you find yourself in that situation, you get out the cheese grater and you grate your butter on your toast. That way you don't have to just tear up that beautiful wonder bread.

[Giannis Patelis]

So you were already aware of this hot tip?

[Brody Henderson]

That was a hot tip. Just to show that I already knew that hot tip, which is the best kind of hot tip.

[Giannis Patelis]

Brody, you're a biscuit maker, right? Isn't it. It's a little bit of a pain in the butt to sit there with, like, a knife and.

[Corey Jacobsen]

Or the thing you use to mash potatoes, whatever that thing is called, you know?

[Giannis Patelis]

Well, yeah, I believe it. That thing. What is that called? No, but it's not the one you use for mashed potatoes. There's one that actually is meant to cut butter in the flour.

[Brody Henderson]

Oh, yeah.

[Giannis Patelis]

Pastry cutter, I believe. And. But anyways, you still got to cut the butter up into pieces and then cut it into the flour with this method here. It's small enough, thin enough, that you don't have to do the cutting part anymore. Like, you don't have to do the cutting into the flour. You can basically just start adding your wet ingredients and start doing the mix.

[Corey Jacobsen]

Don't do what my son does, which is just melt the butter in a microwave and then pour it.

[Giannis Patelis]

No, no, no. That will. That's like.

[Brody Henderson]

I've done that on my toes before, too.

[Giannis Patelis]

Your. But your butter or any fat that you're using. The other day, I did half butter, half lard. It's got to be cold. If you. If it gets all melty, you're just gonna. I don't even know what's gonna happen. Jesse could explain that. The other hot tip, I did that yesterday in preparation for making my fried turkey. Holy. Does that work a lot better than trying to fillet that chunk of silver skin out of there with a knife? Way faster.

[Corey Jacobsen]

Yeah.

[Giannis Patelis]

Do you guys have an opinion on which hot tip of Jesse's was better?

[Corey Jacobsen]

I've used that. The tenderloin one for a long time.

[Giannis Patelis]

Oh, you already knew that one, man. Maybe everybody knows.

[Brody Henderson]

I'm gonna go with the butter and the cheese grater.

[Corey Jacobsen]

Yeah. If you want some badass biscuits, I think that's a.

[Giannis Patelis]

Okay. I'm gonna disagree with you guys and think that for turkey week, you know, taking the silver skin out of those tenderloins with the fork is the better hot tip. But still, it's two to one. So, Jesse, you're a winner either way.

[Brody Henderson]

Congratulations.

[Giannis Patelis]

Nice tips. Thanks for. Thanks for doing those for me down there in Tejas.

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[Giannis Patelis]

All right, that brings us to my logger. Love calling Wyatt my logger. Wyatt, what's happening?

[J]

How's it going, guys?

[Giannis Patelis]

It's going great. Although you're the one. You're outside under bluebird skies, and we're in this stuffy podcast. But it looks nice there.

[J]

Yeah, man, I have no complaints today. Beautiful day, about 60 degrees here. Tail end of wintertime. That's about all you could ask for.

[Giannis Patelis]

All right, bring us up to speed. This is a very selfish guest on my part. No one else really cares what Wyatt's doing up here.

[Corey Jacobsen]

Well, I will if you ever invite us to go hunting there.

[Giannis Patelis]

You haven't been invited yet?

[Corey Jacobsen]

No.

[Giannis Patelis]

Oh, okay. Well, I'll take care of that right after this show.

[Phil Lavretsky]

Yeah, and the video might be kind of hit or miss with Wyatt as he moves through the property, so apologies to the YouTube audience. It might fluctuate a bit.

[Giannis Patelis]

All right, we'll try to explain everything that we're seeing, but Wyatt's been up there logging my dad, my place now for, geez, I don't know, since about September, October of last year. And where are we at right now, Wyatt?

[J]

Yeah, this one's been a bit of a process, but I'm gonna flip you around here if I can. It doesn't look like I can. I'll turn you around like this. So I don't know what all you guys can see, but right down here.

[Brody Henderson]

Wow.

