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Kathi Appelt is a very good author. I really enjoyed the book, The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp. I wanted to do research on the author. She is a very interesting character and most of her story ideas come from a bare garage wall and crayons. She has a whole website dedicated to her.

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I was born on July 6, 1954 in Fayetteville, North Carolina. My father, Bill Cowgill, was stationed in the Army there, a member of the 82nd Airborne. He and my mother, Patricia, were both still teenagers when I made my fortuitous appearance. By fortuitous I mean that I couldn't wait to get to the hospital and was born instead in the front seat of my father's Ford. Waiting is still not my strong suit!

We only lived in North Carolina for a short time and then moved to El Paso, TX and finally to Houston. Both of my younger sisters, Patti and B.J., were born there, and Houston is where we grew up.

In our house on Mayo Avenue, we had a garage with unfinished sheet rock on the inside walls. On one side of the garage was my dad's work bench where he kept all his tools. But the other side was just a big blank wall. My mother divided it into three sections. As soon as my sisters and I could hold crayons, we were allowed to express ourselves on that wall in any color or form that we wished.

If you stood back and looked at the wall, it was like a record of my growing up. Down at the bottom was just a lot of scribbling, but as I grew, the drawing took on new and clearer forms. You could tell the drawings that were done when I was happy from the ones I did when I was sad or angry. The garage wall was a perfect place for expression. Once I started actually writing, on paper, I no longer needed the wall. But I still think of it as the place where my earliest writing took place. It was like my first journal, a record of my feelings and experiences.

I still keep a journal. Like the garage wall, it's a place for catching all my thoughts, and sometimes my dreams. It's often the first place that the idea for a new story or poem occurs. Because I don't have any particular rules about writing in my journal, sometimes I'm surprised by what shows up!

Most of my books and poems come directly from my own life because that's what I know best and feel most strongly about.

I used to think that a real writer had to have lots of exciting, maybe even dangerous, adventures in order to have something meaningful to write about. Now I know that the best writing is about the people, places, pets, and objects that surround us and that we meet every day. I've discovered that writing about them is the absolute best way to really know them and in the process to come to know ourselves a little better. I now know that writing is really a way of seeing. I'd like to encourage you to get out your old journal or start a new one and see what shows up.

Even better, find a bare garage wall and go for it.

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I was born on July 6, 1954 in Fayetteville, North Carolina. My father, Bill Cowgill, was stationed in the Army there, a member of the 82nd Airborne. He and my mother, Patricia, were both still teenagers when I made my fortuitous appearance.

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The scouts would sleep in an abandoned Chrysler Desoto. My husband is a huge car guy, so I wanted to know what the car described in the book looked like.

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Living in Texas my whole life, I have never seen a swamp nor did I know we had swamps in Texas. When I hear about swamps, I automatically think about Louisiana and Florida. I did some research on Texas swamps and Texas has many swamps.

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A geographical and ecological description of deepwater swamps in Texas.

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Not everyone is from Texas and knows about rattlesnakes. I have lived in Texas my whole life, so I have learned about rattlesnakes because they are very common in Texas. I found a website that gives interesting facts about rattlesnakes. Rattlesnakes are usually easily recognized because of their rattle.

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Rattlesnakes are best known for, and most easily recognized by, their rattle. The rattlesnake babies are born with what is called a pre-button. The baby snake loses this piece when it sheds its skin for the first time. With the shedding a new button appears. With every shedding after that another button, or rattle, will be added. These buttons are made up of a material called Keratin, which is what the scales and your fingernails are made of! The rattles are empty, so what makes the noise? The noise comes from each segment knocking together, so until a rattlesnake has two or more pieces it isn't going to make a sound! But when it does...you WILL hear it...and you WILL RUN!

Rattlesnakes are found in the southern parts of the United States, from the deserts to the mountains and grow between 3 and 4 feet (.9 to 1.2 m) long. There are 16 different types of Rattlers such as the Eastern Diamondback, Western Diamondback, Sidewinder and the Speckled, just to name a few. All of them have rattles, are venomous and are pit vipers.

Rattlesnakes feed on rodents, squirrels, rabbits and other small critters. They hibernate through the winter and come out in the spring to eat and then mate. Rattlesnake eggs will stay inside their mother until they hatch. Most of the time there are 8-10 babies born at once and are about 10 inches long. Babies are born venomous but cannot rattle and are often more aggressive than the adults.

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Rattlesnakes are best known for, and most easily recognized by, their rattle. The rattlesnake babies are born with what is called a pre-button. The baby snake loses this piece when it sheds its skin for the first time. With the shedding a new button appears.

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Ivory-billed Woodpecker, Extincted Since the mid-20th Century.

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Ivory-billed Woodpecker, Extincted Since the mid-20th Century.

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This bird is thought to be sighted in the novel. Audie took a snapshot of the animal with a Polaroid Land Camera. Audie described the bird "to have broad black wings with... trailing feathers... stripes on the sides of its neck, [and a] tall crest on its head" (p. 99).

