- Location
- Deep South of Cambridgeshire
2022 has been a strange old year for lots of things. Anyone got any idea about what awaits the grouse-hunters?!
Something must be done about pheasants. 50 years ago they were a more expensive delicacy than grouse. They are of varying degrees of horridness now, and it seems the English partridge is permanently banished from the table.
I'm sure that's true, but the diet and medicines they are fed mean that they are anyway fundamentally unwholesome, as is painfully obvious when preparing them.I suspect the lack of value reduces the motivation to get them to the end consumer in top condition.
and it seems the English partridge is permanently banished from the table.
I think Tom is referring to the grey legged partridge which has virtually disappeared. The ones you buy are red legged. And @Thom Blach - have you ever eaten a grey legged partridge, and if so, how did you get hold of it?Thom, unless I am missing something the partridge has seemed relatively easy to procure over the last couple of years. I'd assumed the ones I've been buying are English. Is this not the case?
Plenty, and my immediate reaction was to think that it wasn't even that long ago that they were not too difficult to obtain from the excellent game specialists that used to exist even if quite reasonably much more expensively than the red-legged partridge, which is nice but a pale shadow of its cousin. I suppose that on mature reflection it must have been about fifteen or twenty years ago that they became more or less unobtainable.I think Tom is referring to the grey legged partridge which has virtually disappeared. The ones you buy are red legged. And @Thom Blach - have you ever eaten a grey legged partridge, and if so, how did you get hold of it?
Indeed. I have certainly never seen them available. And it might be a little uncomfortable morally to eat something that is now so rare in the wild. It seems that the post 40s changes in wheat and cereal production (winter sowing and the high use of pesticides and herbicides) were highly injurious to the species.I suppose that on mature reflection it must have been about fifteen or twenty years ago that they became more or less unobtainable.
I agree with the poor quality of birds at the beginning of the season, but generally find those shot in the new year, which have been running around for a while, a much better eating.Is it already grouse-moaning season again? time flies as fast as the grouse itself. I do quite fancy one since you mention it.
Something must be done about pheasants. 50 years ago they were a more expensive delicacy than grouse. They are of varying degrees of horridness now, and it seems the English partridge is permanently banished from the table.
I do wonder what (recent) roadkill pheasant would be like. If they're so cheap, it would seem a false economy!Is it already grouse-moaning season again? time flies as fast as the grouse itself. I do quite fancy one since you mention it.
Something must be done about pheasants. 50 years ago they were a more expensive delicacy than grouse. They are of varying degrees of horridness now, and it seems the English partridge is permanently banished from the table.
It’s easy to put a price on any day based on price per bird shot of c. £50-60 inc VAT. For a 300 bird day, that's £15-18k and divide by 9 or 10 for a price per gun.It’s not like it’s inexpensive. I pay £300 a day for a decidedly low quality shoot at essentially mates rates because my best friend is the land owner. I dare someone to volunteer what they pay for a 300+ bird day.
I do think commercial shoots are not a good thing. The sporting joy of a brace shot with a light gun on a cold, walked up morning with your friend, sharing a hip flask, stretching your dogs and returning to the warm fire, easing into some claret and arguing how to cook the things that clearly need hanging, fighting over a cigar, concluded by roast beef sandwiches and leaving the birds for the weekend is up there with the very best activities in life. I enjoy this way beyond the organised days, but I guess it’s an experience of total privilege and very difficult to recreate.
If recently struck, by a car not too far in front of yours, perfectly good, particularly in January when it will be larger and less capable of outflying the number plate coming towards it.I do wonder what (recent) roadkill pheasant would be like. If they're so cheap, it would seem a false economy!
I would imagine most of the detractors of intensively farmed game shoots are more concerned by the ecological impact of breeding millions of birds a year in a very unnatural way, the same way that many of us would criticise intense meat farming in general - it's no different. At the end of the day it's idealogical. Plenty of people think intense commercial farming is totally unjustified due to its impact on the environment, jobs or not. I doubt many of us would call them obnoxious for thinking, saying or acting upon it.It’s easy to put a price on any day based on price per bird shot of c. £50-60 inc VAT. For a 300 bird day, that's £15-18k and divide by 9 or 10 for a price per gun.
As a general rule, it’s pretty obnoxious to tell people that what they are enjoying doing should be banned because you don’t like it. No one needs to do lots of things and banning anything that isn’t necessary as defined by some arbitrary people is clearly ridiculous. Adding that the other reason to do so is so that a tiny group of even more privileged people can enjoy wild pheasant and partridge is really the icing on a very very tall cake. “Stuff the thousands of people who’s jobs depend on this industry, I want my wild pheasant/partridge and I’ll scweam and scweam until I get it”…
I suspect it's actually worse, the use of antibiotics being as I understand it unregulated in the rearing of game birds. Many pheasants in particular now are repulsive to handle and cut, something which is a positive pleasure with healthy birds.it's no different