Bright Eyes

On Friday night my wife was out on the town living it up. On the other hand I was being driven round fields in the dark with a .410 stuck out of the window. I know where I'm happier!

Lamping rabbits is a great way to bag some free meat and to try and keep their numbers in check. My father and I didn't have to spend long doing it before I had four good sized rabbits suitable for the pot (it then started to rain so we went back to the warm). I gutted them that night and then butchered them in the morning turning them into bags of fat less meat (about enough for 4 good meals).

My wife was less than excited about the prospect of eating rabbit so I thought I'd cure her by serving up some hot rabbit rolls instead of bacon - a risky move that could have gone wrong as nothing to hid the meat as anything else! I chose the best bits of meat from each rabbit (the saddle across the back) and rubbed them in olive oil, an Oxo and a little pepper and then fried them quickly. Served in fresh french stick with some salad out of the garden my wife could only say how lovely it was - Good job, I intend to fill the freezer with the furry little critters....

Rabbit stew, rabbit curry, rabbit burgers, rabbit and white wine (more ideas please)

Fungal foray

Been so busy this week that I haven't had chance to write my blog. Work has been killing me, haven't got home before 7.30 and I leave the house a little after 6.00!

Last weekend was good though, very much in the countryside. Saturday was spent doing a few jobs in the garden then driving over to mum and dads farm for a spot of shooting. I went pigeon shooting for starters but they didn't have to be scared as I didn't even see a pigeon let alone shoot one!

Afterwards my brother and I went lamping for rabbits, he drove and I shot, managed to get a good few for the pot and lessen the numbers a little. (I had planned to make rabbit stew in the week but in the end I never had chance as I got back too late each night so they got wasted, I was a bit gutted about that)

Sunday was spent with my brother, we went up to some woods just south of Iron Bridge for the fungal foray we had booked. There was 28 of us on the course (which was too many), we all met up in the green woods centre and then headed for the trees in search of any mushrooms we could find.

After being told how to pick mushrooms safely and what to remember about where we found them, we were quite amazed with how many were about considering how dry it has been. straight away me and Dave found some edible ones (although the slugs had been there first) and soon everyone was coming up with more and more.

After a dinner of mushroom soup we then went to some different woods to find some truffles! My brother was like a little truffling pig and found about five before anyone else had found any! unfortunately the instructor didn't tell us until we'd found them that this type could not be eaten so we were all a little disappointed.

The day was really good and we went home with enough mushrooms to make a nice meal and a little bit more knowledge on what to look for without killing ourselves.

Another great weekend

We had really beautiful weather this weekend so I thought it was time to dust off the old shotgun and go shooting on the farm.

I decided to go pigeon shooting first with decoys and then lamping later for rabbits.

I made myself a lovely hide, in a field that hadn’t long been harvested, and sat there for a few hours. This was fruitless and I didn’t see a single pigeon let alone shoot one, but it was lovely just to sit in the field and watch nature go by.

At one point a buzzard came within 10 feet of me and almost went for one of my decoys before realising they weren’t real pigeons! I really loved watching it fly off and land in the old half dead oak tree across the field, it seems we have so many birds of prey now and I can remember when there was none about on our farm, now we have buzzards, kestrels and sparrow hawks all around.

The lamping was a much greater success. This is essential pest control and since leaving home the rabbit population has exploded since I'm the only one who shoots, so it’s good to come back and have a bit of a cull once in a while. Also provides some tasty meat, although I won’t be keeping the rabbits this time, instead my boss at work wants them for a stew so it’s a nice (free) gift to give him.