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About the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker

The ivory-billed woodpecker recently went from near total obscurity to superstardom when birders reported a sighting of the believed-to-be-extinct species.

The world's third largest woodpecker was condemned to oblivion some 50 years ago, but in April 2005, a stunning video emerged from a vast Arkansas swamp forest. The tape appeared to show a live ivory-billed woodpecker-and captured the attention of the world. It was hailed as the birding equivalent of finding Elvis alive.

In the wake of the discovery, some experts supported the evidence while others suggested that the tape showed a similar, smaller woodpecker-the pileated -which remains common in much of North America.

Ivory-billed woodpeckers make a unique double-knock noise when pecking at trees, and this sound may be a crucial aid to identifying any surviving birds. A recent recording may have captured this distinctive sound, but it may also reflect noises of nonavian origin.

Until more hard evidence emerges from the Mississippi Delta's inaccessible, 860-square-mile Big Woods region, the ivory-bill's status must remain uncertain. But it is beyond doubt that the bird captured the attention of America and became a tragic symbol of the vanished old-growth delta forests it once frequented. These woodlands survive today mostly in isolated patches.

Ivory-billed woodpeckers use their enormous white bill (not really made of ivory, but bone) to strip bark from dead but standing trees, and to access the beetle larvae that make up their primary food. These bills were once decorative objects prized by some Native Americans. They have been found in archaeological digs far from the bird's ancient range-which suggests that they had value as trade items.

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Ivory-Billed Woodpecker | National Geographic

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About the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker The ivory-billed woodpecker recently went from near total obscurity to superstardom when birders reported a sighting of the believed-to-be-extinct species. The world's third largest woodpecker was condemned to oblivion some 50 years ago, but in April 2005, a stunning video emerged from a vast Arkansas swamp forest.

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Another Unique and Uncommon Food - the Dewberry

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Another Unique and Uncommon Food - the Dewberry

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Very similar to a blackberry and can be used in cooking in the same ways. Referenced in p. 105.

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Dewberry: Dewberry, any of several species of trailing blackberries of the genus Rubus in the rose family (Rosaceae). Dewberries are found throughout North America and northern Europe. They bear edible fruits that can be eaten raw or baked into cobblers or pies or made into preserves. They are occasionally

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The Author's Use of Sounds and Onomatopoeia 

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The Author's Use of Sounds and Onomatopoeia 

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There is a frequent use of sounds and onomatopoeia in TBSoSMS. Appelt's choice to use this style of writing reinforces the humorous, or light-hearted tone and dialogue throughout the novel.

"Rumble-rumble-rumble-rumble!" (p. 49)
"Ccrrreeeeaaakkk" (p. 49)
"Snip-snap-zip-zap" (p. 139)
"CHICHICHICHICHI" (p. 139)
"Sssslleeeepp" (p. 156)
"BURRRRPPPP!" (p. 254)
Words and sounds are hyperbolized throughout the novel.

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This reminded me of concrete poetry forms we learned about during the children's poetry lecture. In chapter 17, pages 51 and 52, Kathie Appelt uses typographical effects in order to add effects to the sounds and dialogues expressed. On page 51, we see the directions of the breeze pushing against the pines;
"Left.
Right.
Left.
Right."
The direction of the swaying trees are shown by offsetting the text on the pages of the book.

We can see this again on the next page, 52, in a different form--
"in a very tiny voice, J'miah asked, 'what is that?'"
Here, Appelt decided to visually represent J'miah's "tiny voice" by shrinking the text on the page.

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This is the process used to get the juice of the sugar cane.

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I've heard that wild Hogs have become pests in some areas, however I didn't know it was such a widely known thing until it was alluded to in the book. I looked up some articles and found a Smithsonian article based in Texas that was interesting!

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About 50 miles east of Waco, Texas, a 70-acre field is cratered with holes up to five feet wide and three feet deep. The roots below a huge oak tree shading a creek have been dug out and exposed. Grass has been trampled into paths. Where the grass has been stripped, saplings crowd out the pecan trees that provide food for deer, opossums and other wildlife. A farmer wanting to cut his hay could barely run a tractor through here. There's no mistaking what has happened-this field has gone to the hogs.

"I've trapped 61 of 'em down here in the last month," says Tom Quaca, whose in-laws have owned this land for about a century. "But at least we got some hay out of here this year. First time in six years." Quaca hopes to flatten the earth and crush the saplings with a bulldozer. Then maybe-maybe-the hogs will move onto adjacent hunting grounds and he can once again use his family's land.

Wild hogs are among the most destructive invasive species in the United States today. Two million to six million of the animals are wreaking havoc in at least 39 states and four Canadian provinces; half are in Texas, where they do some $400 million in damages annually. They tear up recreational areas, occasionally even terrorizing tourists in state and national parks, and squeeze out other wildlife.

