By the way, we still have plenty of red squirrels in our neck of the (close to downtown) Ottawa woods. Vicious little beasts they are, and noisy; as far as I can see they consistently intimidate the bigger greys and blacks:
First, catch your squirrel…
As a Staffordshire man is fined more than £1,500 for drowning a grey squirrel in his garden, Harry de Quetteville discovers that the best way to get rid of the furry vermin is to eat it
…
Red squirrels, of course, have long been the object of affection in Britain…No wonder that the Prince of Wales, patron of the Red Squirrel Survival Trust, has backed a programme to reintroduce the “irresistible and charming” creatures to the Lizard peninsular in Cornwall, where they can be protected from the “ceaseless, pernicious attack” of the greys…Squirrel: how do you eat yours?
A recipe for braised squirrel…
As for soup…
This post’s for Darcey, more:
Update: If I had read the last link above closely I would have noticed Darcey is not well. My best thoughts to him.
Mark
Ottawa
Where is the other half of your gun?
Just thought I’d point out that the red squirrels in the UK are not the same species as ours here in the Ottawa Valley.
Ours are American Red Squirrels (tamiasciurus hudsonicus); the ones in Britain (and Europe) have tufted ears and are sciurus vulgaris. They are very much an endangered species in the UK, thanks to that all-pervasive intruder from the Americas, the grey squirrel (sciurus carolinensis). Some fool biologist brought a few pairs over to Britain from the American colonies a century or two ago and, well, the rest is history…
By the way, you are right. Those American Red Squirrels really are feisty fellows. I have one around here I call Nelson – not after Lord Nelson of Trafalgar but after Nelson the bully in The Simpsons.
We call our American Red Squirrels Fox Squirrels.
Very tasty indeed, salt and pepper, roll in flower, brown in peanut oil, placed in boiling water with yellow and green onion and boiled down. Take a 1/2 cup of peanut oil and the dripppins, threw in a cup of flour, brown it, mix in with boiled squirrels to make gravy, you can also boil em down with okra and at the last minute throw in some mushrooms and a can of Ro-Tel dixed tomatoes and jalepenas, served over rice or mashed potatoes, or buttermilk biscuits. Throw in a pot of purplehull peas and some hotwater cornbread along with a peach cobbler and you got a meal.
Cheers !!