Posted on 05/06/2005 5:16:42 PM PDT by Shermy
On The Water With Vernon Summerlin
Call’em tree rats or bushy tails — squirrels are rodents.
Before you say “Eee-uuu,” about eating squirrels, I know a lady who ate lab rats. She hated to waste food, and she prepared rattail soup and testicle shish kabobs.
She was from England where I don’t know much about their eating habits, but in America, we like squirrel meat – it’s a tradition since humans moved on to this continent.
Squirrels belong to the order Rodentia, with 1,650 species; it is the largest group of living mammals. It also comprises 40 percent of all present day mammal species.
There are over 365 species of squirrels in seven families.
They include the tree squirrel, ground squirrel, and flying squirrel, plus many squirrel-like mammals such as the gopher, ground hog, and prairie dog.
The gray squirrel is probably the most common of the tree squirrels in the northern hemisphere.
Gray squirrels come in many colors. Shades of gray are the most common followed by shades of brown. There are also pure white and pure black squirrels, but both are variations of the gray squirrel.
Every fall, the gray squirrel (Sciurus Carolinensis), gathers nuts and seeds and then hides them so it will have enough food to last through the winter.
The squirrel buries its food in hundreds of different places, supposedly if another squirrel or animal finds one, will not find them all.
The squirrel cleans each nut or seed before it is hidden to leave its scent on it so that the squirrel can find it later, even through heavy snow. Squirrels are responsible for planting more trees than all of mankind.
The average gray squirrel is 15 inches long and weighs about one pound. Its diet consists of nuts, seeds, and fruit. Their life span is about six years.
Most urban squirrels do not reach their first birthday because they like to play in the street. If you’ve ever come upon a squirrel in the road, you’ve probably noticed that most of them change their mind about which way they want to run.
Last week, I ran over one. I couldn’t stop in time but saw it fake to the left, to the right, and left again. I waited for the “thump” that didn’t come.
I looked in my rearview mirror to see that critter decided to stay between my tires. Maybe it knew how to play “chicken” with cars. Reminds you of that TV commercial where a squirrel runs a car off the road, doesn’t it?
Squirrel incisors (front teeth) are extremely sharp. They grow continuously throughout its life.
To keep the teeth sharp and clean, the squirrel will chew off a small branch from a tree. As it bites through the branch it will turn its head so the branch will rub against each tooth, cleaning the surface.
The final process is to sharpen the point of the tooth. This is done similarly with the squirrel chewing on the hardest part of the branch.
This cleaning process can take up to an hour and is preformed daily. The squirrel does not have enamel coating on its teeth as humans do.
Gray squirrels will mate in the late winter or early spring. This mating ritual willing began with a chase, where several males compete for one female.
The males will chase each other through the trees jumping from branch to branch, and around and around tree trunks.
The female will watch and then choose the male she believes is the strongest. That male will follow her until she is ready to mate.
After the copulation, the male will return to its territory, leaving the female to raise the litter. The gestation period varies between 44 and 46 days for gray squirrels.
There are normally four to six born in the litter. The female squirrel will nurse the babies for their first 10 weeks.
During this time the babies will not leave the nest and are completely dependent on mother for milk.
At 10 to 12 weeks, the baby squirrels will be removed from the nest and the mother will teach them all the skills they will need to survive on their own. Once these babies leave the nest they are referred to as juveniles.
The juvenile squirrels will play together, practice nest building, find and store food. They will also feed in the same area and remain a family unit with their mother for the next few months.
In the early fall each squirrel will move away to establish its own territory. After 12 months, they will become breeding adults. The mother squirrel will return to live a solitary existence until the next mating season.
Every hunter or huntress has several packages of squirrels in the freezer. It’s time to get a pack or two out for this Southern Fried recipe. Happy Cooking!
2 squirrels disjointed to serving size
1 onion
1 carrot
1 stalk celery
1 sprig parsley
Drop pieces slowly into boiling water to cover. Cut up and add onion, carrot, celery, and parsley.
Cool thoroughly until tender. Dry squirrel pieces between towels. Prepare batter (below).
Dip each piece into batter, then drop into deep hot fat, and fry until pieces are golden brown.
Batter
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup cornmeal
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 beaten egg
1/4 cup milk
Mix flour, cornmeal, baking powder, and salt. Beat egg lightly. Add milk. Stir liquid into dry ingredients.
Originally published Friday, May 6, 2005
My Mom used to eat squirrel all the time when she was younger. I don't think I've ever had any, though.
Dare you.
I just ordered a scoped Chipmunk rifle...bad news for the tree rats this fall.
I'm not ashamed of what the libs might think of this post. Yes you, lurking DU libbers, go ahead, laugh at the thought of squirrel hunting and cooking as you sit there in front of Starbucks with your wi-fi laptop and your grande tofu latte, text messaging some other gay guy at another table. I, however, have fine walnut and steel and copious quantities of .22 ammo.
My husky mix has developed a unique stalking style. We have a bird feeder in the far back corner of the fenced yard where squirrels, birds and field mice come for dinner. Hunter (an appropriate name someone else gave him) will ease out of the doggy door, ever so slowly so as to not make noise. Then he will pad silently, slowly across the path, so innocently that even the feeding birds continue about their business. He doesn't care about birds. He wants sqirrels, or rats. The birds know he isn't hunting them. When he gets near the feeder, he does a sort of 'pounce' where he jumps straight up and lands with all 4 meaty paws and 75 pounds of weight on the area where the seeds fall. He doesn't usually get a squirrel, they're too smart and aware, but he has pinned dozens of rats that way.
Typical dead beat dads.
No way am I going to eat rodent. (Though we do want that ground hog out of our yard.)
Hamster, guinea pig, any rodent can be squirrel substitute in these recipes.
Not much meat on a hamster, though!
(only kidding!)
bttt
"Oh, man, who could eat
a little rodent?! That's sick.
Rodents are our friends!"
Hey is that really an off-the-shelf craftsman toolbox or is it a personal cobble? It looks handy...and can still haul plywood.
Straight from Sears. 5 drawer tool box fits behind wheel well. A few other mfg's are making them now. About $175.
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