Texas allows hunters to kill wild hogs year-round without limits or capture them alive to take to slaughterhouses to be processed and sold to restaurants as exotic meat. Thousands more are shot from helicopters. The goal is not eradication, which few believe possible, but control.

The wily hogs seem to thrive in almost any conditions, climate or ecosystem in the state-the Pineywoods of east Texas; the southern and western brush country; the lush, rolling central Hill Country. They are surprisingly intelligent mammals and evade the best efforts to trap or kill them (and those that have been unsuccessfully hunted are even smarter). They have no natural predators, and there are no legal poisons to use against them. Sows begin breeding at 6 to 8 months of age and have two litters of four to eight piglets-a dozen is not unheard of-every 12 to 15 months during a life span of 4 to 8 years. Even porcine populations reduced by 70 percent return to full strength within two or three years.

Wild hogs are "opportunistic omnivores," meaning they'll eat most anything. Using their extra-long snouts, flattened and strengthened on the end by a plate of cartilage, they can root as deep as three feet. They'll devour or destroy whole fields-of sorghum, rice, wheat, soybeans, potatoes, melons and other fruits, nuts, grass and hay. Farmers planting corn have discovered that the hogs go methodically down the rows during the night, extracting seeds one by one.

Hogs erode the soil and muddy streams and other water sources, possibly causing fish kills. They disrupt native vegetation and make it easier for invasive plants to take hold. The hogs claim any food set out for livestock, and occasionally eat the livestock as well, especially lambs, kids and calves. They also eat such wildlife as deer and quail and feast on the eggs of endangered sea turtles.

Because of their susceptibility to parasites and infections, wild hogs are potential carriers of disease. Swine brucellosis and pseudorabies are the most problematic because of the ease with which they can be transmitted to domestic pigs and the threat they pose to the pork industry.

And those are just the problems wild hogs cause in rural areas. In suburban and even urban parts of Texas, they're making themselves at home in parks, on golf courses and on athletic fields. They treat lawns and gardens like a salad bar and tangle with household pets.

Hogs, wild or otherwise, are not native to the United States. Christopher Columbus introduced them to the Caribbean, and Hernando De Soto brought them to Florida. Texas' early settlers let pigs roam free until needed; some were never recovered. During wars or economic downturns, many settlers abandoned their homesteads and the pigs were left to fend for themselves. In the 1930s, Eurasian wild boars were brought to Texas and released for hunting. They bred with free-ranging domestic animals and escapees that had adapted to the wild.

And yet wild hogs were barely more than a curiosity in the Lone Star State until the 1980s. It's only since then that the population has exploded, and not entirely because of the animals' intelligence, adaptability and fertility. Hunters found them challenging prey, so wild hog populations were nurtured on ranches that sold hunting leases; some captured hogs were released in other parts of the state. Game ranchers set out feed to attract deer, but wild hogs pilfered it, growing more fecund. Finally, improved animal husbandry reduced disease among domestic pigs, thereby reducing the incidence among wild hogs.

Few purebred Eurasian wild boars are left today, but they have hybridized with feral domestic hogs and continue to spread. All are interchangeably called wild or feral hogs, pigs or boars; in this context, "boar" can refer to a male or female. (Technically, "feral" refers to animals that can be traced back to escaped domestic pigs, while the more all-encompassing "wild" refers to any non-domestic animals.) Escaped domestic hogs adapt to the wild in just months, and within a couple of generations they transform into scary-looking beasts as mean as can be.

The difference between domestic and wild hogs is a matter of genetics, experience and environment. The animals are "plastic in their physical and behavioral makeup," says wild hog expert John Mayer of the Savannah River National Laboratory in South Carolina. Most domestic pigs have sparse coats, but descendants of escapees grow thick bristly hair in cold environments. Dark-skinned pigs are more likely than pale ones to survive in the wild and pass along their genes. Wild hogs develop curved "tusks" as long as seven inches that are actually teeth (which are cut from domestics when they're born). The two teeth on top are called whetters or grinders, and the two on the bottom are called cutters; continual grinding keeps the latter deadly sharp. Males that reach sexual maturity develop "shields" of dense tissue on their shoulders that grow harder and thicker (up to two inches) with age; these protect them during fights.

Wild hogs are rarely as big as pen-bound domestics; they average 150 to 200 pounds as adults, although a few reach more than 400 pounds. Well-fed pigs develop large, wide skulls; those with a limited diet, as in the wild, grow smaller, narrower skulls with longer snouts useful for rooting. Wild pigs have poor eyesight but good hearing and an acute sense of smell; they can detect odors up to seven miles away or 25 feet underground. They can run 30 miles an hour in bursts.

