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July 31, 1997 - Case of the Smoking SmokehouseIOQ •, The Suffolk,Times,• July 311 <1997 Case of the Smoking Smokehouse I'm sitting out by my smoker that's been loaded with bluefish and stripers my son caught last night. They were soaked in brine and brown sugar overnight and I added a few secret in- gredients that should make them mighty tasty. I usually use hickory wood for smoke and heat. Sometimes I use cherry or apple wood. It all depends on what's available at the time. Usually I have two smokers going at one time but my big one rust- ed out so today I'm just working with the smaller one. I've had quite a few differ- ent kinds of smokers in my day. Some good, some not so good. The big wooden one we had was last used by my son and a friend. With usual youthful enthusiasm, they'd gotten a nice mess of eels and were going to smoke them. They cleaned and soaked them in brine, hung them in the smokehouse with tender lov- ing care and got a good smoky fire going. They sat by the smokehouse and tended their eels with concern and a newfound skill. As the evening slipped by and the hour got later and later, they decided to call it a day. Everything was going according to Dad's laid out plan. Now all they had to do was bank the smoldering fire and by next morning there would be the delicacies they'd been dreaming of As they left they stocked the smoker with wood and made a few last minute adjust- ments to the draft then headed home. Both my son and his colleague had to go to work early the next day so I was asked to pick up the eels. It would be a simple job: Simply removing the hang- ing smoked eels from their racks and putting them in the refrigerator until the boys came home in the evening to enjoy the spoils of their labor. About 7 in the morning I walked down by the little pond where the smokehouse was to fulfill my part of the job. I could see slight whiffs of smoke coming up through the heavy greenery that surrounded the smoke- house. I thought they'd heeded my instructions and the fire was still smol- dering, doing its wonderful job of impregnating the eels with that rare aroma and taste that only smoked eels As I turned the corner to where the smokehouse as supposed to be, there was nothing there except a pile of ashes, a few metal racks where once eels hung and that delicate little whiff of smoke that told me the eels and the smokehouse were no more. They'd left the fire well stacked with wood. That was fine but they evidently didn't close the draft down far enough and with no one there, the fire built up, creating much too much heat. With all that heat the oil in the eels ran like water down on the fire, which created a super fire, so much that the wooden smokehouse went up in flames. I had purposely put it in place where there was no chance of setting anything else on fire because of an earlier smoke- house disaster that had happened to me. This blaze during the night must have created quite a spectacle and to think no one saw it. So much for smokehouse tales. Focus on Nature by Pain Stoutenburgh can create. Deer Everywhere Just over the fence from our present metal smokehouse is our garden, or should I say what's left of our garden. The deer have enjoyed it immensely. The beets, carrots, lettuce, chard, squash — you name it, if I planted it, they ate it. And not only that, they ravaged my flower garden as well. I nurtured a love- ly pink phlox from a friend in Maine into a healthy, siz- able clumpy >' and it had just come into od bud. Mr. or Mrs. Deer tt came in and first ate all the buds off; then, the next night, all the leaves were gone. My orchard has been pruned from ground level to as high as a deer can reach. The limbs are left but all the green is gone. To give you some idea of how closely these animals live around us, there's a lot to the north of me that was once farmed and now lies idle, overgrown with multi - flora rose, Russian olive, cedar trees and others, all of which make excellent deer cover. Here they spend the whole day, bedded down until evening when they i w49. S wwL naMIM M 75 Years Ago July 28, 1922 'Rum' Ship Captured off Montauk: The two - masted British schooner Gamma, which had 2,000 cases of whiskey aboard, was captured on Thursday of last week about two miles off Montauk Point after a short chase by government rum- chasers led by inspector Percy Johnson. The cargo was valued at between $500 and $1,000. Early Thursday morning the vessel was sighted about two miles off Montauk Point and after a chase it was overhauled. Inspector Johnson went aboard and found the whiskey. Customs agents allege that the schooner has been stopping en route to transfer part of her cargo to small boats which in turn landed the liquor at points on Long Island. 