- NARRATOR: On a winter day in Austin, Marshall Wright fixes
some food for his family.
[skillet sizzling]
- MARSHALL: The ducks, I only want to do them to about
medium rare.
[knife slicing]
Onion, green bell pepper and celery.
What they call the holy Trinity.
- NARRATOR: Marshall has been cooking all his life,
but this meal is different from most.
- I'm going to make gumbo.
- NARRATOR: The preparation for it really began in a
hunter education class six months earlier.
- INSTRUCTOR: Which one's got the most control over the
firearm muzzle?
The one in the middle, absolutely.
- NARRATOR: Marshall's interest in healthy, local food has
led him to explore hunting for the first time.
- MARSHALL: Not to stereotype but I don't maybe necessarily
look like a hunter.
- NARRATOR: But Marshall does represent a new trend among
city-dwellers who want to know more about where their
food comes from.
- MARSHALL: That looks good.
We're at the downtown Austin Farmers' Market.
I guess I'll have to try them.
I like the smaller ones as well.
Shopping at farmers' markets in general has started to
gain a lot of popularity.
- VENDOR: The smaller ones are $3 and the biggest ones are $5.
- MARSHALL: You can come to the market and get food
straight from the source.
It's going to be better for you to eat.
And it's better for the local economy.
Thank you.
[bag crinkling]
- Enjoy, brother.
- Because of the rise of obesity in America, because of the
Food, Inc. movies, because of the Michael Pollan books,
it's hard now to ignore where your food comes from.
[crowd chatter]
I hate to say it's trendy, because I think it's people
are finally realizing we need to get back to how we shop
and how we eat.
- NARRATOR: And Marshall brings back more than food from his
trips to the Farmers' Market.
[click]
- MARSHALL: I'm actually in the process of shooting a cookbook.
- NARRATOR: Food photography is as much his passion as
cooking and eating.
[clicks]
- MARSHALL: So much food photography is focused on
that finished dish.
I like the process of cooking the food or preparing the food
as much as I do the eating of the food, and then to capture
that with photography.
- NARRATOR: When Marshall is not at the computer for his
photography or his job in social media,
he also keeps a blog,
about-- you guessed it-- food.
- MARSHALL: My blog is very heavy on photography,
but I definitely got into it as a means of exploring
my passion for food.
For the most part, I just like to eat.
- NARRATOR: This focus on food has led to Marshall's interest
in getting some the traditional way.
- This shotgun here came from my father-in-law.
There is a primal, back to basics element of it
that I think is very prominent in food culture right now.
What can we do and how can we find ways to eat that we
know what we're eating?
And so hunting seemed to be obviously a logical step
to that.
- Marshall Wright.
- NARRATOR: So what now that Marshall has learned the rules
of hunter safety?
- You got a 92. Congratulations.
- Yeah, now what?
Probably ought to learn how to shoot a gun.
That would be a good start.
- STEVE HALL: Our goal today is just essentially familiarization
with a shotgun.
- NARRATOR: To get some hands-on experience,
Marshall also enrolls in a hunter education field course.
- So today we're going after these birds called skeet.
[chamber clicks]
Okay, now it's loaded, ready to go, keep your finger outside
the trigger guard until we're ready to fire.
- MARSHALL: Pull.
It's still a little bit intimidating.
- STEVE: Nice.
You have to move the muzzle to the bird.
Okay?
- Pull.
There's more to think about than I thought.
- STEVE: Okay, nice.
What you had problems doing is finding the bird quicker.
- MARSHALL: I've shot a shotgun once.
[gun shot]
This was the first time.
- STEVE: Oooh, just below it.
- MARSHALL: Pull.
[gun shot]
I hit zero.
I want to bird hunt.
Uh, it's going to take some more practice,
but I'll definitely get it.
[gun shot]
- STEVE: Oooh, just scratched the left edge of it.
- MARSHALL: I at least got a little piece of one.
- INSTRUCTOR: What is this part called?
- MARSHALL: That's the butt.
- WOMAN: The stock.
- Stock, there you go.
- NARRATOR: As Marshall finds out, if you don't grow up
hunting, learning the ropes can take some effort.
While interest and determination go a long way,
getting started may mean finding friends who already
hunt or hiring a guide.
- INSTRUCTOR: Alright, roll that over on the bolt handle
if you would please.
Downrange but in the same position...
- NARRATOR: Fortunately, through a contact from this class,
Marshall is invited on his first hunt.
- MARSHALL: 13, 14, 15.
That's something.
- NARRATOR: All the preparation may soon pay off.
[gunshots]
- INSTRUCTOR: Alright, nailed it!
- You know, it's not 'grab a gun, and go sit out in
the woods and shoot something.'
There's a lot that's involved in getting to this point.
I do hope it's successful.
Either way I get to be outside, and we get to be in nature
and do something fun.
Yes ma'am, I need to get a hunting license please.
- Okay, and what are you going to be hunting for?
- Uh, for duck. - Okay.
- MARSHALL: And then I had to go buy a hunting license,
which I went and did this morning.
So I'm licensed now officially...
and I'm going to get some ammo for the hunt and, yeah,
then we'll be ready to go early, 5:30 in the morning tomorrow.
[wind blowing]
[duck calls]
- GARRETT: Alright, let's go ahead and sit down
and get ready.
[duck calls]
It was pretty slow.
This property typically will have five to twelve
flights of birds.
Get it.
Shoot.
Shoot!
[gun shots]
- DAVE: Far off on that?
- GARRETT: No bird.
- GARRETT: We saw four groups of birds work.
But that's part of hunting.
[wind]
[duck calls]
- MARSHALL: Just sitting there waiting and the anticipation of
when the birds are going to come and if they're going to come
and what do you do when they come, and you know, you have to
go through all the stuff that you learned in hunter education
and thinking about your firearm, and just everything about it
runs through you in a split second.
It was exciting!
- GARRETT: There are some birds up top.
Take 'em!
[gun shots]
Good shot.
Dixie!
[splash]
Nice shot, Marshall.
Nice shot.
Marshall did great.
You know, I'm impressed.
Good girl.
- I happened to be lucky and got a couple.
- DAVE: Nice shooting.
- MARSHALL: Thanks!
[wind]
[cows moo]
- GARRETT: You know, we could go purchase a cow for about $600
if you really want to go home with some meat.
[laughs]
These are free range, organic...
[acoustic guitar music]
- MARSHALL: We didn't see a lot of birds, but we saw enough
that it was successful.
[acoustic guitar music]
It was fun.
I'm absolutely going to do it again.
Okay, let's eat.
Being able to go do a hunt, and then come back and be able to
share it with other people, I think that's, seems to be
a nice trend that people are trying to get back to.
Good duck in there.
That tastes nice.
- Daddy, I like your gumbo.
- MARSHALL: Thank you, Maggie.
- Is my face messy?
[laughs]