Adult males are solitary, keeping to themselves except when they breed or feed from a common source. Females travel in groups, called sounders, usually of 2 to 20 but up to 50 individuals, including one or more sows, their piglets and maybe a few adoptees. Since the only thing (besides food) they cannot do without is water, they make their homes in bottomlands near rivers, creeks, lakes or ponds. They prefer areas of dense vegetation where they can hide and find shade. Because they have no sweat glands, they wallow in mudholes during the hot months; this not only cools them off but also coats them with mud that keeps insects and the worst of the sun's rays off their bodies. They are mostly nocturnal, one more reason they're difficult to hunt.

"Look up there," exclaims Brad Porter, a natural resource specialist with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, as he points up a dirt road cutting across Cow Creek Ranch in south Texas. "That's hog-hunting 101 right there." As he speaks, his hunting partner's three dogs, who'd been trotting alongside Porter's pickup truck, streak through the twilight toward seven or eight wild hogs breaking for the brush. Porter stops to let his own two dogs out of their pens in the bed of the pickup and they, too, are off in a flash. When the truck reaches the area where the pigs had been, Porter, his partner Andy Garcia and I hear frantic barking and a low-pitched sighing sound. Running into the brush, we find the dogs have surrounded a red and black wild hog in a clearing. Two dogs have clamped onto its ears. Porter jabs his knife just behind the hog's shoulder, dispatching it instantly. The dogs back off and quiet down as he grabs its rear legs and drags it back to his truck.

"He's gonna make good eatin'," Garcia says of the dead animal, which weighs about 40 pounds.

The 3,000-acre ranch, in McMullen County, has been in the family of Lloyd Stewart's wife, Susan, since the mid-1900s. Stewart and his hunting and wildlife manager, Craig Oakes, began noticing wild hogs on the land in the 1980s, and the animals have become more of a problem every year. In 2002, Stewart began selling hog-hunting leases, charging $150 to $200 for a daylong hunt and $300 for weekends. But wild hogs have become so common around the state that it's getting hard to attract hunters. "Deer hunters tell us they have a lot of hogs at home," Oakes says, "so they don't want to pay to come shoot them here." The exception is trophy boars, defined as any wild pig with tusks longer than three inches. These bring around $700 for a weekend hunt.

"Most of the hogs that are killed here are killed by hunters, people who will eat them," Stewart says. He'll fly over the ranch to try to count the hogs, but unlike some landowners who are overrun, he has yet to shoot them from the air. "We're not that mad at 'em yet," Oakes chuckles. "I hate to kill something and not use it."

Many hunters prefer working with dogs. Two types of dogs are used in the hunt. Bay dogs-usually curs such as the Rhodesian Ridgeback, black-mouth cur or Catahoula or scent hounds such as the foxhound or Plott Hound-sniff out and pursue the animals. A hog will attempt to flee, but if cornered or wounded will likely attack, battering the bay dogs with its snout or goring them with its tusks. (Some hunters outfit their dogs in Kevlar vests.) But if the dog gets right up in the hog's face while barking sharply, it can hold the hog "at bay." Once the bay dogs spring into action, catch dogs-typically bulldogs or pit bulls-are released. Catch dogs grab the bayed pig, usually at the base of the ear, and wrestle it to the ground, holding it until the hunter arrives to finish it off.

Dogs show off their wild-hog skills at bayings, also known as bay trials, which are held most weekends in rural towns across Texas. A wild hog is released in a large pen and one or two dogs attempt to bay it, while spectators cheer. Trophies are awarded in numerous categories; gambling takes the form of paying to "sponsor" a particular dog and then splitting the pot with cosponsors if it wins. Occasionally bayings serve as fund-raisers for community members in need.

Ervin Callaway holds a baying on the third weekend of every month. His pen is down a rutted dirt road off U.S. Route 59 between the east Texas towns of Lufkin and Nacogdoches, and he's been doing this for 12 years. His son Mike is one of the judges.

"Here's how it works," Mike says as a redheaded preteenager preps a red dog. "The dog has two minutes in the pen with a hog and starts with a perfect score of 10. We count off any distractions, a tenth of a point for each. If a dog controls the hog completely with his herding instincts, and stares him down, it's a perfect bay. If a dog catches a pig, it's disqualified-we don't want any of our dogs or hogs tore up."

"Hog out," someone shouts, and a black and white hog (its tusks removed) emerges from a chute as two barking dogs are released to charge it. When it tries to move away, a young man uses a plywood shield to funnel it toward the dogs. They stop less than a foot away from the hog and make eye contact, barking until the animal shoots between them toward the other side of the pen. As the dogs close back in, the hog swerves hard into a fence, then bounces off. The smaller dog grabs its tail but is spun around until it lets go. The pig runs into a wallow and sits there. The yellow dog bays and barks, but from maybe three feet away, too far to be effective, and then it loses concentration and backs off. The pig exits through the chute. Neither dog scores well.

