Ground hogs

[Ray4852]

There clean animals. I never had one for dinner. There a pain in the fanny when I get them in my garden. I trap them, Throw the trap and woodchuck in the pond.

[riverbee]

"Throw the trap and woodchuck in the pond."

LOL!!!!............

[brooksbeefarm]

I grew up eating rabbit and squirrel meat, some coon and have ate groundhog (our hounds keep groundhogs thinned out) if we could beat the dogs to them . When i learned to read and started to read about the animals i'd been eating (squirrels kin to the rat family ) i kind of lost my taste for them (sometimes education can be bad) i'll still eat a young gray fried, but now i own my own beef farm and prefer a steak or humbuger over rat. Jack

[Ray4852]

How do you feed your cows. Its very expensive to feed with natural feed today. Cost of corn and grain is very expensive. I heard Our big beef farmers are using chemicals to fatten up their cows. I like wild turkey and pheasants. Cant beat home grown turkeys and chicken. High cost of corn stopped me from growing them.  Ethanol is killing us today.

[brooksbeefarm]

Well, i don't keep more cattle than my farm can handle. They are on pasture and i buy salt mix and mineral feed, the cows are bred to calve in March and April and i wean in Dec. and Jan. the calves are the only thing i grain feed on a regular basis and of course the two i raise to butcher.. It is expensive, but what isn't now a day? Grain should be cheaper this winter, they had a bumper crop this year, i don't know if you've noticed, but beef prices are higher than i've ever seen it. After many years of hard work, luck, saving, and doing without, we have everything payed for,and now that we can show a profit and buy some things, We are getting to old to enjoy it. Don't think it would of happened without some divine help, we have been blessed. Jack

[rcannon]

What's a ground hog?

[riverbee]

wood chuck is what we call them rc........

[lazy shooter]

I think my old Mexican neighbor lady cooks coon.  She had never cooked anything that I didn't like.  I will get her to cook one.  She will do it right.  My bride works full time as a school superintendent, so she limits her cooking time.

I'm going to give it a try Iddee.

[Alleyyooper]

People get these ideas in their head then some or all wild game is yuk yuk. People the world over eat canines(dog) yet when I grill up a bit of coyote and share it, it is liked till they are told it was coyote then it is puke city.
Ground hog, whistle pig, wood chuck are vegans and have some of the finest flavored meat of any wild game. Problems start in the way they are prepped, keep the skinning clean of hair and do not allow intestines to rupture on the meat.
Remove all fat and fatty glands.
Old ones cook low and slow to render them tender.

   Al

[lazy shooter]

@Jack:

He is correct on many fronts.  Once you are old and everything is paid off, there is more money in the till.  A young friend of mine tell me "you old people have all the money," and I reply yes, and we have the arthritis and other slow-me-down issues that come with old age."

I have my calves contracted to a special company that sells only grass fed beef.  I keep a freezer stocked with beef for my family, including  two grown sons and their families.  Commercial cattle are fed so many steroids and antibiotics that some medical experts think that is the reason that many of our old, known antibiotics are losing their healing abilities.  I don't know that to be true.

The ground hog sounds like good table fare.  My wife is like Jack, in that after she learned a squirrel was a rodent she quit eating them.  I have an old pal in East Texas that kills me about 10 or 12 squirrels each year and freezes them in packages of two.  Occasionally, when I have the time, I fry them up and have cream gravy for breakfast.  It makes a very good breakfast for this old country boy.

I'm like Jack, when I say my evening prayers, I am always amazed at how much our merciful God has blessed such a sinner as me, and thank him for it.  I truly have gotten more I deserve out of life.

[Alleyyooper]

Warp bacon around squirrel pieces and bake. YUM.

   Al

[rcannon]

What's a wood chuck? Similar to a possum?

[brooksbeefarm]

It's the furry animal they show on TV every Feb. 2 of the year to see if it seen it's shadow or not. Jack

[lazy shooter]

How much wood, would a wood chuck chuck, if a wood chuck could chuck wood.

That's my question about wood chucks.

[Retroguy]

How much wind could a wind break break if a wind break could break wind?

Back in the late '60s we gave some coon hunters permission to hunt on our property.  One morning they came in from a successful night and presented my Mom with a hind quarter of coon meat.  Mom asked how to cook it and they told her to treat it just like she would a piece of roast beef. 

A couple of days later I came home from school and Mom said, "I want your opinion on this," and she pulled the roasting pan out of the oven and showed me this stringy dried out looking piece of meat.

"Would you eat that?" she asked.  I said no so she put in a pork roast that she had for "back-up" and told me to take the coon meat out to our beagle, Herman.  I gave the coon meat to Herman who sniffed it, backed off, walked around it 3 or 4 times and then very gingerly took hold of a bone and carefully dragged it out in the middle of his dog patch and buried it.  He never did dig it up.