Any foragers out there?

[foxy]

Two totally useless pieces of information:

1. Yew trees were used as the source of the English Longbow. The trees were grown in churchyards to offer the trees protection and to bless them!
2. Bowmen were often "deformed" as arms were lengthened or shortened depending on how the drew their bow.

Not forgetting the 2 fingers that went missing if they were caught by the French.

These are probably worth growing if living in Scotland, I have tried Black Currant here but it is just too hot.
http://www.johnstoa.com/saskatoon.htm

 

[foxy]

When the arse fell out of the wool industry here you could buy a lamb for $1, only problem was you had to kill and butcher it yourself. I had to get drunk to kill a chook and then I would get the kids giving me the evil eye for a week.

 

[hedgerowpete]

when it comes to yew the most toxins are in the seeds, eat the berries just dont chew the seeds. the seeds are an alkaline toxin which is why it does so much damage internally. 6 seeds chewed well will cripple a small child, but are incredibly bitter and causes mild burns to the tongue and inner cheaks. to drop a human adult stone cold is roughly 25 seeds well chewed and something to keep them down.

As for foraging wild animals,no issues here, butchered every thing from Squirel to a horse and every thing in between, some of them were even brought legally!!!!

 

[foxy]

when it comes to yew the most toxins are in the seeds, eat the berries just dont chew the seeds. the seeds are an alkaline toxin which is why it does so much damage internally. 6 seeds chewed well will cripple a small child, but are incredibly bitter and causes mild burns to the tongue and inner cheaks. to drop a human adult stone cold is roughly 25 seeds well chewed and something to keep them down.

As for foraging wild animals,no issues here, butchered every thing from Squirel to a horse and every thing in between, some of them were even brought legally!!!!

What did the horse and squirrel taste like? Killed wild pig and goat,they are all right to eat. Brumby's go into dog food as do Kangaroo though you can buy Kangaroo for human consumption in the supermarket. Pretty much like venison which is a kangaroos close relative.

 

[hedgerowpete]

horse is roast beef, a slight touch courser on the texture, think chunk steak course, squirel is chicken legs text ture, sinu and tight, to be far a lot of buggeration for a tiny mouth full

mutton is my favour second is goat, we dont do lamb, i do more beef than pork, still in the shops in france and still classed as a normal every day food

 

[nige]

Grey Squirrel to me is more like rabbit than chicken but tougher and a bit gamier flavour but like Pete says more fiddle than its worth, I only ate some of them them because I used to trap loads. I love mediteranian style rabbit stew though.

 

[Dutto]

............

As for foraging wild animals,no issues here, butchered every thing from Squirel to a horse and every thing in between, some of them were even brought legally!!!!

One morning on my way to work in Aberdeen, a car coming in the opposite direction hit a roe deer, skittled it across the road towards me and stopped. I stopped about a yard away from the deer and by the time I got out the bloke was studying his front number plate and bemoaning the fact that it was broken.

To cut a long story short, the other driver didn't want the deer so I gralloched it in the back of the van (where I kept a knife, a kitchen bowl and and 5 gallons of water for just such an event), got about 20kg of free venison which I took home and triumphantly showed it to SWMBO.

About a week later, SWMBO hit a deer on her way to work ("It jumped over a hedge and onto the the bonnet. I didn't have a chance of avoiding it!"), told a local farmer where the deer lay ...

... and it subsequently cost me the £250 "excess" to get a new bonnet fitted!

What's the saying? "What goes around comes around." I think.

 

[nige]

At least you got something back ha, Hope you had time to bleed it, I do think venison in particular needs that, I have to say I prefer all our deer over red, I know the age of the beast matters but find red the most gamier of them all. Can't beat crispy hot lamb for my taste.

 

[Dutto]

............
These are probably worth growing if living in Scotland, I have tried Black Currant here but it is just too hot.
http://www.johnstoa.com/saskatoon.htm

I love Scotland, unless there is an "R" in the month! After suffering the long nights and the snows of winter up there for about 30 years, we decided to move south into England.

The Saskatoon is now available in the UK but when it comes to growing anything I tend to leave it to the experts and generally plant out single attempts (e.g. the Prima Donna Hop in France - see photo) or rely on grow-bags etc. I think this comes from my Dad having two full sized allotments and paying me the princely sum of half-a-crown (12.5p in today's money) to dig them over before each winter. (I was lucky because lots of Dads wouldn't even have coughed up half-a-crown!)

Happy Days!

After TWO years my Hop Plant yielded ONE flower!

 

[Dutto]

......... Hope you had time to bleed it, I do think venison in particular needs that, I have to say I prefer all our deer over red, I know the age of the beast matters but find red the most gamier of them all. Can't beat crispy hot lamb for my taste.

Bleeding it out was the reason I carried the kitchen bowl! The other secret is to make sure that the deer is hung after it has been gralloched and skinned. For myself, when the deer is ready to be cooked and eaten (or frozen) the meat gives off a sweet smell that is very similar to the smell of honey.

I love lamb shank with a crispy skin, but the liver of a young roe deer, still warm from the deer being gralloched, sliced and lightly fried in butter and then eaten with a slice of toast dipped in the "gravy", is the perfect breakfast.

 

[nige]

Yes alot prefer the pluck to the rest but I used to swap most of my game for bacon sausages and lamb chops. I really got sick of game at the time ha.