[J]

We've done kind of a clear cut. This is the area that Yanni's gonna be turning into kind of an oak savannah. And the way that we designed this property was not only for, you know, timber management, but also for wildlife habitat management. You can see down here, we kind of left a pocket of white oak trees. They're going to be left for mass crop and savannah purposes.

[Giannis Patelis]

Yeah.

[J]

And there's a couple different goals on this one. You know, there's a small part of the property that's going to be kind of converted back into an oak savannah. We are managing for an oak forest and then a young oak forest. And then if you. I'm going to try not to move too fast here. But if you look behind me back here, we did leave kind of a mature stand of residual oak trees. How many acres is there, Yanni?

[Giannis Patelis]

Yeah, that ridge tops. Yeah. Depending on, you know, where you demarcate it be, six to eight acres.

[J]

Yeah. And so what we've done here is we've pretty well impacted the majority of a 40 acre parcel. Like I said, with the, with the intent to convert it back into better habitat and all the benefits that young forests bring.

[Giannis Patelis]

All right, how is this gonna, how is what we're looking at there? And just for folks that are, that can see this, you can see those, the thicker forest in the background of that video, that's what that place looked like too is a closed canopy, you know, mixed upland oak forest. And now you can see we have, we're letting a lot of sunlight hit the ground there. But tell us how that's gonna be beneficial to turkeys.

[J]

Yeah, man, young forest is great for a lot of different types of animals, especially in this area. This area used to be really heavily impacted by fire. There was kind of always constant young forest happening, constant regeneration happening. That doesn't happen quite so much anymore. So species like turkey, the rough grouse, deer, non game species, they all rely on not only mature forests, but also that young forest type. When you're talking about turkey specifically, I mean, what we're doing here, as you can see behind me, we've got the mature stand. You know, those trees are going to be left for mass crop producers. They're going to be left for roosting trees. And then as you transition into this oak savannah, we're going to have an edge here that's going to be great for nesting and brooding. And then when you get out into that clear cut area in the savannah area. Now, I'm not a savannah expert, but the, the interesting thing about converting things back to savannah is you not only get the, the use of the trees, but there's also a lot going on on the ground with the Forbes and the plants and everything. You're going to create a lot more insects, a lot more food for the turkeys. You get an open Area like that. Turkeys love to strut out in those open areas, roost up in the trees where they can see something, you know, from that savannah.

[Giannis Patelis]

Yeah, it's interesting. You sent me some. A little publication from. I think it was the 60s or maybe even the late 50s yesterday, and it said that at a time was. That was, like, one of Wisconsin. At least in the southern half of Wisconsin. Oak savannas were one of the dominant landscapes, and now it's one of the hardest to find landscapes in the. In Wisconsin.

[J]

Yeah, you're absolutely right. Savannah, or, you know, southern Wisconsin was definitely dominated by savannah at one time, mainly because of that fire aspect that we're missing now. And with the lack of the fire on the landscape and everything else that's changed that humans have brought, you know, different invasive species and things like that, that's kind of gone away. And a lot of that is transitioning into kind of a more. More of a maple forest, which is fine, but it's just not what was here before we got here.

[Giannis Patelis]

Well, I'm planning on bringing back the fire, too, so hopefully we can continue, you know, make more savannah. Any questions?

[Brody Henderson]

Yeah, boys, have you seen any turkeys while you're out there?

[Giannis Patelis]

It's a good question.

[Brody Henderson]

You got a little scouting report for Giannis here?

[J]

Yeah, there's turkeys everywhere. They seem to be a little bit more skittish.

[Wyatt Seep]

They seem to be a little bit.

[J]

They seem to be a little bit more skittish with the logging operation than the deer are, but they're definitely utilizing the areas around here. There's a lot of roosting happening right behind me to the south a little ways. There's some travel corridors they've been using. They're. They're curious. They're just not sure about it yet, since we're still working in here.

[Giannis Patelis]

Buddy.

[Brody Henderson]

That's intriguing.

[Giannis Patelis]

Yeah. About 30 days, I'll be sitting right where Wyatt's at, right there and listening to one of them gobblers. I hope.

