It was getting tough in 2006 and the workhouse still threatens us in 2011

Red_Doe

I eat game but not hung, since I don't like the 'high' flavour. Roadkill is actually ok provided some common sense is used...as in, it isn't squished flat (meat pancakes, not a good thing) and you can still gut it, and that it's recent...notes to look for, if the fur comes out of a furry thing too easily, it's too old, if feathers do likewise out of feathery things, same thing.
I think it makes sense for all meat eaters to know how to gut and butcher if need be, it's really just common sense and you never know when you might need to do it. That's just my opinion though and lots of folks are squeamish, I get that.
Seagull honestly isn't as bad as CDW says it is, that was perhaps just her personal tastes or whoever made it not treating it right beforehand. Folks will pay quite a pretty penny for game and seafowl in posh restaraunts, but shiver at the thought of eating it 'wild', which makes no sense to me.
There's no more bones in pheasant than any other bird btw
Regarding meat, there are quite a few things we don't generally eat in the UK that are still healthy, lean meats. Lots of people won't eat rabbit but it's one of the healthiest meats to eat. On the continent I ate horse, lovely, tasty and lean meat, very healthy and eaten regularly there.

HariboJunkie

Red_Doe wrote: »

, Folks will pay quite a pretty penny for game and seafowl in posh restaraunts, but shiver at the thought of eating it 'wild', which makes no sense to me.
.

It doesn't make sense to me either.

OH once witnessed a deer being struck by a car in front of him very near our home. He checked it over with the intention of ending it's pain if it was suffering but it had died instantly. He brought it home, butchered it and we shared the venison with our neighbours.:) Very nice it was too.

I'm not a fan of pheasant. My brother used to shoot and I found the taste very strong as a child._pale_

edited to add. Greent I took your advice and I'm finding my blood pressure going down already thank you.:dance:

Red_Doe

Venison is lovely, we're lucky living here in that the local ranger, when he culls deer, will often share out free venison among the natives (ie us ) plus I get the ...erm...slight gore alert here for the squeamish, sorry!...


heads and shoulders to use for my business, which is taxidermy.

Mrs_Chip

I picked up a pheasant off the road last autumn - I had driven along the road 30 mins before and it was not there, so guessed it had only just been hit (it was still warm; and a glorious !!!! bird, very pretty, a shame really). I hung it for a day or two, but not being into gamey stuff I did not leave it long. Rather than pluck I skinned it, much easier. Very nice in a casserole. Not sure I would do it if I did not know how long it had been there.:eek:

Re lettuce leaves, I bought one of those trays of living leaves back in May and split it into about 12 bits and planted it out in a raised bed. It took a couple of weeks to get going but then it kept us in baby leaves for a good two months before the heat made them bolt - not bad for £1! We were having salad most nights, must have saved a fortune. A handy tip if you lose seedlings or need to fill a space quickly (you can often pick these up reduced 50p or so).

VJsmum

Oh Mrs Chip, thanks for that. I didn't realise you could do that! I have some of one of those on my window sill as we speak, i may experimentally plant it out.

OS failure tonight as my whoopsied free range organic chicken, once cooked, smelt dodgy and tasted dodgy. SO we had a dinner of left over dauphinoise from the freezer, baked squash and home grown runner beans - but no meat. Ah well, may have another of DD's cupcakes to compensate

I don't really want my tomatoes to go red as i want to make green tomato chutney. Last years went down a storm and it's all gone now.

Charis

VJsmum wrote: »

I haven't tried the lamps - i never seem to sit still long enough in one place for it to have an effect (perhaps that is part of the problem). It might be a solution because, thinking about it, i have been much worse since eco light bulbs were all we use, and they just aren't as bright!

I've been more down than usual for the past two or three years during the winter and I've put it down to the miserable light indoors. Apparently as you get older your eyes require far more light to read by. I also find my varifocals, which are fine in natural light, are useless in poor quality artificial light.

I bought a whole load of those Phi1ips energy saving bulbs, with a flash across the box that they last eight years. The first one died after eighteen months and the rest are very dim compared to the spare I put in the dead one's place. At £6 each they are a con.

I was loathe to try the biobulb in case they dim in the same way, but as Kitties says they are good I think I'll try a couple, at least where I spend the most time in the evenings.