Several states, including Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina and North Carolina, have outlawed bayings in response to protests from animal rights groups. Louisiana bars them except for Uncle Earl's Hog Dog Trials in Winnfield, the nation's largest. That five-day event began in 1995 and draws about 10,000 people annually. (The 2010 event was canceled because of disputes among the organizers.)

But bayings continue to take place on a smaller scale elsewhere, as do bloodier hog-catch trials in which dogs attack penned-in wild hogs and wrestle them to the ground. The legality of both events is in dispute, but local authorities tend not to prosecute. "The law in Texas is that it's illegal for a person to cause one animal to fight another previously wild animal that has been captured," says Stephan Otto, director of legislative affairs and staff attorney for the Animal Legal Defense Fund, a national group based in northern California. "But the legal definition of words like 'captured' and 'fight' has never been established. A local prosecutor would have to argue these things, and so far nobody has."

Brian "Pig Man" Quaca (Tom Quaca's son) paces the floor of his hunting lodge, waving his arms and free-associating about hogs he has known. There's the one that rammed his pickup truck; the bluish hog with record-length tusks that he bagged in New Zealand; and the "big 'un" he blew clean off its feet with a rifle only to see the beast get up and run away. "They're just so smart, that's why I love them," he says. "You can fool deer 50 percent of the time, but hogs'll win 90 percent of the time."

Quaca, 38, began rifle hunting when he was 4 years old but switched to bowhunting at age 11. He likes the silence after the shot. "It's just more primitive to use a bow, way more exciting," he says. As a teen, he eagerly helped neighbors clear out unwanted hogs. Now he guides hunts at Triple Q Outfitters, a fenced-in section of the property his wife's family owns. A customer dubbed him Pig Man, and it stuck. His reputation grew with the launch last year of "Pig Man, the Series," a Sportsman Channel TV program for which he travels the globe hunting wild hogs and other exotic animals.

About an hour before sunset, Quaca takes me to a blind near a feeding station in the woods. Just as he's getting his high-powered bow ready, a buck walks into the clearing and begins eating corn; two more are close behind. "The deer will come early to get as much food as they can before the pigs," he says. "It's getting close to prime time now."

A slight breeze eases through the blind. "That's gonna let those pigs smell us now. They probably won't come near." He rubs an odor-neutralizing cream into his skin and hands me the tube. The feeding station is at least 50 yards away, and it's hard to believe our scents can carry that far, let alone that there's a nose sharp enough to smell them. But as it gets darker, there are still no hogs.

"It sounds like a hog might be over around those trees," Pig Man whispers, pointing to our left. "It sounded like he popped his teeth once or twice. I can promise you there's pigs close by, even if they don't show themselves. Those deer will stay however long they can and never notice us. But the pigs are smart."

The darkness grows, and Quaca starts packing to leave. "They won again," he says with a sigh. I tell him I still can't believe such a mild breeze carried our scents all the way to the feed. "That's why I like pigs so much," Quaca replies. "If the slightest thing is wrong-any tiny little thing-they'll get you every time. The sumbitches will get you every time."

The next morning, Tom shows me some flash photographs of the feeding station taken by a sensor camera about a half-hour after we left. In the pictures, a dozen feral pigs of all sizes are chowing down on corn.

To be sold commercially as meat, wild hogs must be taken alive to one of nearly 100 statewide buying stations. One approved technique for capturing hogs is snaring them with a noose-like device hanging from a fence or tree; because other wildlife can get captured, the method has fewer advocates than trapping, the other approved technique. Trappers bait a cage with food meant to attract wild hogs but not other animals (fermented corn, for example). The trapdoor is left open for several days, until the hogs are comfortable with it. Then it's rigged to close on them. Trapped pigs are then taken to a buying station and from there to a processing plant overseen by U.S. Department of Agriculture inspectors. According to Billy Higginbotham, a wildlife and fisheries specialist with the Texas AgriLife Extension Service, 461,000 Texas wild hogs were processed between 2004 and 2009. Most of that meat ends up in Europe and Southeast Asia, where wild boar is considered a delicacy, but the American market is growing, too, though slowly.

Wild hog is neither gamy nor greasy, but it doesn't taste like domestic pork, either. It's a bit sweeter, with a hint of nuttiness, and is noticeably leaner and firmer. Boasting one-third less fat, it has fewer calories and less cholesterol than domestic pork. At the LaSalle County Fair and Wild Hog Cook-Off held each March in Cotulla, 60 miles northeast of the Mexican border, last year's winning entry in the exotic category was wild hog egg rolls-pulled pork and chopped bell peppers encased in a wonton. But there were far more entries in the barbecue division; this is Texas, after all.

"There's not much secret to it," insists Gary Hillje, whose team won the 2010 barbecue division. "Get a young female pig-males have too strong a flavor-50 or 60 pounds, before she's had a litter, before she's 6 months old. Check to make sure it's healthy; it should be shiny and you can't see the ribs. Then you put the hot coals under it and cook it low and slow."