[Brody Henderson]

I hope you put him to work while he's up there.

[J]

Yeah, we're working on finishing this project up, so it should settle down just in time for turkey hunt for you.

[Giannis Patelis]

Yeah, Wyatt's hoping to not be there by the time I get there, but if he is, then, yeah, I'm gonna jump in the dozer and work with him. Wyatt, thanks for taking a break from your day, man, and giving me an update. Hopefully everybody else here enjoyed that as well. Enjoy the nice day. Put on some sunscreen. Don't get burned.

[J]

I appreciate you Guys, having me. Brody, Dr. Andle, good talking to you.

[Corey Jacobsen]

Thanks.

[Brody Henderson]

Thanks. Nice meeting you.

[Giannis Patelis]

Well, now what? You guys have all been waiting for the photo contest.

[Phil Lavretsky]

This is exciting.

[Giannis Patelis]

It is exciting. We've got. We had over 200 submissions. That's great.

[Phil Lavretsky]

Thanks, everyone.

[Giannis Patelis]

Yeah.

[Brody Henderson]

Do we have a jingle for this?

[Giannis Patelis]

We appreciate it.

[Phil Lavretsky]

I don't have a jingle for this. No.

[Giannis Patelis]

You want to just sing something freestyle?

[Phil Lavretsky]

Okay. Something involving turkey.

[Brody Henderson]

It's a photo contest. The most contested photo.

[Phil Lavretsky]

You were singing some Kelly Clarkson earlier. Since you've been goblin.

[Brody Henderson]

Oh, yeah, I can.

[Phil Lavretsky]

That's all I got. Sorry. Listen.

[Brody Henderson]

No, no, we'll work on it.

[Phil Lavretsky]

We'll work on it.

[Brody Henderson]

We got 12 months.

[Giannis Patelis]

Hey, thank you. With just 30 seconds to whip something up.

[Phil Lavretsky]

That might have been my best one yet.

[Brody Henderson]

Yeah.

[Giannis Patelis]

Yeah, it's pretty good. So we had over 200 submissions. Appreciate you all doing that. Corey says that we had pregnant wives slash girlfriends with their birds and belly bumps. He didn't think they were that impressive, though. He did not share those with us, so we didn't. So if that was one of yours, I'm sorry, but it's getting put on the spot. That did not make it to the top 20. But we saw a bunch of cool photos. A lot of kids, kids with parents, kids, dead birds, big smile and faces, which I love. This brings up something that I've been working on. If you want a reminder of how to be in the moment. Because, you know, we all tell anybo. Anybody that's been a parent for more than 10 years, as soon as you meet somebody that's got like a newborn or like, you can't help yourself. But to be like, man, listen here. This shit's gonna go by so fast. You have to figure out a way to, like, relish every moment, stay in the moment, right? It's so hard to do. Recently, I've been some. I've had to. I had to find baby pictures and sort of like show a, a, a, a a album of my oldest daughter from 0 to 13 that they're going to use in a slideshow for 8th grade graduation with iPhone and I'm sure with the other phones now, you can literally just go to your photos and put in someone's name, and then every single picture with that person or most of them pop up. And, man, you want to talk about a good way to draw out some tears. Just do that with your kids. And then scroll all the way to the bottom and just start scrolling through there. It draws out some tears, but it's a reminder because you're like, well, damn, don't get to have that moment again when they were all little and young and cuddly, but it reminds you to then hopefully that night at dinner, get off the phone and stay in the moment and, you know, be with your kids, because it's fleeting. All right. That's all I got to say about that. But, yeah, you can't help yourself, right, Brody?

[Corey Jacobsen]

Yeah, man.

[Giannis Patelis]

When you're. When you get to be our age and you got kids that are past.

[Corey Jacobsen]

10, I mean, you're in the same boat. Like, my older kid is 13 now, going on. He'll be 14, early fall. Like, it's. It's sinking in. It's like, holy. Only a few years left to hang out. I mean, we'll hang out, obviously.

[Giannis Patelis]

Oh, yeah. Older, but not like you have been.

