Road Kill Chef...any one?

[Cheezy]

Did any one else catch this programme on BBC3 ?.

I think it was a one off, but it was quiet good.

The "documentry" followed Furgus Drennan, who has been a professional forager for 15 years. He seems a really nice bloke and very serious about trying to get people to eat local seasonal produce and get in touch with their surroundings. Of course the producers focused in on the sensational bit i.e he cooks up road kill. But really this was a minor element to the programme.
(mind the gutting of a road kill badger in his bath was a real eye opener)

He went round the town of Sandwich and spoke to people , tackled kebab eaters on a Friday night ,then took some slimmers world ladies out to forage, and even served up foraged food to the local school and finally got a pub to serve up a fullly foraged menu. It comes as no supprise then that it was made by Jamie Olivers production company, and that Fergus is Jamies "foraged food" supplier, ie nettles and shrooms.

I suspect that this was a pilot and we should (I hope) see more of Fergus as he is making a valuble point.

(Perhaps he can have a word with Jamie and get him to stop promoting Sainsbury's.)

P.S since it was on BBC3 if you didn't see it no doubt it will be repeated again on BBC3 at least once, then BBC2 several more times!.

[9ball]

Great minds Cheezy! I just put a topic about this in the TV section. It's repeated tonight at 1:55am on BBC3.

[Cheezy]

Indeed 9ball great minds , I've cross ref'd your post by replying to it.

In your post you mention that your not sure about the road kill aspect.

Now I've never eaten road kill, but I don't "think" I would have a problem eating it. I would be a bit squeamish when it came to gutting a badger etc, I do all the cooking at home and can gut and fillet etc, but I don't find it pleasent. And I've not takled anything as big as a badger

Has any one eaten road kill?

When it comes to killing animals I'm in the HFW camp, if it's wild you should kill only what your going to eat. If it's a farmed animal then it should have the best life (and death) as possible and again nothing produced that goes to waste. And it should all be local.

I am seriously thinking about borrowing an air gun and taking down a few of the bastard grey squirrels that are in my garden. I would then eat them, since I have seen HFW , Ramsey say they make good eating, and now Fergus say's they taste like how lamb used to taste, it could be the end for the American virmin!.

[Clara]

Well we don´t have a road, but we´ve had the odd bit of dog-kill (rabbits & pheasants). My partner has eaten squirrel said it was good, but we don´t have those here.

Once when we lived in the UK my partner came across a roadkill deer still warm so he chucked it in the trailer and carried on his daily business. Unfortunately what he should have done is drained the blood straight away, so we couldn´t eat it. This led to the rather strange scenario of having to dump the body under cover of darkness early the next morning!

I would have liked to have seen the programme, I think this is the same guy as has the wildmanwildfood website.

Clara x.

[Cheezy]

Hi Clara,

Your right here's his link:

http://www.wildmanwildfood.co.uk

whats intresting is this new comment on his site:

NEW! Roadkill Café Dilemma - Imagine this situation: Firstly, you have recently made a programme for the BBC, however, for the most part – and certainly in retrospect, you regret doing it.

However when you try to look further into it it seems to have been removed.

[9ball]

that is an interesting comment, maybe they cut things out that he wanted to keep in?

He was on This Morning (well I am a student :) ) earlier and seemed quite happy.

As far as eating roadkill, perhaps I'd want the car to hit it infront of me so that I know it's fresh, just finding something dead would make me wonder whether it had died of disease or poisoned, or been lying there too long - bit to risky for me I'm afraid.

Shooting the b*stard grey squirels sounds like fun though, especially if they taste like lamb :)

[9ball]

managed to get further into the story on his website,

"Imagine this situation: Firstly, you have recently made a programme for the BBC, however, for the most part – and certainly in retrospect, you regret doing it. The reason you regret doing it is because the programme focuses on one very small aspect of your life and, in so doing, makes it seem like that is what you are all about. Perhaps that wouldn’t be so bad if it was about something other than roadkill! Then imagine the pre-showing publicity circus – usually great fun, but some days talking about roadkill is just such a bore!!!!"

[red]

Has any one eaten road kill?

yep I have - thought ot be fair it was me that did the road kill. too many pheasants where i used to live, hard job not to hit them sometimes (really the pheasant is a like a joke animal - if one hears a gun shot, it hoots - really! like 'here I am come and shoot me! anyway I digress...) So once hit one and killed it outright.. so took it home for tea.
legally of course you can't do that - you have to leave anything you hit, but you may pick up what someone else has hit... ok....
to my mind I had killed something, albeit by accident, and I was not going to have the death be for nothing.
if I hit a deer or saw one being hit, i would take that home too yes. (so long as it was dead.. alive could be a problem with it running about in the car!.... ) but I draw the line at picking up road kill you come across cos, well you just don't know the whole story and how long it was there

[Cheezy]

Interestingly my OH has been talking to her work colleagues about the said programme, one of whom is studying law and the following comment came out:

Protection of Badger's Act 1992 -
Sec 51 - prohibits the possession of any dead badger or any part of a
dead badger.

So leave them dead badger's at the side of the road!.

Amzing what law students have to remember!.

[PlayingWithFire]

Hi - I am delighted to be back on here - been too long (feel like someone out of prison, ha ha)

Any chance of seeing fergus again on tv?

I got a rabbit last week - still warm - hated to see it go to waste.

Why do we turn our backs on such healthy food and instead throw our money at the supermarkets? Are 'we' mad?

Still Playing With Fire :-)

(Best wishes to Andy)

[Muddypause]

Hello Malcolm, nice to here from you again.

Are yous two still living in a yurt up there?

[PlayingWithFire]

Hello Malcolm, nice to here from you again.

Are yous two still living in a yurt up there?

Hi - no we moved out of the yurt into an 18th century town house in Stromness (renting). That said, we are looking to acquire a yurt or similar but in the mean time, I need a workshop, and Rachel needs some warmth.

We have two beautiful cats - and are now off up the garden to play with them in the morning sun.

More from me over the coming days - when it rains

Playing!

[Shirley]

Hiya Malcolm

Welcome back!! Enjoy the sunshine.

[AdamW]

My girlfriend and i managed the whole winter without buying any chicken, an abundance of pheasants in this area and local shoots going on means there are plenty around, i personally eat anything i shoot but at 50p a bird they are a bargain and great taste! Try and befriend a local game keeper perhaps?

We both learned to gut and prepare the birds and you get into it after a while, we also have had Vension, Partridge, Duck and Scottish Snipe in the past few months, all delicious! Try Pheasant breast wrapped in bacon... mmm!

As far as something straight off the road, interesting one, you have to also think about what else has already feasted there, rats if you are in the town or Rooks/Crows elsewhere, all carriers of unpleasant illnesses!

[Barefootandhappy]

I'm a veggie, so honest answer is no, I have never eaten road kill. My OH saw a deer get hit a while back. He went back an hour later and it was still there so in the trailer it went. I refused point blank to even be anywhere near him while he was gutting and skinning the poor animal but I had no issue with him eating the meat. The kids enjoyed it too.
I would have concerns if people were just goig out and picking up any old yuk, but if you know that the corpse is fresh, why on earth not? (This coming from a confirmed veggie too!)