Redesdale sat with Parker, who was dressed in the exterminator outfit he wears: toxic-green sweater and pants. With them was a local groundskeeper. They were looking at maps of Northumberland, seeing how the war was going. Redesdale explained the Red Squirrel Protection Partnership to the groundskeeper. “So you on board for being part of the killing team?” he asked the man.
“Aye.”
“Brilliant.”
I don’t expect those people mind Canadians bludgeoning seals. It’s crows that I hate.
Brilliant is right.Now if we can just substitute leftards for the squirrels,it should be a big hit!Maybe throw in an odd magpie also.
“Lady Saltoun suggested some research be done on whether gray squirrels tasted good.”
Does anyone know how the red squirrel fares at the table?
Ural, it is my understanding (having never eaten one myself) that your average squirrel tastes like a rusty bed spring when cooked.
But then so does venison. I tasted it one time, that’s the reason (the -only- reason) I don’t hunt deer. The Rule is, you shoot it you eat it, I know damn well I’d never eat a whole deer. Ever. Eew.
I can’t understand why all the tender heartedness for the red squirrel though. I’ve got one in my back yard. He’s built up a pile of walnuts next to the fence, like three wheel barrows full, he built a nest in the engine compartment of my car, and he’s torn up half my friggin’ lawn for nest material. The grey ones just bumble around in the trees, this red one is hell on jets.
Brits are becoming so predictably silly and trivial it’s not much fun to laugh at them anymore.
If they go into a tizzy over dusting a few rodents, I’m sure they;re at the point where we could collapse their society by introducing the prairie ground squirrel (otherwise known as a gopher).
Silly buggers …anything but use the only viable “species specific” population culling method: a shot gun or a good .22…both banned from public service by ridiculous upper class twits like “iz lawdship”
Stick a fork in ’em they’re done Jim.
Buy me the ammo and Ill fix your tree rodent problem in one season 😉
I’ve never eaten squirrel either, but I understand it’s delicious. Quoth Chef Paul Prudhomme:
“As with both wild and domestic rabbit, we strongly recommend you use it immediately fresh rather than freezing it, though families in rural areas do hunt squirrel and freeze the meat to use throughout the year. Squirrels are not very meaty, but they are very tasty. They add a unique and excellent flavour to gravies, gumbos, and jambalayas.”
Paul Prudhomme and siblings, The Prudhomme Family Cookbook, p.16
He includes recipes for Super Squirrel and Rabbit, Squirrel, Andouille Smoked Sausage and Tasso Gumbo.
Older editions of The Joy of Cooking have detailed instructions for skinning and cooking squirrel; newer “kinder and gentler” ones do not.
One of my cousins’ comments to me:
Funnily enough we were at a talk by the RSPB (Royal Soc for the Protection of Birds) last week.
The speaker was a firm believer in killing grey squirrels as they destroy the habitat for the indigenous red squirrels.
Lord Redesdale (proper pronunciation “Ridsdl” – no second vowel in the shortening of “dale”) is only just English, as his seat isn’t far from here (100 miles or so) in Northumberland.
I’m reading a history of the Borders and most of the strong (or in modern parlance aristocratic) families began their regimes prior to the border being firmed up and family loyalty was more important than loyalty to Scotland or the other place for a long time.
Apparently, at the battle of Pinkie (sometime in the 16th century) the Borderers were chatting while the rest of the English and Scots cut each other down – no need to kill your own family.
So, when Robert the Bruce slightly damaged Redesdale’s wee house, he may have legitimately considered him a subject and a rebel, not a foreigner.
First principle of the hunter…. eat what you kill.
For the exterminator ….. compost or burn what you catch.
Well Charles, Chef Paul can come on over here and load up, because the place is jumping with the little b@st@rds. Sit out on the porch with a coffee and they run right under your chair. Cheek is what it is.
Deer too. Nothing like a major deer dump in the back yard. Or two. I’m starting to feel it might be sufficient to make a nice deerskin rug and donate the meat to the Humane Society. OMMAG is on the right track.
Our problem is black squirrels, imported to Calgary from Ontario by some twit after the war. I wonder how they compare….
Phantom, no offence but, deer and squirel is good vitals.
You have’nt eaten, untill you’ve field dressed the tenderloins out of a deer and roasted them the same night.
It’s the best tasting meat, I’ve ever eaten.
Squirel has a “gamey” flavour that can not be bought, but so does wild rabbit, duck and goose.
No bad colestral to boot.