[Corey Jacobsen]

Right.

[Giannis Patelis]

So, like, sad.

[Corey Jacobsen]

I'm all about, like, hunting and fishing with them.

[Giannis Patelis]

All right. Hopefully that didn't bring anybody down. But as a reminder, stay in the moment with your family and your kids. If you need a way to help yourself, do that, just go into your iPhone photos and look at all the pictures of your kids when they were little. So back to the photo contest. We had 20. Corey had 20 good ones for us. We narrow it, narrowed it down to three, and we're going to now ask the live audience to help us pick who should be 1, 2, and 3.

[Phil Lavretsky]

Yeah. Before we look at these pictures for the very first time, we are going to be polling the live chat of the YouTube live audience right now. So after we look at these top three pictures, I will put up a poll between photos number 1, 2, and 3, and you are going to decide the winner.

[Brody Henderson]

Phil is digging into his toolbox here.

[Phil Lavretsky]

That's right.

[Giannis Patelis]

I already picked the winner. And if you guys don't agree with me, I don't know what we're gonna do.

[Phil Lavretsky]

All right, are we ready for this?

[Giannis Patelis]

Yeah. Let's go.

[Phil Lavretsky]

Okay, let's bring up photo number one here.

[Giannis Patelis]

Yeah.

[Brody Henderson]

Remember, I'm showing off one of the prizes here.

[Giannis Patelis]

The winner. The winner. Winner.

[Phil Lavretsky]

Oh, yeah, let's get that.

[Giannis Patelis]

Everybody's a winner here. The top three are winners, but the winner. Winner gets a first light tree line turkey vest. I was wearing one of those when I shot my Texas Rio the other day.

[Brody Henderson]

I was wearing this one earlier, which is why all the straps are stretched out.

[Corey Jacobsen]

They get this. This bad boy, too.

[Giannis Patelis]

Yeah, they get a moultrie or. Yeah, Moultrie Edge 2 cell camera, which I've been using for a couple of years now. Love Those cameras. And what else? We got some calls, right? Some Phelps calls. Corey, you're throwing in a bunch of calls.

[Dr. Randall Williams]

That very one right there.

[Giannis Patelis]

Runner. Runner up is going to get. Help me out, Corey. Let's run her up.

[Dr. Randall Williams]

Get some more.

[Giannis Patelis]

More calls.

[Dr. Randall Williams]

Calls and their choice of a shirt or a hoodie.

[Giannis Patelis]

Okay? And then cool new logo wear. And third place gets a shirt or a hoodie. Can't beat that. Everybody's a winner. All right, so the first picture, Phil had it up there for a second. Let's come back to it. Phil sent in from Jacob Zetterman. It's a pretty picture, composed well.

[Corey Jacobsen]

Pretty gun.

[Brody Henderson]

Pretty gun.

[Giannis Patelis]

Bolt, unbelievably.

[Corey Jacobsen]

Nice long rope.

[Brody Henderson]

And remember, remember, friends out there in the audience, you're voting on this, so take a good hard look.

[Corey Jacobsen]

Well, there. You like this one because.

[Giannis Patelis]

Oh, yeah. Because of the caption. Is it in here?

[Brody Henderson]

It is.

[Giannis Patelis]

The caption is in here. That came. It was in the email that came with this photograph. And it. Jacob's caption reads, tell Steve switching from flintlock to percussion. It's a little bitch move.

[Brody Henderson]

Actually, that's not what.

[Giannis Patelis]

Actually, Jacob didn't say lb, he just said wuss. He said, tell Steve switching from flintlock to percussion is a wuss move. There you go, Steve. I hope you're listening and you hear that. You just gonna be a little baby from here on out with your new muzzle loader. All right, number two.

[Corey Jacobsen]

Happy Halloween.

[Giannis Patelis]

This is. This is Ed Snell with a fall bird.

[Corey Jacobsen]

Come on, Phil, can you zoom in there?

[Phil Lavretsky]

I can't, no. Maybe I can, but I.

