American Goldfinches

[Bird]

"Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie" seems like the solution to me. You ought to be able to get that many with no more than two shots from a 12 gauge. [img]/forums/images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

I actually did that a couple of times when I was a kid. The blackbirds were so small that the breast was about all the meat there was, so we just skinned them out, boiled the breasts and had one nice bite of meat from each side which we removed from the bone and used instead of chicken to make pot pies.

[JazzDad]

OK, Bird. Is this for real, or a "po' folk" story? [img]/forums/images/icons/smirk.gif[/img]

[Pat]

Bird, Funny that you should mention four and twenty blackbirds... That thought and those words ran through my mind more than once. One time in San Diego I was having problems with pigeons raiding my dog's dish and eating and scatering kibble all over the patio. As the dog was 8-9 month old Great Dane I was using a HUGE stainless steel bowl/dish.

I got my Irish up (did I mention that in addition to a little indian blood I am mostly of Irish with a little Welsh English extraction) and rigged a cage with a prop and a string to pull the prop. I baited with dog food and awaited the pigeons. Well between my college home work and other distractions I never looked up when any pigeons were in the "capture zone."

The pigeons went after the food while I wasn't looking and got so boisterous that they knocked the prop out and caught themselves. There were three big fat ones, gorged on dog food with crops distended to the bursting point. I wrung their necks and plucked them and dressed them out. I made an herb stuffing and stuffed them and roasted them in time for my wife's arrival home from her work at North Island Naval Station. She commented that they were the smallest Cornish hens she had ever seen. I explained the situation to her. They weren't young enough to qualify as squab but they werren't tough either.

I recommend to anyone clearing a barn of pigeons that they stuff and slow roast them. Pretty good eating.

I have never eaten blackbird (tried crow once, really) I know folks who used to eat meadowlark, in theory, due to shortage of quail.

With all this bird flu concern, I will have to rethink our policies as regards close contact with birds and encouraging them to hang out close to the house. As if West Nile being spread by mosquitos from birds to people wasn't enough to worry about...

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Patrick [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[Bird]

Yep, Bret and Pat, we really did make blackbird pie on a few occasions, just because they were there and we wanted to see what they tasted like; pretty good, too.

And Pat, I've eaten more meadowlark than quail. They were much more plentiful, easy to get, and I thought, back then at least, that they were just as good as quail.

I guess people all over the world are funny about their food; what they will eat and what they won't. My mother didn't mind the blackbird pie, meadowlarks, squirrels, and rabbits. She did refuse to fry frog legs for awhile after having one move in the pan, but we finally convinced her that we'd get that little nerve out so it wouldn't happen again. She wouldn't cook the turtles when I wanted to try that, but did let me make turtle soup. She cooked a racoon once and would never do it again because of the aroma when it was cooking (actually tasted just fine). I once dressed out a crow to see what it would taste like, and she refused to let me in the house with it. She also refused to allow me to try cooking a opossum.

So I've never eaten crow except for some of my words. And I think I've only eaten pigeon once or twice (long after Dad retired, he occasionally captured some young ones in a cousin's barn). But I don't understand why people don't eat more pigeons.

I've also never eaten a robin, although I've read several places that they were a popular food item with the early pioneers.

[Pat]

Hey Jazz, I'd bet on Bird telling it straight. I never even thought about a po folk story. I know too many people for whom food was often defined by what was available to be picked, gathered, trapped, shot, or whatever. Most of these never thought they were poor at the time. On reflection and by comparison it is easy to look back and say how poor someone was when at the time it was just the way it was and just about everyone always knew of folks who were "actually" poor, it just wasn't them.

My mom survived the great depression and it left a lasting impression (on my sister and me too due to mom's attitudes and teachings) Mom loves to fish but the idea of catch and release just doesn't register with her. She can no more "GET IT" than she can flap her arms and fly. IT IS FOOD... why in he-- would anyone want to through away perfectly good food?

I would bet a good rootbeer float that Bird's folks and by derivation, his attitudes were shaped at least in part by the depression.

