Walking rocks

[Pat]

This morning my wife saw a rock walking toward the creek from the garden.

[Pat]

And a nother shot of a walking rock. AKA snapping turtle. Really put on a show hissing and striking like a snake. It stood as tal as possible and tried to look ferocious but got translocated away from our place just the same.

Pat

[Hayseed]

It's a good thing you don't live in Louisiana. That walking rock would have ended up in someone's soup pot! [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[Pat]

Hayseed, I have had turtle soup and it is good eating but fried turtle is pretty good eating too.

Cajuns aren't the only ones who eat turtle. The Mexicans have all but totally wiped out the turtle population in the Sea of Cortez (Gulf of Baja California). I have eaten soft shelled turtle in Michigan (mom and aunt caught it while fishing and those survivors of the great depression DO NOT THROW FOOD BACK) and have no qualms regarding eating snapping turtles in Oklahoma. Frankly, it is the mess and hassle of cleaning them and disposing of inedible parts that stays my hand, nothing else. I sure wouldn't go hungry with snappers available.

Interesting rememberance: The heart of a turtle continues to beat for some time after it is removed. Placed in a bowl of water it pumps merrily away for quite a while. Not sure if it could get in one good squirt of hot oil but I'd be careful putting it in the hot oil.

Personal oppinion: Turtles are one of the "nicer" things that Cajuns eat. That and crawdads (crayfish).

My wife and I translocated the turtle befor my mom knew it happened or we may have been eating turtle. About the only food she passes up on is snake. She has a thing about snakes. She doesn't know it but there is a fairly large snake near the house. We saw it by the front porch cornering a rat. I hope she doesn't see it for the snake's sake and the predations it makes on field rats that get around the house.

Pat

[Hayseed]

Pat,

A friend brought two snapping turtles to my house several years ago and asked if we would eat them if he cooked them. Since I am game to try anything once I agreed. He killed the snappers and I helped him clean them. That was an interesting experience all in itself. Then my friend cooked them in a sauce picante. He cooked a pot of rice to go with it and when it was all done we sat down and chowed down. My recollections are that it tasted pretty good... kinda tasted like chicken. [img]/forums/images/icons/smirk.gif[/img] Just kidding! I don't really remember what it tasted like but I remember that it was pretty good. One thing that I remember from the experience... turtles have some strange looking little bones in them!

Another time this same fellow brought over a goose that he had shot while hunting. He said he wanted to make a gumbo with it but one goose was not enough. We had a few beers and got a wild idea of what to add to the pot to make enough for everyone. We both had a pellet gun so we went outside and stalked the robins which were everywhere in abundance. We shot twenty of them, plucked their breasts and added them to the pot. That tasted pretty good, too. 'Course after quite a few beers I doubt I would have known the difference. If I remember, that gumbo tasted kinda like chicken, too [img]/forums/images/icons/crazy.gif[/img] ... at least it had birds in it so I do know that it tasted fowl. [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[Pat]

Hayseed, You sure you never lived in LA (not Cal)? They eat everything that crawls, flies, swims, and doesn't eat them first out in the back country.

I tried to eat crow when I was about 12 but couldn't get close enough for my Ward's Western Field 12 ga single shot to bring one down. When I was a grade schooler me and my trusty Red Ryder signature model carbine BB gun could have fed the county with English sparrows.

Pat

[Hayseed]

Actually I did live there for about six months back in the eighties, and I have been married to a coona$$ for over 23 years! [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img] I guesss that 'splains a lot, huh? Not only that about every other person who moves to east TX. from out of state is a coona$$.

I never ate crow literally but have eaten crow figuratively many, many times in my lifetime! [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/crazy.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[Bird]

Chris, I've never eaten a Robin, but only because they're protected by federal law. I guess you know they were once widely hunted for food, and I've even read that they were so popular for food that there was fear they were going to become extinct and that's the reason they were protected by law.

But those old yellow breasted meadowlarks were pretty good eating when I was a kid.

And, Pat, I even dressed a crow I killed once when I was a kid because I figured if those little blackbirds that I ate so many of were good, then a big black bird ought to be, too, but Mother vetoed that idea and wouldn't let me in the house with my crow. [img]/forums/images/icons/frown.gif[/img]

[Hayseed]

Uh, Bird, like I said... I once knew a guy that shot and ate robins! [img]/forums/images/icons/blush.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/blush.gif[/img]

[BrianP]

I always 'splain to city slickers when they come visiting that if they see a big turtle, they should keep at least 5 feet away from it. If, of course, they want to keep all their fingers. [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

Who would think a turtle can move as fast as a snapper on the defensive?