The LaSalle County Fair also includes wild hog events in its rodeo. Five-man teams from eight local ranches compete in tests of cowboy skills, though cowboys are rarely required to rope and tie hogs in the wild. "But we might chase one down, rope it and put it in a cage to fatten it a couple months for a meal," says a grinning Jesse Avila, captain of the winning 2010 La Calia Cattle Company Ranch team.

As the wild hog population continues to grow, Texas' love-hate relationship with the beasts veers toward hate. Michael Bodenchuk, director of the Texas Wildlife Services Program, notes that in 2009 the state killed 24,648 wild hogs, nearly half of them from the air (a technique most effective in areas where trees and brush provide little cover). "But that doesn't really affect the total population much," he adds. "We go into specific areas where they've gotten out of control and try to bring that local population down to where the landowners can hopefully maintain it."

In the past five years Texas AgriLife Extension has sponsored some 100 programs teaching landowners and others how to identify and control wild hog infestations. "If you don't know how to outsmart these pigs, you're just further educating them," says Higginbotham, who points to a two-year program that reduced the economic impact of wild hogs in several regions by 66 percent. "Can we hope to eradicate feral hogs with the resources we have now? Absolutely not," he says. "But we're much further along than we were five years ago; we have some good research being done and we're moving in the right direction."

For example, Duane Kraemer, a professor of veterinary physiology and pharmacology at Texas A&M University, and his team have discovered a promising birth control compound. Now all they have to do is figure out a way to get wild hogs, and only wild hogs, to ingest it. "Nobody believes that can be done," he says. Tyler Campbell, a wildlife biologist with the USDA's National Wildlife Research Center at Texas A&M-Kingsville, and Justin Foster, a research coordinator for Texas Parks and Wildlife, are confident there must be a workable poison to kill wild hogs-though, once again, the delivery system is the more vexing issue. Campbell says the use of poison is at least five to ten years away.

Until then, there's a saying common to hunters and academics, landowners and government officials-just about anyone in the Southwest: "There's two kinds of people: those that have wild pigs and those that will have wild pigs."

John Morthland writes about the food, music and regional culture of Texas and the South. He lives in Austin. Photographer Wyatt McSpadden also lives in Austin.

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About 50 miles east of Waco, Texas, a 70-acre field is cratered with holes up to five feet wide and three feet deep. The roots below a huge oak tree shading a creek have been dug out and exposed. Grass has been trampled into paths.

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Author of The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp:  Kathi Appelt

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Author of The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp:  Kathi Appelt

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I wanted to know more about the author so I searched for other notable books written by her and found out that she has other notable works that feature mostly animal or animal-like characters!

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Is this a real food? I search for a southern recipe for Deep Fried Sugar Pies and found an actual recipe that might actually be close to what Chap and his mother made!

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A reader over on the Facebook page asked about these little southern delicacies and we started chatting about everybody's favorites, and of course, impressionable me, decided I had to make some right away!

Some folks make these using biscuit dough, some canned biscuits, some fresh or store-bought pastry, and one reader even mentioned making them with tortillas! While I do enjoy them with the biscuit dough as pictured above, I am more in the pie dough pastry school of thought, since I like a hand pie to have the same kind of flaky crust that a regular pie has and love the final texture of the deep fried pastry dough, while the biscuit dough cooked in a skillet is more greasy.

I make homemade pie crusts most of the time, although I love Pillsbury refrigerator crusts too. You just can't beat those for consistent quality and presentation, unlike my homemade pies, which are always far from perfect. I've used boxed Jiffy mixes too, for those times that I'm feeling a bit lazy and don't feel like dragging out the food processor for a homemade crust. They are handy to keep in the pantry, and they produce a mighty fine pie crust with nothing more than the addition of a little ice cold water. You'll want to roll the dough out nice and thin for these and should get right at a dozen four-inch rounds from one box of Jiffy. Of course, feel free to substitute your own homemade pie crust or a box of Pillsbury - you'll need a two crust recipe - or make up your own homemade biscuit dough. I've included one in the recipe.

Speaking of that... {pulling out the ole soapbox} there are some southerners who will say the only "authentic" Southern hand pies will be made only with biscuit dough and only with dried fruit and only in a skillet. Bless their hearts.

That would be like saying the only way to wash clothes is still with a hand wringer washing machine! Can you imagine? By the way, I distinctly remember that my grandmother had one of those in the corner of her kitchen, even though more modern washers were certainly available by then. Funny. I can still see that washer in my mind's eye today as if I'm standing right her kitchen, even though my Mama's Mama passed when I was a young child, and her house was lost long ago to Hurricane Camille.

Anyway... back in the day, that certainly would have been true of the way our great grandmothers would have made a hand pie. Not only did they not have the funds for the discretionary spending we have today, nor did they have access to convenience products, so yes, of course, they made up their own doughs. For hand pies that would have been in a pastry form, either flaky, same as when they made their pies, or, more biscuit-like if they liked a thicker texture on their hand pies. What they did not use, however, were rolls of canned biscuits or pie crust found in the refrigerator aisle of their local super-center.

