Model Train Journal

Those poor Canadian's are getting uglier

I thought this was an old problem out of the south and southwest.....that was heading north.

In our American Southwest, we have the javelina ,(or peccary), and they're not really a nuisance and in some states are a game animal. In the American South, and a few of the northern states, hunting feral hogs is also a sporting challenge. These were domestic hogs that escaped hog farms and went wild. A big boar can kill ya in a heartbeat. But I can understand our northern states concern with the feral hogs because they do widespread damage to the territory. You ever want 10 acres of land completely cleared, (brush, jaggers, wild grape vines, various small trees, etc), fence it tightly with barbed wire and put about a dozen domestic hogs in there. A few weeks later, ya got 10 acres of dirt clumps, with an occasional standing tree. It looks like Montana will either have to create a new game animal, or just better yet, put a paid bounty on the feral hogs.

Mitch wrote:It looks like Montana will either have to create a new game animal, or just better yet, put a paid bounty on the feral hogs.

Thought that Texas had put a bounty on theirs along with a few other states. Food source that should not be wasted.

Rufus T. Firefly wrote:

Mitch wrote:It looks like Montana will either have to create a new game animal, or just better yet, put a paid bounty on the feral hogs.

Thought that Texas had put a bounty on theirs along with a few other states. Food source that should not be wasted.

These feral hogs that are killed are usually processed for food, However they are not quite as tasty as the grain fed ones from a hog farm.

HONDO74 wrote:

Rufus T. Firefly wrote:

Mitch wrote:It looks like Montana will either have to create a new game animal, or just better yet, put a paid bounty on the feral hogs.

Thought that Texas had put a bounty on theirs along with a few other states. Food source that should not be wasted.

These feral hogs that are killed are usually processed for food, However they are not quite as tasty as the grain fed ones from a hog farm.

Given the numbers of folks that could use the food, degree of tasty and food vs. no food quickly becomes a non-issue. Deer harvested around here go in the food banks.

My son helped a good friend of his set up a small processing facility at his home. He lives out in the country in Kansas. I have had the opportunity to tastes some of the wild hog. They sometimes process some of the better meat in with it for pork sausage. Taste great to me if you like sausage.

Food is Food, I was just making a comment about the taste of a feral hog. A lot of it depend on how it is prepared. Just like wild deer. Deer that live it the woods and forage for their food usually has a gamey taste to it. It can also be prepared to taste good.

The Chinese are the biggest consumers of pork in the world. They would love it...

And I thought immigration at the southern border was the problem....

Canada better start building a fence along their southern border before the feral pigs eat Canada.

HONDO74 wrote:My son helped a good friend of his set up a small processing facility at his home. He lives out in the country in Kansas. I have had the opportunity to tastes some of the wild hog. They sometimes process some of the better meat in with it for pork sausage. Taste great to me if you like sausage.

Food is Food, I was just making a comment about the taste of a feral hog. A lot of it depend on how it is prepared. Just like wild deer. Deer that live it the woods and forage for their food usually has a gamey taste to it. It can also be prepared to taste good.

I grew up eating wild game and it does not bother me in the least. However, I'm alone in the house on that front

The Chinese are the biggest consumers of pork in the world. They would love it...

Yeah, they bought Smithfield....

Rufus T. Firefly wrote:

The Chinese are the biggest consumers of pork in the world. They would love it...

Yeah, they bought Smithfield....

I thought it was amusing when they put a 25% tariff on pork. Kind of like biting your own company in the butt.

But things have changed. They are now buying pork and soybeans from the US without any tariffs. Seems they have a severe epidemic of African swine fever virus that has wiped out over 25% of their hog population and the price of pork went sky high in China .....

Rufus T. Firefly wrote:
I grew up eating wild game and it does not bother me in the least. However, I'm alone in the house on that front

There are a lot of people that can't handle the wild game taste.

An example is the Hawaiian Luau. The Hawaiians cooked the wild hogs all day on a bed of hot coals and rocks. As Hawaii became a tourist attraction they had to import grain fed hogs from the mainland so the tourist could eat it.

HONDO74 wrote:
There are a lot of people that can't handle the wild game taste.

They have not been hungry enough. We have too many hungry people in this country.

Also, some cooking skills (that way too many people lack ) can obviate some of that as well.

There is something to be said about meat having a "gamey" flavor. Depends a lot on "what" the game lives on. I can tell you that rabbits that I shot on State Game Lands that were recovered "strip mines" were quite gamey compared to those harvested locally around corn and wheat fields. Also, second season rabbits from around home actually have some fat on them; those from the strips are quite lean. In the strips, their diet is shrubs and tinder, maybe a little pine bark, etc. In other words, slim pickin's verse the farmland bunny. Still, using low heat and cooking in a little spaghetti sauce (tomato acid) helps to tenderize and reduce the gamey flavor. Farm bunnies just get done slowly in butter in a cast iron skillet with fresh cracked black pepper. Mmmmm!

Mitch wrote:Farm bunnies just get done slowly in butter in a cast iron skillet with fresh cracked black pepper. Mmmmm!

Try draping celery leaves over the parts...gives them a nice added bit of flavor. It also works well for squirrel.