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

P.S. As I write this a beautiful snowfall has begun in earnest. We may have a WHITE CHRISTMAS!!! Happy holidays to you all!

[Pat]

Bird, If you did eat possum you'd probably not be too interested in doing it again, EXTREMELY GREASY!!! My dad's sister was a biology teacher and didn't really clean game so much as she disected it. She and my mom caught a big turtle near Cold Lake, Michigan while on a vacationi and of course it did not get tossed back. I recall how the heart kept beating while on display in a glass of water. No soup, fried turtle.

My aunt and I chased crows for a year before we bagged one with our shotguns. Even pressure cooking didn't make it very tender.

Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[Bird]

Pat, your response to JazzDad is exactly right. I've heard many stories from my parents about the depression. Fortunately, my maternal grandfather stayed employed in Oklahoma City. They never had much, but at least they weren't in the soup kitchen lines I heard so much about, or going through garbage cans looking for scraps to eat. Mother says her mother always tried to wrap any food scraps they discarded in clean paper because she knew someone would be going through the garbage can looking for something to eat.

My paternal grandparents were farmers at the north edge of Ardmore, so they were never hurt really bad either.

By today's standards, we certainly were "poor" when I was a kid, but like you said, we didn't know it (no TV to tell us what we ought to have [img]/forums/images/icons/wink.gif[/img] ). We certainly never went hungry, since Dad was always employed in town, but we also had our own milk cow, hogs, chickens, huge gardens, so Mother did lots of canning (had a cellar to keep the canned goods). And of course, Dad & I liked to hunt and fish. And "catch and release"? I never heard of such nonsense until long after I was grown. [img]/forums/images/icons/wink.gif[/img] A few years ago, a cousin of mine caught an 11 lb. largemouth bass and had it mounted. Even today, there's no way I would have wasted a good meal that way.

[Pat]

Bird, My mom's folks were not all that bad as farmers so they never went hungry. They didn't eat fancy or waste but never were really going hungry. They always had a milk cow and kept hogs for meat and chickens for meat and eggs. With 5 kids they always depended on the garden for produce to have in season and to can and put away in the cellar. Four girls and one boy. My uncle was extremely good with a slingshot (PC term) and put a lot of squirrels and rabits on the table.

My dad's family didn't do as well. Only three kids but my dad's dad was not much of a farmer and my grandmother could only do so much with a few chickens,a hog once in a while and a garden. They had it rougher. My grandmother was a pretty good shot with a .22 bolt action single shot (Geko from Germany which I have in shooting condition.) She put a lot of rabits on the table who came by to eat in her garden.

My mom has always said the folks she felt sorry for were the ones who lived in town. When times were hard they didn't have gardens, fishing, hunting, and meat animals.

I mentioned your blackbird pies to my wife and she immediately recalled our pigeon feast.

I'd sure hate to rely on eating little birds like wrens and finches. They might even be "negative" calories, you know, where it takes more energy to process them than you recoup eating them.

Well our snow is gone and it is forecast to hit 60's by Sunday so there goes most of our chance for a white Christmas.


[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[Bird]

</font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr />
hate to rely on eating little birds like wrens and finches

[/ QUOTE ]

That's the reason I only tried dove hunting one time; not enough meat to be worth a shotgun shell.

[Pat]

Bird, Now you didn't hear this from me and I am maintaining plausable deniability but the cost effective dove harvest technique is to shoot them with a pellet gun or even a .22 in the early 0evening/late afternoon when they go to water before turning in for the night.

I have never shot a dove with a shotgun but dropped a pigeon with my trusty Red Ryder Daisy BB gun when I was in the second grade. My mom broiled it for my uncle who claimed it was good eating.

By the way if anyone gets overwhelmed with nostalgia and buys a NEW MANUFACTURE Red Ryder Daisy BB gun, be prepared for a really anemic shooter. You almost have to shoot downhill to get the BB out of the barrel. All those warnings you got as a kid about being careful you don't put an eye out. With the NEW version that would almost require someone to put their eye up against the muzzle. Liabillity? Political Correctness? Insidious plot to turn off a generation as regards guns by giving them such a NEGATIVE experience with their first gun?

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]