[Giannis Patelis]

What popped out to me when I first saw this picture was a couple things, Ed. And this is before we read Ed's email. One, he remembered his hearing protection and nothing else.

[Brody Henderson]

Yeah. For the. For the listeners who don't have benefit of YouTube. The photo shows a man standing on the little walkway next to his house. He's wearing extra tufts, a set of a headset of hearing protection and a pair of boxer shorts. And he holds a turkey, and he has a shotgun slung over his shoulder.

[Giannis Patelis]

Is there anything in his left hand?

[Phil Lavretsky]

It doesn't look like it. It's a clenched fist.

[Giannis Patelis]

It looks like me. Yeah.

[Brody Henderson]

He's just excited.

[Giannis Patelis]

Finish for excitement. Yeah. But even before we read Ed's caption, I was like, man, looks like he got a hen. And Brody said, well, yeah, look at the pumpkin. It's a. It was a fall hunt. Ed's caption read, I woke up to a flock of birds in my yard. Grabbed the shotgun and Knew I was going to be shooting, so I grabbed ear protection, too. Didn't bother with the pants, though. We're given a lot of wait to the good captions.

[Corey Jacobsen]

Yes, good stories are good.

[Giannis Patelis]

Hell yeah. All right, photo number three came in from Austin McDaniel.

[Corey Jacobsen]

Another good story.

[Brody Henderson]

And for our listeners, the photo shows two men behind a bird with a bow. And behind them is a billboard for Cafe Risque.

[Giannis Patelis]

Yeah.

[Corey Jacobsen]

So if any of you listeners have been to Cafe risque at exit 374 in some unknown state.

[Giannis Patelis]

No.

[Corey Jacobsen]

You're about to figure out a good turkey.

[Phil Lavretsky]

24 7.

[Giannis Patelis]

It's not going to be unknown because Austin wrote, we killed this bird in Florida 200 yards from this sign.

[Corey Jacobsen]

There you go. We just did a big spot burn there.

[Giannis Patelis]

I apologize for reading that caption, but man, if you're in Florida right now and struggling, there you go. Figure out where it's at. 374.

[Phil Lavretsky]

And I found there Instagram, 33 plus years of family owned adult diner entertainment.

[Brody Henderson]

An adult diner, wow.

[Giannis Patelis]

I've never heard of an adult diner.

[Brody Henderson]

And then you could just say, I'm going to my turkey spot. You know, I'll be there all weekend.

[Giannis Patelis]

Well, let's not digress too much. Okay, Phil, how much time do we need to give everybody to vote?

[Phil Lavretsky]

Let's give people a couple minutes. I'm gonna put the poll up.

[Brody Henderson]

Okay, now, folks, democracy in action here. The voice of the people will speak.

[Giannis Patelis]

Like I said, I already know who won. You guys disagree. You don't know what a good turkey photo is. Should we do a little listener feedback?

[Wyatt Seep]

Oh, sure.

[Phil Lavretsky]

Yeah, we'll do some listener feedback while I pull it. That's a great, great idea, Giannis.

[Giannis Patelis]

Look at that.

[Phil Lavretsky]

Hosting.

[Giannis Patelis]

Hey, I could also pitch the new television program that, that we have coming out today at some point.

[Corey Jacobsen]

Absolutely.

[Phil Lavretsky]

Do that right now.

[Giannis Patelis]

Okay. You may have heard, you may have not. We got a new program out. It's going to be out today at some point. I wish I knew what time. Probably soon.

[Corey Jacobsen]

Here.

[Brody Henderson]

It's live.

[Giannis Patelis]

It's live. She so soon watched it.

[Brody Henderson]

You got something to do.

[Giannis Patelis]

It's called Meat Eater Roasts. Yours truly hosted it.

[Dr. Randall Williams]

1,000 people.

[Giannis Patelis]

1,000 people have already viewed it, which means they must be digging it. It's. It's a little cooking competition show. We, we have a little process here within Meat Eater where colleagues, employees submit ideas. And there's been a lot of ideas submitted for some sort of cooking competition show. A lot of different versions, but we came up with this one originally. It Was supposed to be roast as in like we're like I was as the host and the judges, we're just going to be roasting and just cutting down the people that are trying to cook the whole time we've been doing that. But I'd say very light heartedly, but we basically have two people, just normal cooks. Brody's been a contestant, Randall's been a contestant.

