At the beginning of this year, I set out to get closer to food. It’s far too easy to think your vegetables come from the produce department and meat magically appears in Styrofoam and plastic wrap. So I planted a garden and set out to shoot tasty animals.
Well, I got a few tomatoes, some cucumbers, spinach, carrots, and a lovely opportunity to bond with my son while we froze in the woods. Notice the lack of of tasty animals? I know, that’s why they call it hunting. Besides, my permit is still good and deer season is upon us. I’m old enough that the Hunter Safety course isn’t required, but it is available online for many states. Try HunterCourse.com California, or select from many states. Even though the course isn’t required, we’ve been lucky enough to have guidance from friends.
But just because I didn’t shoot it, doesn’t mean I’m not going to eat it. And there is a pretty substantial difference between pulling your meat out of packages and pulling it out of the skin of a squirrel. Also, a fully skinned out squirrel is very strange looking indeed. (Links not for the squeamish.) So there are 2 gutted, skinned, and sectioned squirrels in my freezer ready for cooking. And a squirrel pelt in my bathroom (Again with the squeamish warning). Right next to the Tannerite. What? Where else would you keep your skins and explosives?
Like Jay, I’m hoping to do my part in varmint eradication this weekend. We’ll see if that Rifleman patch I earned translates to prairie dogs! Should be good practice for deer season anyway. We’ve seen them on the game cam. Wish us luck in getting them to the freezer!
This post is brought to you by HunterCourse.com California. All thoughts and opinions belong to the author.
Squirrel with brown gravy served over rice…. Food.of.the.gods.
Paladin´s last blog post ..Behind every stereotype…
c’mon down to Lower Alabama and we’ll get ya a deer!
Oh, and fried it’s just incredible. Yeah, squirrels and rabbits are both easy to mistake for other, less palatable animals when they are skinned, but still whole.
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Feel free to give my .22-250 a try… 😉
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I agree with 45er that fried is wonderful. I’ve also made chili with rabbit and it was delicious, too.
I hear .577 is the caliber of choice for hunting squirrel/rabbits. Kill it, skin it, filet it, and cook it all in one shot.
RabidAlien´s last blog post ..Relief is on the way
Can’t stand the taste of squirrel. But they’re in dire need of predators and I’m glad you’ve stepped up.
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Good for you. I have a photo of a doe that was dressed on in my kitchen. Everything was covered in sanitized plastic, you could have performed surgery in there, and six hours later, I felt I had. But I wanted to make sure there was no connective tissue (the whole mad animal thing) and what was left was a deer head and bones that looked like a piranha came by.
Squirrel I’ll pass on, either cleaning or eating. Rabbit? Rabbit makes some great stew and breaded and fried (KFB – Kentucky Fried Bunny) Yummm. You go girl!
I think that popping noise was someone’s head exploding over at PETA headquarters
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Yay!
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Good for you! I grew up on a steady diet of South Texas/Northern Mexico fish and game. Quail, dove, ducks, venison and rabbit were interspersed with fresh caught fish in mom’s kitchen. I have maintained that tradition to the best of my ability and am passing it down to another generation.
Mmmmm, squirrel dumplings!