By John Tredrea, Special Writer
For a group of local turkey hunters, June 11 was the big day.
It was “turkey fry” day, when the hunters and about 40 of their friends and relations gathered to enjoy each other’s company — and to eat fried turkey.
This year, the turkey fry was held at the Carter Road residence of hunter Tania McLeery.
”She taught both Tony (Di Cocco) here and I how to turkey hunt,” Charles “Chico” Marciante, of Pennington, said a few days after the turkey fry. I handle the cooking. I use a deep fryer and a special Martha Stewart rub. Oh, it tastes good. We eat everything we shoot.”
”We don’t shoot any hens or ‘jakes’ (young turkeys),” added Mr. Di Cocco, who lives in Hopewell Township and handled most of the carving at the turkey fry.
Messrs. Marciante and Di Cocco, lifelong friends, started turkey hunting nearly 10 years ago.
”It’s a chance to go out in the woods,” Mr. Marciante said. “You hear the birds when the sun comes up — the cardinals start it off. When you go hunting down South, which we sometimes do in South Carolina, you hear the whippoorwills. Sometimes a raccoon will walk up to you in the middle of the night, scaring both you and the raccoon.”
”A few local landowners and farmers let us hunt on their land,” Mr. Di Cocco said. “The turkey hunting season is about a month long, from the last week in April to the last week in May.”
”We always get permission to hunt where we hunt, but not everyone else does,” Mr. Marciante said. “The biggest fear out there is poachers. I’ve had two of them shoot at me after I used my turkey call.”
Each turkey hunting permit, obtained from the Fish and Game division of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is $21 and entitles the bearer to shoot one bird.
”You buy them one at a time and can buy unsold licenses as the season goes on,” Mr. Marciante said.
They credit the Wildlife Turkey Foundation, a nonprofit that has partnered with the DEP, with restoring turkey hunting to this state.
”There were no birds left here,” Mr. Marciante said. “The Foundation captured birds from Mississippi and other parts of the country and brought them back here and turned them loose the right way. The way the licensing is controlled now ensures the turkey population will survive.”
Not every hunting season is successful.
”Some years you get no birds, but it’s still fun to go out and try,” Mr. Di Cocco said.
At the turkey fry each year, a tent is set up in case it rains. And there is always plenty to eat besides turkey.
”There was so much food at the turkey fry on Saturday that I didn’t get hungry again until Monday morning,” Mr. Marciante said.