Our great grandmothers also used fresh apples, peaches or other fruit that had been harvested in season, most often from their own or the backyard tree of a neighbor who was willing to share their harvest. Out of season, our great grandmothers used that very same fruit that had been preserved right there at home, intended for use throughout the season until the next harvest, often dried on sheets of tin or screens out in the hot sun. What our great grandmothers did not use, however, were little packages of preservative laden and frankly, budget busting, commercial dried fruits like we have on our grocery store shelves today. Sorry but that just ain't our great grandma's dried fruit.

All that to say, what you do is not wrong, nor any less authentic, and don't let anybody tell you otherwise. Ever.

Absolutely, you can use a homemade crust or biscuit recipe. Or, you can use a roll of canned biscuits, a box of pie dough mix, or a refrigerated pie crust. Or tortillas! And, you can use freshly cooked fruit, or commercially dried pouches of fruit. A lot of people love the concentrated sweetness of the fruit and frankly, the memories associated with reconstituting the dried fruit that their mothers or grandmothers may have used when they no longer dried fruit at home. You should always do what is most meaningful to you.

Since we mostly aren't drying fruit from our fruit trees these days, and thankfully our year-round availability of fresh fruit is much better in these modern times, I prefer using fresh fruit for hand pies, especially when in season, abundant, and especially locally grown. It just is the best for my body and frankly, I think it tastes best. {tucks away the soapbox}

Here's how to make some tasty fried apple pies.

The first thing to do is stew the apples down in nothing but butter and sugar. I like to use Granny Smith apples, peeled and cut into chunks, and cook them covered, usually about 15 to 20 minutes or so. Any good firm apple that you like with do. You'll need about 2 cups of chopped apple, so how many will just depend on their size. A medium apple should give you about one cup of chopped.

Then remove from the heat and add in some brown sugar, cinnamon and just a bit of freshly grated nutmeg. If you make peach pies, peel and chop the peaches, and then let them drain in a colander for at least 30 minutes before proceeding.

Give them a good stir, a taste to adjust the sweetness, and set them aside to cool. They should be the consistency of a sort of chunky applesauce. One thing you do not want to do is to try to wrap hot apples in your pastry - it will melt it into a mess. While the apples are cooling, prepare the dough you're using, roll it out nice and thin and cut it into rounds. I usually use a small ramekin that measures 4 inches across to cut mine. A Tervis tumbler works pretty good too.

Once you have all the rounds cut out, sprinkle them lightly with a bit of granulated sugar and refrigerate them until you are ready to assemble the fried pies. Spoon about 1 tablespoon of apple filling onto each round. Depending on the size of your apples, and how large you make your pie circles, you'll probably end up with a bit of apple filling leftover. Just eat that with your oatmeal, on pancakes or mixed in some vanilla yogurt!

Fold them over, press the edges together and then crimp them with the tines of a fork so that they are well sealed. Place them on a plate that has been lightly sprinkled with flour and stick the plate in the fridge for about 10 minutes to chill the pastry.

Pan fry, deep fry or bake them, but fry in batches so you don't overcrowd the pan and cool the oil down. I prefer to deep fry, because for one, I have a good deep fryer, and also because pan frying them absorbs more grease, while deep frying fries them faster with much less grease absorption. By the way, they are also quite good baked.

Drain on a paper towel and sprinkle with granulated sugar as soon as they come out of the fryer, or let them cool slightly and dust lightly with powdered sugar. Try not to devour the entire platter. Not that I would know anything about that.

For more of my classic and favorite southern recipes, visit my page on Pinterest!

If you make this or any of my recipes, I'd love to see your results! Just snap a photo and hashtag it #DeepSouthDish on social media or tag me @deepsouthdish on Instagram!

Recipe: Southern Fried Hand Pies
©From the Kitchen of Deep South Dish

Ingredients

For the Fruit:

2 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and chopped (about 2 cups) (additional variations below)
For Homemade Dough:
Instructions

For the fruit, melt the butter and sugar together; add chopped apples and simmer covered, over medium heat for about 15 to 20 minutes. Remove from heat, sprinkle brown sugar, nutmeg and cinnamon over the apples, stir, taste and adjust sweetness. Set aside to cool.

For the dough, cut the shortening into 2 cups of the flour. Stir in the sugar, egg yolk and ice water until dough is sticky. Turn out onto a floured surface and sprinkle more flour on top, working it in until dough is smooth. Roll out to about 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick and cut into 4 to 6 inch circles. You may also pinch off golf ball-sized pieces and flatten individually by hand. Place about a half tablespoon of the cooled filling in the center of each round. Barely wet the edges of the round with water, fold over, lightly press down on the edges and the filling; seal the edges with the tines of a fork. Place all of the pies in a single layer onto a plate that has been lightly sprinkled with flour and refrigerate about 10 minutes.