[Brody Henderson]

Just a normal cook.

[Giannis Patelis]

Yeah. You guys are just normal dudes.

[Corey Jacobsen]

Yeah. In the intro of the show, you say ordinary cooks.

[Giannis Patelis]

Yeah.

[Corey Jacobsen]

It took a little bit of offense at that.

[Giannis Patelis]

What kind of a cook?

[Brody Henderson]

I did not.

[Giannis Patelis]

What kind of a cook would you describe yourself as?

[Corey Jacobsen]

I like every day better than ordinary. Ordinary just sounds so.

[Brody Henderson]

Brody's worked on cookbooks.

[Giannis Patelis]

Noted. I like. No, that's a better choice of words. I agree. Every day. Every day cooks and we make them cook against each other limited amount of time and they don't know what protein, what chunk of wild game they're cooking until I reveal it in front of them. In the show. I didn't write. We didn't cheat on that. Right. You didn't know what you were cooking then. We have a couple of judges who are mostly a little bit more experienced than the everyday cooks that are doing the cooking. And as they cook, the judges help them roast them, make some jokes, give us some banter, and at the end we judge the dishes, rate them, pick a winner, give some money to conservation because we like to do that. And I've been loving hosting it because it's really spurred some, like spurred me out of my normal sphere of what I always cook at home. When it comes to wild game like I did Corinne's. I don't want to give away too much, but I give. I gave away. I cooked what Corinne cooked. I've cooked what Spencer cooked.

[Brody Henderson]

What about me?

[Giannis Patelis]

What else? Well, yeah, I cook pot roasts often. And so I didn't like, I didn't re. I didn't remake. Yeah.

[Brody Henderson]

I didn't rekindle a love or a new. New outlook on the possibilities of a pot roast.

[Corey Jacobsen]

You guys are giving too much away here.

[Brody Henderson]

Phil, can we bleep all that out?

[Giannis Patelis]

Anyways, the first episode is live now. It is Brody cooking versus Ryan Callahan. And for judges, we have Jesse Griffiths and Stephen Rinella. And those. Those boys were harsh. They. Out of the five episodes we.

[Corey Jacobsen]

Jesse was harsh, but he was also helpful. Steve was just harsh.

[Brody Henderson]

Yeah, it's funny, I don't really associate Steve with being judgmental in any way.

[Corey Jacobsen]

Oh, never.

[Giannis Patelis]

But they did what we asked of them, and I think the episode came together nicely. I hope that all of you can watch it.

[Brody Henderson]

Ed is in the chat.

[Phil Lavretsky]

Ed is in the boxer shorts. Ed is in the chat.

[Brody Henderson]

Ed, you made our day today. Thank you.

[Phil Lavretsky]

Jacob and Austin, you're really missing out on this opportunity. If you're in the chat, show yourselves, because right now it is. Well, it's the spreads getting wider, but we've got. Well, actually, before we even say anything about the photo contest, let's get a vote from the crew. You guys.

[Giannis Patelis]

Oh, yeah.

[Phil Lavretsky]

Your votes do not matter, but just an opinion. Do you guys like, number one from Jacob, number two from Ed, or number three from Austin Randall?

[Brody Henderson]

Oh, man. Ed's photo brought a big smile to my face. I like the cafe Risque. You know, I like.

[Giannis Patelis]

You like going to adult miners?

[Brody Henderson]

No, no billboards. But, yeah, Ed smile really delighted me.

[Corey Jacobsen]

Yeah, I like that purdy picture of that. That musket and that turkey. That's a great photo. But, like, I. I like. I like Ed. He's great, man. Like, I like. I'd love to be living in that house and see a flock of turkeys in the backyard and jump out there and shoot one.

[Giannis Patelis]

Yeah, well, you. I was thinking you were gonna say you'd love to be Ed's neighbor and then see Ed jump out in that outfit.

