Eating invasive species

Duck59

Duck59

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This year's Shambala Festival (a music festival in England) has a theme of food based on invasive species. So, grey squirrels and American crayfish are getting munched.

As a vegetarian, I'm not going to be among the takers, but on the whole, I'm in favour. Grey squirrels have almost wiped out the native red squirrel and the crayfish, introduced in the 1960s, have caused utter mayhem in our rivers and canals.

Opinions welcome...
 
That is some mighty good eating. Both are southern delights.
Now I must ask how did the grey squirrel and the crawdads get into your habitat?
Let me guess, some person with very few brains decided to import both to open probably a Cajun restaurant. Not knowing biology, said person didn't realize how fast both species multiplied. When or before the restaurant failed, he just dumped both out onto nature. Not even thinking about the long term consequences. Or something similar.
Our everglades are having the same problems with pythons. I think some areas here are also having or had trouble with a type of squirrel.
 
Grey squirrels were, in the main, introduced by landowners in the 19th century, so we can blame the rich aristocracy for that. Crayfish, on the other hand, were introduced by the UK government in 1976. The idea was to farm them and export them to Scandinavia, where they are highly popular as food. It was, to use a more modern term, an omnishambles, and most ended up in our rivers.
 
Invasivorisum:
According to www.eattheinvaders.org as Buzzwords substainability and hyper-local, this is the idea of Invasivorism ..

Here are are a variety of edible invaders:

1) Scorpion / Lion fish or Dragon fish: Called Cabracho in Spanish, is one of the most exquisitely sublime refined fish I have ever had .. In Spain we prepare Scorpion Fish Terrines for the 24th December ( Christmas Eve ) ..

2) Wild Boar / Wild Pig

3) Nettles ( these greens are prolific )

4) The Asian Carp Fish

5) The European Green Crab

6) Rusty Crayfish

7) The Blue Atlantic Catfish (Maryland )

8) Rodent varieties ..


Very interesting topic ..

Thanks for posting and have a lovely summer ..
 
morning glory said:
Crayfish are delicious. I've not tried grey squirrel but here are plenty of them running around in my garden. Should I get the air rifle out? I do have one. I really like shooting but so far I have only shot at paper targets...
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There were two doing "naughties" in the middle of the road when I last went through Saffron Walden. As I drove up to them, one went one way and one the other. Got them both! Unfortunately they were too flat to pick up and put in the boot.
 
Francesca said:
Invasivorisum:
According to www.eattheinvaders.org as Buzzwords substainability and hyper-local, this is the idea of Invasivorism ..

Here are are a variety of edible invaders:

1) Scorpion / Lion fish or Dragon fish: Called Cabracho in Spanish, is one of the most exquisitely sublime refined fish I have ever had .. In Spain we prepare Scorpion Fish Terrines for the 24th December ( Christmas Eve ) ..

2) Wild Boar / Wild Pig

3) Nettles ( these greens are prolific )

4) The Asian Carp Fish

5) The European Green Crab

6) Rusty Crayfish

7) The Blue Atlantic Catfish (Maryland )

8) Rodent varieties ..


Very interesting topic ..

Thanks for posting and have a lovely summer ..
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I am guessing you mean the wild hogs that have been destroying some Texas parks. At least the government finally got smart and decided it was ok to hunt them.
 
Elawin said:
There were two doing "naughties" in the middle of the road when I last went through Saffron Walden. As I drove up to them, one went one way and one the other. Got them both! Unfortunately they were too flat to pick up and put in the boot.
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I'm oft in Saffron Walden - I've not seen seen squirrels in the road but I have seen ducks waddling about!
 
Cinisajoy said:
I am guessing you mean the wild hogs that have been destroying some Texas parks. At least the government finally got smart and decided it was ok to hunt them.
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@Cinisajoy

The boars ( or wild pigs ) are invasive.

I am sorry to hear that boars are destroying some Texas Parks, however, I had no idea ..

I believe in Italy, it has been due to the large number of forest fires as well as the recent fires in Albacete, Castille La Mancha, Spain.

Very sad .. Thousands of hectares were burnt ..

These boars live in the forested regions of the Mediterranean.

The meat is considered a delicacy, especially the charcuterie ..


Have a nice day ..
 
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The UK has quite a number of plants that are invasive, though whether any are edible, I couldn't really tell you.

There are several species of deer that have been introduced to the UK in the last century or so, sika, muntjac and Chinese water deer. With no natural predators, they cause habitat destruction for all manners of other species. Options: well, I dare say that they are edible; secondly, we could look at the reintroduction of carnivores such as wolves (guaranteed to get farmers excited).

One of our other problem species in Britain is the American mink. There is a substantial population that mostly derives from escapees from fur farms (another good argument against fur in fashion). They have had a seriously detrimental effect on the water vole population, which was struggling from habitat loss and now has to contend with these ferocious little brutes.
 
Duck59 said:
The UK has quite a number of plants that are invasive, though whether any are edible, I couldn't really tell you.

There are several species of deer that have been introduced to the UK in the last century or so, sika, muntjac and Chinese water deer. With no natural predators, they cause habitat destruction for all manners of other species. Options: well, I dare say that they are edible; secondly, we could look at the reintroduction of carnivores such as wolves (guaranteed to get farmers excited).
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There are deer wandering about in our area, which is built up. I last saw a muntjac a few weeks ago in the small field round the corner from me which is next to one main road and very near to two others. In the late 1970s you often got people knocking on the door selling muntjac. Wild boar seems to be on its way back again, either feral or farmed, and I thought they were trying to reintroduce wolves in some areas?
 
Opinion on invasive species. Anything can become invasive if it has no natural predators in that area. I don't care if it is a rat in New York City, kudzu across most of the south, non-native squirrels, carp (or alligator gar) in some rivers, pythons released in the everglades, hogs released or escaped, deer in some areas. Even cats and dogs can become invasive if left to breed indiscriminately. Rabbits are another good example. Killer bees and fire ants.
Nearly everything I just mentioned except the kudzu can be eaten.

Oh and at whoever ran over the squirrels, I do have several road kill cookbooks if you ever need a recipe.
 
Cinisajoy said:
Oh and at whoever ran over the squirrels, I do have several road kill cookbooks if you ever need a recipe.
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The only roadkill I've ever had was a mother rabbit and two of her babies, when I was in Austria. I did take a pheasant home one day - it had obviously escaped from one of the nearby pheasant farms - but even though it was hung correctly, it wouldn't draw, and it ended up being ferret food. The ferrets were ecstatic :laugh:
 
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