Free Lunch!

[.22-5-40]

Hello, everyone.  Years ago, I was squirrel hunting with an old lever action Marlin 1892 .22 L.R.  I spied a squirrel which looked to be a long way off..but decided to try anyway, at the crack, it fell..when I retrieved it..I found why it looked like a long shot..it was a little red squirrel!  Now I had never eaten one before..and it was so small, I really didn't want to bother..but I was taught to eat what you kill..so I laid it on an old stump near the path that led out of woods & thought I would try for a nice fat fox squirrel ...as the sun was starting to set.   having no luck finding another, I made my way back to the stump...just in time to see a red tailed hawk flying away with "my" squirrel!  I really got a kick out of that..at least someone didn't mind small pickins!

[tacklebury]

Little goes to waste in nature.  My favorite use of Red Squirrels is to make stew.  I parboil them whole and don't try to quarter them.  After the meat's falling off the bone, I pick out the big bones, put all the meat pieces into another bowl temporarily and then when all the meat's out of the water, I pour the water through a sieve into the meat bowl.  This effectively gets any small pieces of bone out.  Then I start a big pot going with 2 cans of Campbell's Cream of Potato soup and use the water from the meat bowl instead of faucet water.  The only thing left is to drop in a handful of finely chopped carrots and add salt and white pepper to the mix.  Let this come to a boil while covered and then simmer until it thickens some.  If it's not thickening, add a tablespoon of Tapioca or flour to it and it will speed things up some, but don't over do it.  Finally, uncover, throw in the celery and simmer for about 5 more minutes to soften the celery.  Even my grandma loved tree rat when I made it like this.      If you are at a cabin and don't have carrot and celery, you can substitute cat tail root if it's in season and it's good with asperagus or fern fronds if you have them at the time of year you are making it.