50 Years Ago July 25, 1947 Orient News: Twenty -two Old Crabs enjoyed gener- ous bites at Ed King's lobster party at Young's Landing on Saturday, July 19. Other July hosts included Fred Burnham, John McKay and Nat Luce. "Johnny" Bender, a guest, renewed old associations with the "Creek" where his early training for his promotions in the U.S. Coast Guard began. It is reported that Judge Wenzel is hurrying home from the Pacific coast for his Old Crab party on Aug. 23. You Old Suffolk Times photo by Barbara Stoutenburgh FRIGHTENED FAWN —This young deer was seen wandering through our back woods, seemingly lost. What to do? The best thing is to let nature take its course and do nothing. Sooner or later mother and young will usually find each other. 0 come out. There's a busy road to the west of the lot and another house on the other side, meaning that the deer have only this small area in which to hide. No wonder we have deer problems in our yard. During the spring I could go out in the evening, just before dark, and count from six to eight deer coming out of that small overgrown lot. The escape route for all these deer is this big unused farm to the east. When you have big deer, sooner or later you'll have little deer. A lone fawn was seen last week in our woods. It was a heartbreaking sight as it cried mourn- fully for its mother. Somehow it had got- ten separated from her and was wan- dering aimlessly about. We thought of trying to capture it but have been told repeatedly by those who know about such things to let nature take its course, for given time they'll find each other. We did that but it was pretty hard to watch it wander off, still calling. Perhaps all worked out for we haven't seen it this Crabs may expect no further notice. 25 Years Ago Aug. 3, 1972 Sing -Out Sunday: One place the generations meet is at the summer sing -outs held in this area. This Sunday, beginning at 7 p.m., all who like to sing folk songs, camp songs, and hymns will gather on the end of Claudio's Dock, Greenport, where their voices ring out over the bay. Accompanied by Beth Miller, Clara Richardson, Doug Dorman and others on guitars, and kept more or less on beat by song leader Don Hamblin, all who come to sing have a good time, and differences of age and siation melt away. You too are welcome to join in this pleasant hour. Southold Art Show Coming: The fifth annual outdoor art show, sponsored by the Southold United Methodist Church, Main Road, Southold will be held on Saturday. Their show from its beginning has been a suc- cessful one, increasing in size and popularity each year. Over 100 artists, local and from the surrounding states, are expected to exhibit their works on the tree-shaded church grounds. Refreshments will be available and the public is invited free of charge. The show will provide art lovers with a pleasant opportunity to view and purchase original works. week. Last year another little fawn wasn't quite so lucky; it was killed by a car right down the road from our driveway. It was a sad but beautiful thing, lying there all decked out in its camouflage attire of light brown and whitish spots. We're told that deer seek seclusion when they have their young. When first bom the young have no scent, and therefore the mother, who does carry a scent, leaves the fawn to lie perfectly still all day. Then when evening comes, the mother returns and nurses it. To those of you who've been here but a short time, it's difficult to believe that years ago we hardly ever saw deer here on the East End. Most would think that back when fewer people and more farms were about there would have been lots of deer. On the contrary, when much of the land was in farming there wasn't the cover for deer. Today many farmers have left and the land lies idle and grown up, making excellent cover and browse for deer. Also, today, people have built hous- es on former farmland, and their planti- ngs and shrubbery have invited deer to browse on this rich new greenery. Once deer start reproducing, the ever- expand- ing ball of population growth takes over. Now we have a surplus of deer with no predators. Actually we have more deer now than in colonial times. In those early days man hunted for survival and there were natur- al predators such as wolves, bears and panthers that helped control the popula- tion. Today we're out of balance. How to correct it? There are many ways, most very expensive. The least expensive is to have a "controlled hunting season," issu- ing special permits to people who have severe deer damage. With the permit the deer are put down, but only under strict state control. We've changed our world in many ways. Some are easily seen, others are deep- rooted, not easily detected until it's too late. The key to our survival and, of course, the world's too, is education and then, and here's the tricky part, the will to take action. Remember, we are the stew- ards of this beautiful planet of ours.