[Corey Jacobsen]

I could go shoot myself doing the exact same. It's very relatable.

[Brody Henderson]

One of the. One of the members of the chat just suggests that we should get Ed second or third place so he gets a shirt.

[Giannis Patelis]

That'S. That's witty.

[Corey Jacobsen]

Or you can just go shirtless with the vest.

[Giannis Patelis]

Yeah, listen, I'm voting for Ed, man. I think that dude's got balls.

[Phil Lavretsky]

All right, I'm going to give the chat 30 more seconds, then I'm ending the poll.

[Giannis Patelis]

Who are you going for, Phil?

[Phil Lavretsky]

I mean, it's. All due respect to Ed. Incredible picture. I like. I like how classy number one is. And I like. I like the. The Cafe Risque billboard in number three. Those are my. Those are my two picks.

[Giannis Patelis]

I tell you what, they're cutting into my pizza time right now. Let's go.

[Phil Lavretsky]

Okay, 15 more seconds. 15 more seconds, because it's kind of close. So these last few seconds could. If you're.

[Giannis Patelis]

Something's wrong with you.

[Phil Lavretsky]

That would be me weighing our. Sorry, Ed. I'm sure you're a good guy. All right, let's give him 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. I am ending the poll in third place with 15% of the vote. We have photo number three, Austin McDaniel, the Cafe Risque billboard.

[Giannis Patelis]

Congratulations, Austin.

[Phil Lavretsky]

Good showing off.

[Corey Jacobsen]

There's someone driving to that Turkey.

[Brody Henderson]

I was gonna say burned his spot for third place. That's tough.

[Phil Lavretsky]

And now I'm gonna announce the first place winner with 43% of the vote.

[Giannis Patelis]

That's tight. We have Ed Snell.

[Brody Henderson]

Snell, yeah.

[Corey Jacobsen]

Send us a picture with some clothes on next time.

[Phil Lavretsky]

And that makes with 40% of the of the vote. Jacob, you're, you got second.

[Brody Henderson]

He'll get a little coverage out of that vest. That'll work.

[Giannis Patelis]

Very, very close. Very close.

[Phil Lavretsky]

Very close.

[Brody Henderson]

Ed, thanks for submitting your photo and thanks for being here with us. What a true pleasure.

[Giannis Patelis]

Yeah, I mean, I don't know if I have it in me to send in a photo anywhere in just my boxer shorts. Would you do that? To have it publicly displayed for a.

[Corey Jacobsen]

Free first light Turkey hunt vest? I would.

[Giannis Patelis]

Oh, you would for a free vest?

[Brody Henderson]

I come on here and make a buffoon of myself every week. Giannis. I don't know why showing a little skin is such a hang up. All right, maybe that's a new segment.

[Giannis Patelis]

Last but not least. Thanks again, Eddie. Last but not least, we have the meat Eater turkey calling contest ongoing. And today it is yours truly versus Tony Peterson. And is Tony just on his pot call again? You've watched his video. I haven't watched it.

[Brody Henderson]

That's the one.

[Giannis Patelis]

He's running both. Okay.

[Brody Henderson]

The pot calls. The one he said is for beginners. Right.

[Wyatt Seep]

You may want to.

[Giannis Patelis]

Oh, right. Right now, Tony is ahead 57% to my 42%. Hey, listen, if that's what the people think, that his call sound better, they might. I just feel like I did all mine with the mouth call. Yeah, I, I like to make it hard. I feel myself.

[Brody Henderson]

I feel like that's in the spirit of the competition.

[Giannis Patelis]

Yeah.

[Dr. Randall Williams]

Winners got to play Clay Newton.

[Brody Henderson]

Them get in there and support Giannis.

[Giannis Patelis]

Yeah. And then support us Yankees. Whether it's Peterson, myself. Who else is left? I don't know.

[Brody Henderson]

But yeah, dropping like flies.

[Giannis Patelis]

Clay's over there calling on on the top of a mule. I, I, I don't understand that. Except that I guess that just novelty gets, gets votes, but maybe that'll work. But yeah, I say let's not Clay off of his high horse. Yeah. Oh, and, and, and yeah, it'd be good for a new champion. Anything else to add this week, boys?