A friend put energy saving bulbs in his pantry but couldn't understand why the bulbs lasted no time at all. The light comes on each time the door is opened, which could be several times an evening. In small print somewhere he found the information that there is a limited number of times the bulb can be turned on and off but he estimates that in fact the number is much lower than shown.

Those bulbs are a disaster, they contain toxic chemicals but I've been told by our council's waste disposal team to dispose of them in the household waste. Goodness knows what they do to the unprotected producers in the cheap labour countries they are made in, but we now have no choice as incandescent bulbs are not widely available. I still have some and intend to use them all.

My friend on the hill has her own power supply via a tiny turbine on a long stand. She's just had the cottage modernised and had rows of 12 watt led lights put in which cost her zero for electricity. I'd copy her as they are cheap to run from the mains, but they don't fit standard light fittings... yet.

lizzyb1812

Ah, the 70s/80s.... Tony Hadleigh's leather trousers (sigh)

The blackberries are coming to an end round here but I've now found damsons :j Thought they were sloes then realised they had no thorns - looked up sloes without thorns and got damsons - hurrah! And there's loads and loads of them

Can't go fruit picking tomorrow though as the hot water system has failed. The heating has been dodgy for a bit but I decided to let it pass until this month when the boiler service is due. So tomorrow morning it's service/repair/whatever. The boiler is over 15 years old and the central heating/hot water system several years older than that - I can feel a BIG bill coming my way soon but it has to be sorted as last winter was utterly miserable with semi-functioning heating. Does anyone have all electric heating/hot water? I'm seriously considering getting rid of the gas system (no other gas appliances).

I've started making my own bread again - the first loaf was a disaster (probably down to the age of the flour) but subsequent ones have been fine and they are now filling up space in the freezer to keep it efficient.

Pigeons - no problem in the garden due to the cat, but as I go on to plant more and more in the allotment they will be a serious issue, mostly thanks to a neighbour who feeds them! I've got a small portable solar panel - wonder if I could power a radio or other noisemaker with that?

Hugs for those worried about family and friends and a full Paddington Bear rain kit for those of you stuck in the rain.

Red_Doe

Ah, the 70s/80s.... Tony Hadleigh's leather trousers (sigh)

Eek, for some weird reason that reminded me of the Blue Peter episode when they predicted what we'd be wearing in the 21C! John Noakes in a skin tight silver lame jumpsuit, blech.....

ChocClare

I must admit, I can't get excited about pheasants. A friend's husband gave me a brace a few years ago, and my friend told me she always skinned them, as plucking them was such a faff. Casseroled them but wouldn't bother again. Also, by the time her husband paid his fees for the various shoots, they ended up costing a fortune!

I swapped some eggs with a chap down the road earlier this week and he was saying that he regularly culls (and eats) unwanted cockerels; he also shoots (and eats) pigeons (for those of you who are fed up with them ). He said - and I tend to agree - that if you're going to cull unwanted or pest birds, then it should be for meat, otherwise it is a terrible waste. However, as we have two cockerels who are starting to cause problems in our flock, I know I am very squeamish about eating them... funnily enough, I don't mind the thought of (DH :rotfl:) killing them, nor of my preparing them for the table as I've plucked and drawn poultry before - I'm just not sure I'll actually want to eat something I've raised from a chick.

However, I am very aware that this is a very modern phenomenon - my grandmother did it without batting an eyelid and people round here still do - our local farmer's fourteen-year-old grandson regularly goes pigeon shooting AND he then prepares them for his grandmother to cook - she says if he is going to kill living things he's not going to do it just because he likes shooting otherwise he can shoot at tin cans :T

I also feel that as I am not a vegetarian I have no right to say that meat is all right as long as it comes from a supermarket I know both Hugh F-W and !!!!!! Strawbridge on the It's Not Easy Being Green programme separately made the point that few of us really know where our meat comes from these days and that if you are going to eat meat (and keep livestock) then you should make sure they are well cared-for and humanely killed.

Anyway, I appear to have wittered. My apologies. The very poor in the deep south of America eat squirrel in vast quantities, let's not forget. As an earlier poster pointed out, you probably become a lot less squeamish when you're genuinely hungry.

And my mum told me she went to buy a leg of lamb in Sainsbury's this week and it was £29, so that may be sooner than we think :eek:

lizzyb1812

Red Doe I think that's the perfect example of "from the sublime to the ridiculous" :rotfl::rotfl: