My youngest daughter was with me and watched me take the shot, we then got sorted and rounded up the other two children to go and prepare this into some wild food for lunch.
I often get asked when I introduce my children into the concept that we eat animals or animals that grow here. The honest answer is I don't, it's a part of life for us so there is never a point they are introduced to it as it's a semi constant in what we do. When we had the ducks hatch out they had a long conversation as to whether we'd have duck or chicken at Christmas this year.
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| My eldest daughter took all the photos! |
My younger daughter wanted to help me skin it.
Then we portioned it up. There isn't enough really for a full meal from one rabbit so they've been promised rabbit sandwiches for lunch!
I'm always proud of the way they react around this type of thing. They never shy away from touching it, or asking questions and always offer to help.
Again I feel very lucky to live this way and teach my children in this way.
I bet you will get some comments about that! Well done. I wish I had been taught everything you are teaching them.
ReplyDeleteI hope it's what they want to learn, they seem keen.
DeleteDid you keep the pelt? They are really pretty easy to dry and tan, and make an excellent fur-sewing project for winter. Glove liners, mittens, collar ruffles, etc. The leather is thin and soft enough to be sewn on many home machines. I'm all for you!
ReplyDeleteI didn't this time. Maybe I should have. Both my daughters love sewing so would have been ideal. Maybe the next one. USe the brain for tanning it or do you have a different method?
DeleteFab Kev. We caught and cooked a rabbit with our boys when we'd not been here long. Great experience.
ReplyDeleteI haven't done it in a while so was good to do it again. We've been foraging a lot of stuff lately so good to go the full way with the wild food.
DeleteOne time ,we had a troublesome young teenager to stay, while his parents had a rest. Unfortunately he had been encouraged to shoot small birds with his air rifle. We told him we had a rule here, animals or birds could only be killed if they were to eat. He didn't believe us, so next day he killed a squirrel . So we prepared it and cooked it and insisted he ate some. ...He never shot at anything else while he stayed with us.
ReplyDeleteKathy
Ha, I quite like squirrel when I've eaten it. I can't say we eat everything I shoot because I do it for pest control as well and some things aren't very appetising, but we try not to waste anything if we can help it. This made a perfect lunch for us. When my wife came home she asked my boy what we had for lunch and he just says "dead rabbit".
Deleteoh,I would draw the line at vermin or meat eater,I would have been happy for him to shoot those!
DeleteKathy
It has been a long time since, but we raised white rabbits when our boys were the age of your kids so they could have an 'animal' project. We stretched the hides and salted them to dry. Later on, we used a little kit of tan chems from Tandy leather to cure the leather out. No internet back then, so maybe you could find something online now. Very simple to do. As I recall, it was maybe a chrome solution, but not sure. Never wanted the mess of brain cure though. Rabbit is really easy to cure. The pelts make wonderful hats!
ReplyDeleteMaybe getting ahead of myself here, but FYI, my wife was a seamstress/tailoring teacher. She would use spray adhesive and laminate a nice fabric to the leather before cutting and sewing some things. Collect pelts now - make projects in the winter! You'll have a ball with it, I'm betting.
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