You can have your domestic white meat no flavour, growth hormone antibiotic injected pulp, I’ll take the wild meat.
PS. I’m presently looking for bowhunting access to deer just outside of the GTA, if any obliging readers/landowners are overrun.
richstadium@hotmail.com
Grey squirrels are very edible. Red squirrels; no way, no matter how you cook them. Experience talking here.
Now, as to a red squirrel explosion. They did it here this year. I let them go most of the summer, but finally they had raided the robins nest and destroyed all the eggs this spring, and then took over the bird feeders. The last straw was when they got into the attic, down into the walls, and ate a hole into the closet where the dog food is stored.
So, the war began three weeks ago. Figured I’d shoot 5 or 6 of them and the problem would be gone. Yesterday made number 38. As I get rid of them the ones from the old, deserted farm across the road just keep moving in.
I went into the hardware store to get somemore .22 CB’s. Have now moved up to sub-sonics, the Vipers HP. Mentioned I had killed 30 reds so far. Clerk told me the farm a couple of miles away was now over 100. His neighbor has shot over 200 this summer. The red squirrels are in the up cycle.
The grey squirrels are rather tame and somewhat benign in behavior. Red squirrels, on the other hand, are very aggressive and very destructive.
As to the venison question: I used to take two bucks per season when I still deer hunted. I could age the meat, then vacumn-pack it for the freezer. I could cook venison so no one could tell it from the best beef. Venison tenderloin is actually one of the best meats around for taste, if done correctly. (One of my bucks is still in the state Record Book as scored for rifle kill)
I admit it, I am but a humble city boy. My meat comes from the store, my kills are all little orange stickers on targets faaaar away.
But you know, those stickers taste really good with the right sauce. ~:D
So grey squirrels only for human consumption? Just imagine the business opportunities for inexpensive fast food: Hajji’s Halal Fried Squirrel; Curry-ly Squirrelly curried squirrel rotis and vindaloos; etc. The franchise possibilities are endless.
How about organic free-range red squirrels as a novel protein for dogs? You wouldn’t even have to cook them to get the BARF diet people to buy them.
“But you know, those stickers taste really good with the right sauce. ~:D”
[Posted by: The Phantom at October 15, 2007 12:28 PM]
You are aware, are you not, that more than three holes in the “X” ring renders those stickers unsafe to eat due to elevated lead levels. Unless you are using copper plated bullets; then the warning is only in effect if there are four holes, or more.
Naw, the copper jacket just adds flavor Yoop. Seasoning, as it were. 🙂
My neighbor told me how to cook a squirrel. You put a squirrel and a stone in a bucket of boiling water for a hour. Take the squirrel out and throw it away and eat the rock. Yep, that’s what he told me by-golly.
have you ever eaten venison or squrrel and then theres also SPOTTED OWL which tastes kind of like chicken and then theres dolphin as well and screw greenpeace
Does he have a balaclava with a skull and crossbones embroidered on the forehead like the “Kids in the Hall” skit?
Oh, wait – that was “The ERADICATOR!”, not the exterminator. My bad.
Of course if you are a latte lovin’ urban leftoid, you could always distribute squirrel birth control pamphlets or set up squirrel abortion clinics.
Those of you out there with .22s not confiscated by big brother can always head out to Saskatchewan and Alberta this spring for gopher target practice.
It does my heart good to hear about the demise of so many squirrels. In the “enlightened” municipality in which I live, run—into the ground—by lefty, moonbat governments, squirrels, skunks, and raccoons are “protected”: they have a right (sic) to live in their—read MY—environment.
We’ve spent $thousands over the decades repairing the huge amount of damage these vermin have caused to our home—turn of the century: 19th to 20th!—in a crowded, area of the downtown area. It used to be that the company dealing with the critters could live trap them and remove them from the vicinity. Now they remove them to migrate just along the way to the home of some unfortunate neighbour with a vulnerable roof, porch, chimney, etc. Disgusting.
This year, during the latter part of September, the black squirrels have uprooted a complete planter and window box of impatiens: they’ve stolen the roots, and the plants, of course, whither and fall over. This has never happened before, so I hope it’s just a desperate measure because of the extreme dryness of the summer. I wish I either had a gun and knew how to use it—quietly—or had a live trap I knew how to deal with. (I’m a real city slicker and squeamish about actually carrying through the dirty deed, but not about the idea of having it happen: I wish some of you western outdoors types could move in and move ‘em out! Psst . . . Where can one obtain live traps?)
To think the taxpaying citizens are held hostage to these marauders makes my blood boil!