"Don't look for the deer," Pavel told me on a frosty morning near the Šumava foothills. "Look for the food of the deer. The deer will be there tomorrow."
Then I watched 72-year-old Radek place his hand on the flank of a magnificent roebuck. He whispered something in Czech. When I asked Jarda what he said, Jarda replied: "He is asking for forgiveness and promising to use every piece. The meat does not belong to us. We are just borrowing it from the forest." czech hunter friends
They will teach you that the forest has a memory. And if you are lucky, they might just teach you how to listen to it. "Don't look for the deer," Pavel told me
After the hunt, we didn't go to a sports bar. We went to Radek's chalupa (cottage). The kitchen smelled of marjoram, garlic, and juniper. We made kančí pečeně (roasted wild boar) and a goulash so thick you could stand a spoon in it. He whispered something in Czech
He was right. Thirty seconds later, the brush erupted. In the US, we hang the head on the wall. In Czechia, they hang the meat in the cold room.
Na zdar! (To success!)