What did you do in the garden today?

[DemeterAD9]

I’ve heard raccoons are edible. Can anyone confirm? I’m also on board with bringing back raccoon hats or other problem critter clothes. I keep waiting for some celebrity to get a python snakeskin belt…

Anything is edible! I only eat wild game/fish (and recently chicken) so I've taken to exploring all the possible MI wild game edibles. I think the only thing I won't eat is a skunk.

Coon is plenty edible, just have to give it some extra attention. They are fatty little buggers so you gotta trim off as much fat as you can, taking care to remove the lymph nodes in the armpits and behind the knee area. Soaking in salted water for a couple days helps too. Meat is surprisingly good when prepped and cooked properly. It is on the "sweet" side as far as meat goes and will still be a bit greasy. I like to cook them like a roast in the Dutch oven or boil till tender then BBQ, this trapping season I intend to grind some burger and see how that is. If I don't like it then at least the chickens will eat it right? I think the hardest part about eating coon is getting over the fact it is a coon

 

[TJAnonymous]

The brief mid-summer respite is over. Back to triple digits, high humidity, and no rain for another month... Lows overnight are in the upper 70s. Yuck... My least favorite time of the year.

 

[akroberts1085]

Today my husband mowed around the garden to make it look better. I got Darlin and Little One out for some free range time. I got them by the garden and they did great until I grabbed the stuff that I had left out there. They wouldn't leave me alone so most of the corn and squash/pumpkin seeds got scattered all over the place. I spent a while picking them up just to have to fight with them again. After all that I let them stay out for about another hour or so. About the fire evacuations none happened here but I would have taken my flock and my rabbit with me and my husband would have taken the dogs. I told my husband that was how we were going to evacuate if necessary. The heat and winds have been lower and the humidity has been higher so it helped with the fire.

 

[chickengr]

I’ve heard raccoons are edible. Can anyone confirm? I’m also on board with bringing back raccoon hats or other problem critter clothes. I keep waiting for some celebrity to get a python snakeskin belt…

my dogs would eat them. it would be much healthier than dog's food I feed them. we don't have coons here but about a month ago my dogs caught a marten and ate him, lol. a big, fat rat as well. they also get out of my property and chase predators so I don't know what they catch and eat at night.

 

[WthrLady]

The brief mid-summer respite is over. Back to triple digits, high humidity, and no rain for another month... Lows overnight are in the upper 70s. Yuck... My least favorite time of the year.

Soupy,dewy, 70° mornings-not my favorite either.hot,humid, and smokey day coming up. At or near 100 for the next few days.

 

[Sally PB]

I've taken to exploring all the possible MI wild game edibles. I think the only thing I won't eat is a skunk.

I would be very interested in hearing about other game you've eaten, and how you prepared it.

When I was in 6th grade, there was a boy in my class who ate a lot of game at home. I think I remember him saying his mom knew how to cook skunk.

It didn't occur to me at the time that that was what they had to eat; game their dad got, or not much at all.

He won the prize for finding the most morels when the class went out into the woods to look for them. He had a lot of experience foraging, I'd bet.

 

[jerryse]

Raining again then humid again. Lot of rain chances this week.

 

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

Drizzle on and off today. I’m thinking I won’t get any winter squash this year. The plants are all blooming - all male flowers. No females at all. One of the tiny watermelon plants has a melon forming. The tomatoes are all setting fruit now. I picked a handful of green beans and will have a zucchini to pick tomorrow. Out of 4 summer squash plants there’s only one producing. Wah! I’m working on the garage today and making a very small batch of pickles. I decided to just so a bread and butter style pickle of radishes, cucumber and shallots. I’ll get that done after breakfast.
My big productive zucchini plant. It’s nearly 3 feet tall.

 

[igorsMistress]

I would be very interested in hearing about other game you've eaten, and how you prepared it.

When I was in 6th grade, there was a boy in my class who ate a lot of game at home. I think I remember him saying his mom knew how to cook skunk.

It didn't occur to me at the time that that was what they had to eat; game their dad got, or not much at all.

He won the prize for finding the most morels when the class went out into the woods to look for them. He had a lot of experience foraging, I'd bet.

I’ll bet that now man would survive if the stuff hit the fan and we needed those skills.

Stories like this always make me think about who would survive in a truly SHTF scenario. The armchair rambos screaming about all that’s wrong in their world, or the homeless and destitute folks that are already living it. The armchair rambos wouldn’t fare as well I bet.

 

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

I’ll bet that now man would survive if the stuff hit the fan and we needed those skills.

Stories like this always make me think about who would survive in a truly SHTF scenario. The armchair rambos screaming about all that’s wrong in their world, or the homeless and destitute folks that are already living it. The armchair rambos wouldn’t fare as well I bet.

The joy of cooking cookbooks have instructions for dressing game and recipes.