Fry in a skillet, with about 1/2 inch of hot oil, until browned on both sides. Remove from the skillet, drain on paper towels and sprinkle with granulated sugar or dust with powdered sugar while still warm, if desired. Best served warm, but delicious cold too!

Cook's Notes: Oil must be hot (at least 350 degrees F) or dough will absorb too much grease and will disintegrate. Substitute canned biscuits, boxed pie crust mix (like Jiffy), or use a homemade or store-bought pie crust (Pillsbury recommended). You'll need two crusts, rolled out a bit thinner to get 12 pies. Can also substitute other types of apples. You may have a little bit of extra apple left over, depending on the size apples that you use and how large you make the pies. You can add that to yogurt, or use over pancakes, French toast, over oatmeal, or as a side dish just like any stewed apple.

To Use Dried Fruit: Combine two small packages (about 7 ounces each) of dried fruit in two cups of water and one cup of sugar in a heavy saucepan. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer about 20 minutes. Add seasonings and proceed. Can also use peaches, apricots, mixed or other dried or fresh fruits.

To Deep Fry: Preheat deep fryer to 375 degrees F and fry, in batches to avoid chilling the oil, for about 3-1/2 minutes, or until golden brown. Shake basket gently after about 30 seconds to avoid the pastry from sticking.

To Bake: Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Place the mini pies on a greased cookie sheet or pan. Make a couple of small slits in the dough so the steam will vent out, brush the tops with the juice from the pan or with an egg wash over each pie if desired, and sprinkle tops with a bit of granulated sugar. Bake in a 400 degree oven for about 20 minutes, or until golden brown.

For Peach Filling: For peach pies, or other juicy fruit such as pears, peel and chop ripe peaches, you'll want about 2 pounds. Set aside in a colander and let them drain for at least 30 minutes, then sprinkle with 1/4 cup of sugar before filling dough. It is not necessary to stew these softer fruits, so long as they are ripe, although you may if you prefer. Can also substitute any other stewed fruit for pie recipe.

For Strawberry Filling: Add 2 cups of hulled and mashed strawberries to a saucepan, add 1/4 cup of granulated sugar. Taste and increase sugar as needed, as strawberries will vary in sweetness. Mix 2 tablespoons of cornstarch with 1 tablespoon of water and add to the mixture. Bring to a boil and cook until mixture thickens. Set aside to cool completely.

For Blackberry Filling: Add 1/2 pint of fresh blackberries or 1 (21-ounce can), drained to a saucepan along with 1/4 cup of granulated sugar. Taste and increase sugar as needed, as berries will vary in sweetness. Add 2 teaspoons of fresh lemon juice and a pinch of the zest. Mix 2 tablespoons of cornstarch with 1 tablespoon of water and add to the mixture. Bring to a boil and cook until mixture thickens. Remove and mash the berries to desired consistency.

For Sweet Potato Filling: Combine 2 cups of mashed, cooked sweet potatoes, with 1/2 cup (1 stick) of softened butter, a cup of light brown sugar, packed, a pinch of salt, and 1/2 teaspoon each of cinnamon and nutmeg, and enough milk to moisten. Also can be made with leftover candied yams and sweet potato casserole.

For Pecan Pie Filling: In a saucepan, combine 1 cup granulated sugar with 2/3 cup light corn syrup, 1/3 cup unsalted, softened butter and 2 large eggs. Stir in 1 cup chopped pecans, 1 teaspoon pure vanilla and 1/8 teaspoon salt. Bring to a boil, reduce to simmer and cook 10 minutes.

For Chocolate Filling: In a saucepan, whisk together 1/2 cup of granulated sugar with 1/3 cup of all purpose flour and 2 tablespoons of cocoa. Add 1 cup of evaporated milk, 1 teaspoon of vanilla and 4 tablespoons of butter and heat over medium heat until mixture thickens. Let cool before filling pies.

Fast Food Pies: Prepare filling as above substituting egg roll or wonton wrappers for the dough. Add about 2 tablespoons of filling in one wrapper and fold in the sides. Fold over to a rectangle or roll tight like an egg roll. Fry in deep oil preheated to 350 degrees F, until lightly browned and crispy, about 4 minutes. Drain on a rack over paper towels; sprinkle with cinnamon sugar or powdered sugar while still slightly warm.

Source: http://deepsouthdish.com

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A reader over on the Facebook page asked about these little southern delicacies and we started chatting about everybody's favorites, and of course, impressionable me, decided I had to make some right away! Some folks make these using biscuit dough, some canned biscuits, some fresh or store-bought pastry, and one reader even mentioned making them with tortillas!

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Hernando de Soto
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Birth place: Jerez de los Caballeros, Spain
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Place of Death: Ferriday, Louisiana
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