I am the Innkeeper/Owner of The Chicory House- Bed & Breakfast in beautiful Paradise Valley, Montana. This will be our venue for all classes.  

 

I started Dutch oven cooking for family and friends in 1988 in my backyard where I quickly turned it into a full-time job that I have as a back country wilderness camp cook since 1992.

 

Each fall in September, I travel by horseback 32 miles one way up and over a 10,800-foot mountain pass to the most remote location in the lower 48 states called the Thorofare. There, I cook in a primitive, off-grid setting for guests for 7 weeks. There is no cell service, no internet, no running water, no electricity; located just below the southeast corner of Yellowstone National Park.

 

There is an art to Dutch oven cooking and techniques that you will need to learn. I am offering to bring my skills from the mountain to the valley floor and share my experience with those wanting to learn this skill.

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The backcountry is not for the faint of heart, but my goal is to host a a 

full-time year-round school that offers private or group classes designed around your schedule.

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Annette Wilder aka "Granny" / Instructor

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A True Pioneer Woman of the Backcountry

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If you ask anyone in the hunting camps of Cody, Wyoming, they won’t know her as Annette—they know her as “Cajun”,  to those who worked alongside her in the rugged backcountry. 

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Cajun was a trailblazer in every sense of the word—the first woman to cook in the remote hunting camps of Wyoming, where few dared to go. For decades, she rode over 20 miles into the wilderness on the back of a mule, cooking for hungry hunters, wranglers, camp jacks, and guides in some of the most unforgiving terrain in the West.

She worked for Mountain Creek Outfitters, in Cody, Wyoming, Camp Monaco near Pahaska Teepee, and Hidden Creek Outfitters in the Thorofare, Diamond 4 in the Wind Rivers, and Grey's River mountain range in Wyoming spending up to 66 days at a time living completely off-grid in primitive backcountry camps.

She spent many years in her 20s pushing cattle in the mountains of Colorado.

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The trails she traveled were not for the faint of heart—steep, rugged, and often unpredictable. She faced grizzly bears, moose encounters, dangerous river crossings, and brutal high-elevation weather just to get into camp, yet she never once let fear stand in her way.

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The mountains were her kitchen, the crackling fire and cast iron her tools, and the endless sky above her only ceiling.

Annette better known to all that know her now, as “Granny”, and her husband, Bobby—known as "Cookie"—were legends in the hunting world, working side by side in the wild, bringing warmth and comfort through food when the nights were cold and the days were long.

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She is a true pioneer, proving that grit, resilience, and an unstoppable spirit could carve a place for a woman in a world traditionally ruled by men.

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Today, at 87 years young, Granny is just as full of life, adventure, and humor as ever. She keeps the heartbeat of the stories alive, sharing tales of the trail, the hunters she’s fed, and the wild places she’s called home.

 

Whether she’s canning, preserving, or cooking over an open flame, she continues to inspire a new generation to embrace self-sufficiency, adventure, and the joy of a well-cooked meal in the great outdoors.

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Granny isn’t just part of history—she is history.

She is a true Legend,

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