We enjoyed a delicious, (mostly) all-natural meal the night before Mick left for training. The meal was largely inspired by two things: an excellent video Jacob brought along with him last weekend, Forager's Harvest (thank you!), and a certain duck who had proven herself to be loud, annoying, stupid, and a poor converter of feed to meat.
First course: fiddleheads.
Second course: garlic mustard and leek greens.
Final course: duck.
It isn't easy to butcher an animal, even an annoying and unproductive one. But we are grateful to know that the animal who provided us with this meal lived a good and healthy life. Better for her, better for us.
From what I have read, some fiddleheads are toxic. (The author of the DVD Jacob brought has an article about fiddleheads at http://foragersharvest.com/fern-fiddleheads-the-succulent-stalks-of-spring/) Although, growing up I thought poisonous foods would instantly kill you, and it turns out that most give you some level of discomfort but are certainly not fatal, which makes it less scary to try new things, especially if you start with small quantities and avoid things that taste unpleasantly bitter. (Somehow humanity survived without all poisoning ourselves!)
ReplyDeleteAnd you probably wouldn't want to eat large quantities of garlic mustard anyway - they are pretty strong-flavored! :) Worked out great with the leek greens though.