There were three young pheasants by the side of the lane today as I came to work. If they are still alive their world will have taken on a different complexion today, as today is the opening day for the shoot.
It’s amazing what you can learn, even when making fairly random notes. I just looked up the shooting seasons and found there is a season for coots and moorhens. I can’t imagine why that’s necessary – they aren’t a pest, they aren’t out of control and I can’t imagine they taste particularly good, which just shows how wrong you can be.
There are quite a few coot recipes on the net, this being one site with a couple.There are also moorhen recipes, and some talk of them being a pest.
I never cease to marvel at the information available on the net, if only you can come up with the right question. Up until now I’d only seen moorhens as a pest when they sidled up to me and ate maggots from my bait box.
Today we did breakfast for twenty and lunch for 30, due to the shoot, plus a variety of other people talking of permaculture, pizza and nasturtium leaf soup. Put out a few feelers for Men in Sheds and saw two of the members – one beating for the shoot and another arriving with a selection of booty from the Saturday auction in Newark, including several power tools and a welder. Have a ton bag of apples promised – to be juiced on a 50/50 basis and a group of volunteers who are coming on Thursday to do some heavy garden work.
Strange how talking of pressure yesterday seems to have rekindled my enthusiasm for tomorrow.
Nasturtium leaf soup? My raised bed is covered in beautiful nasturtium even now. I do put small flowers and leaves in salads, but my desire for leafy salads has waned with the sun. What goes with them in soup? I’d love to be able to eat some more before the frosts arrive (though in the meantime, I am thoroughly enjoying their bright colours on dull days).
I haven’t done it myself yet, but the lady who took the leaves to make the soup said she just used them as a direct replacement in a watercress soup recipe. She was still alive and happy several days later so I’m going to try it while I still have leaves. May even freeze some leaves as I have so many, despite the caterpillars!
Sounds like a plan!
I was going to do two soups for men in Sheds on Friday but they rebelled at the idea of nasturtium so I’m doing Pumpkin for one choice and Leek and Potato for the other. Bit dull but such is life! Just going through John Lewis-Stempel’s “Foraging” planning next year’s menu…
Pumpkin might be a bit exotic for some men!
It is. And they don’t even realise I put ginger and chillies in it! 😉
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