Self-Sufficiency in Style
free harvest
shooting
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Self-Sufficiency in Style free harvest shooting
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Shooting is the writer's favourite pastime.
He does not actually shoot, but he still enjoys it to the full. The hedges are full of pheasants and the pond has a complement of ducks - all untroubled. |
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Shooting is an incredibly expensive hobby. In England it costs about £25
to shoot a single pheasant, and that is without the quality gun, the
clothes, the four wheel drive and everything else necessary to enjoy this
most aristocratic of sports.
It costs about £10 to rear a pheasant and there are whole industries of part and full timers, farmers and others supporting this exclusive sport. In the expensive restaurants of London, the bird is often on the menu at a luxury price. |
You also have to buy and board an extremely expensive, muddy and usually disobedient Labrador for occasional use. |
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A familiar, yet still exotic, sight in the East Anglian countryside.
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But the writer loves a nice roast pheasant and adores a pheasant soup -
and he enjoys both on a regular basis, completely free through a fluke of
modern living.
Many millions of birds are reared and shot each year. But, alas, few of the sportsman will take home more than a tiny percentage of what they will kill. Nobody at home wants to pluck and dress their expensive bounty. Equally, it seems wasteful to throw aside what everyone has gone to so much trouble and expense to rear and kill. So, the vast majority are sold to game dealers for maybe 50 pence for a brace... and that is where we come in. |
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Mrs P can pluck and dress game birds. She taught herself how to do it,
with a little instruction from our son-in-law, who also likes to shoot...
...as does our carpenter, who rears pheasants and many of the neighbouring farmers. |
Ready for Roasting. |
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Waiting Attention. |
They hate to see their expensive work and labour go for so little money,
so are always glad to give a couple to someone who can both handle the bounty
and who appreciates the gift.
Many a pint of Jersey milk has been repaid in the Autumn. So, in season, we often come home to a brace of pheasants tied to the door handle. A trip to our daughter's at this time of year, will see a boot full of wild duck or any of a number of game birds, prized in the best hotels, but neglected by busy domestic cooks today. Kitchen skills that were once common are now rare, and all the more valuable because of that. If we get overwhelmed by the volume, we will simply quickly remove the breasts for freezing and use later in the year. There is some more about shooting in the December Diary |
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no shooting at the murderously named Hangman's Cottage, just to the south of Misery Corner. |
