An excellent cook, Granny would never know what it was like to cook a meal using electricity, or gas for that matter, as she only knew how to cook in camp ovens on an open fire.
I was lying in bed one night when Mum and Dad, who’d been over visiting Granny and Grandfather, turned up with some porcupine that Granny had obviously cooked in the camp oven. It tasted so delicious and I wanted more, but sadly there wasn’t any. It was just enough to tantalise us, so we had to eat Mum’s old left-over stew instead.
It must have been after some rain that Granny had porcupine to eat as she believed it was a good time to go out porcupine hunting. You’d see her and Auntie Joansie or sometimes her and Ronny Whyman leaving the Camp carrying long handle shovels and sugar bags. The shovels would be used for digging the porcupines out of their holes or sometimes they would hide out in hollow logs and the long handles on the shovel would come in handy for that trick. The sugar bags were used for carrying their catch back home.
If you’ve ever seen a porcupine track you will notice that they appear to be walking backwards and this is another skill that Granny taught me as a young fella. She would say to me, ‘Garry,’ (she always called me ‘Garry’ and not by my nickname ‘Sonny’ like everyone else) ‘You see this? His toes are pointing that way, but he’s going in that direction.’
She would go on and tell me when you’re tracking a porcupine you must always remember to track him backwards.
Garry Sonny Martin 