An Alaskan Bush People fan sent this very question to the family in 2017, prompting two excellent answers from Gabe and Bear Brown.
Yeah, Bear Brown? Why don’t you eat your namesake? All humor aside, it’s a fair question for the Brown family as they’ve shown local game makes up a large portion of their diet when in Alaska. Taking fan questions for this 2017 Ask The Bush People segment, brothers Gabe and Bear give their own thoughtful answers to this conundrum.
“Every other Alaskan eats bear meat, I see,” reads the question at hand. “Why do you guys not kill some since you have so many?”
There’s a forward way of asking, right there! To this, Bear Brown answers first.
“We don’t like to hunt and kill the bears, is the main thing,” he says within. “Because the bears, they deserve the respect [of us]. They’re just roaming around in the woods! They’re not prey animals like deer.”
Via his answer, Bear thinks of his namesake in a much different light than the plentiful prey animals of Alaska.
“Deer are herd animals, there’s a ton of them,” he adds. “That’s more the style we hunt.”
His brother Gabe, however, sees things a bit differently. “Bear meat is okay, but it’s not the best,” he begins. “It’s not the best food in Alaska.”
If you ask Gabe, “deer” is. “It is the dependable steak,” he says. Now there’s an Outsider motto if we’ve ever heard one!
“It is the beef of Alaska,” the Alaskan Bush People star offers. “But other than that… Bear is okay, too.”
If Not Bears for the ‘Alaskan Bush People’, Then Deer!
As viewers would have it, Gabe’s answer leads perfectly into the next fan question.
“What is your recipe for deer stew?” Bear reads aloud.
“Shew… It’s a secret!” Gabe smiles, with Bear matching his grin.
“As far as I know, Bear says, “Mom and dad’s recipe for deer stew is just basically the deer itself, and then any ingredients you happen to have fresh-grown in the garden are the best! Carrots, corn, potatoes, tomatoes… Slow roasted on an open fire,” he continues, clearly getting hungry. “Doesn’t get much better than that!”
Mom and dad being, of course, Ami Brown and the late Alaskan Bush People patriarch, Billy Brown.
“Well that’s the best thing about Deer stew!” Gabe beams in response. “You can cook it any way! If you have the deer, you can have deer stew! Traditionally, we have the deer, we have potatoes,” he agrees with his brother. “But yeah! It’s just all about what you want to throw in them.”
“Peppers would be really good,” the brothers agree, hungrier than before. Or is that just me? Looks like deer strew is on the menu, boys!
Check out a few more excellent fan questions courtesy of Discovery’s Alaskan Bush People segment below:
Ask the Bush People: Why Don’t You Eat Bears?
Discovery