[Brody Henderson]

Phil, we got any last minute gems in the chat?

[Phil Lavretsky]

Yeah, I know Giannis is itching to get some turkey. A rapid fire Turkey tip. So you ready for this? Well, actually, first, Mogur piped in and said, wild turkey and Hungarian is vad puliaka. I hope he didn't tell me to, like, f my mom or something like that. I'm trusting you, mogul. You seem like a nice guy. Number one, rapid fire. What's the best state for public land turkey hunting opportunities?

[Brody Henderson]

Next question.

[Corey Jacobsen]

Throw a dart at the map.

[Giannis Patelis]

Yeah, man. There's turkeys literally, in all of the states in the lower 48. So pick one that has a lot of public land. You'll probably get good turkey hunting on public.

[Phil Lavretsky]

Top three snacks for a long turkey sit.

[Giannis Patelis]

Oh, man. PBNJ jerky.

[Corey Jacobsen]

I like to have a little fried chicken in my backpack, which isn't really a snack, but it's good.

[Giannis Patelis]

Oh, yeah. Snacks and food and meals. It's kind of all the same to me when I'm packing my turkey vest. So I like. I'd rather have more than less.

[Corey Jacobsen]

Yep.

[Phil Lavretsky]

Who's gonna kill a turkey first this year?

[Giannis Patelis]

I already killed one.

[Corey Jacobsen]

Yeah. I think you were the first on the crew this year, right?

[Giannis Patelis]

Might have been between you and Seth.

[Wyatt Seep]

Seth was in Florida.

[Giannis Patelis]

Oh, that's true. Yeah.

[Phil Lavretsky]

We'll have to check those time codes. Any turkey tips for closing the gap?

[Corey Jacobsen]

Be sneaky or stay where you are.

[Giannis Patelis]

Yeah, just real, real quiet calling. That's what I've found. That is when you think he can't hear you, he can hear you.

[Corey Jacobsen]

Mm.

[Phil Lavretsky]

Decoy or no decoy?

[Giannis Patelis]

No decoy for me.

[Corey Jacobsen]

I've never killed one over a decoy.

[Giannis Patelis]

Is that right?

[Corey Jacobsen]

Carry them around. But this is very.

[Giannis Patelis]

I know we're trying to do this real fast, Phil, but this is just for. If I'm going out personally, hunting by myself, I'm gonna go with no decoys.

[Corey Jacobsen]

I feel like if you do it right, you can set up in a spot. If the terrain allows, you can set up in a spot where you don't need one.

[Giannis Patelis]

Oh, 100%. And. And then in the back in the east, it doesn't even have to be terrain. It's vegetation. Right. You just have to set it up so that the turkey has to come see you in your range. In. In range.

[Corey Jacobsen]

Yeah.

[Giannis Patelis]

Right. But again, we hunt western stuff a lot. If you're hunting fields, the decoys can be deadly. And. And if I'm guiding, whether it's, you know, friends, family, kids, whatever, I might be doing that.

[Corey Jacobsen]

Yeah. And I mean, you start talking about super realistic decoys like these, like, they can definitely, like, get a turkey in the range. When they wouldn't have come otherwise.

[Giannis Patelis]

Oh yeah, and you get to see the whole show and all that, but I just like to. Again, I like the challenge of calling one in. I like to make it hard.

[Phil Lavretsky]

Okay, last. Last one. Is pineapple acceptable on pizza?

[Brody Henderson]

Yes.

[Giannis Patelis]

Hell yeah. Hell yeah.

[Corey Jacobsen]

No.

[Giannis Patelis]

Speaking of which, let's go eat some pizza. Thank you all for listening. Watching Meat Eater Radio live this week. Again, just one last reminder. Go to the meat eater.com see what we got going on there. There's all kinds of great content this week. Get you fired up for turkey season.

[Brody Henderson]

Hell of a show, Phil.

[Phil Lavretsky]

Congrats, Ed.

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