Foods for free. Anything you want to post about wild foods or foraging, hunting and fishing. Please note, this section includes pictures of hunting.
Sorry to say that Selfsufficientish or anyone who posts on here is liable to make a mistake when it comes to identification so we can't be liable for getting it wrong.
I always thought that it was an eco consious thing to do, but after doing some research for the second book it Seems that it only sustainable and benefical if you continuously do it.
Here is an extract from the environment agency.
The Crayfish Code: How Can You Help?
You Catching Crayfish will not help the environment
Unlike the message from many TV programs, catching crayfish on an ad hoc basis can actually make the situation worse and not better. You will be catching the bigger crayfish in any stretch of water. These will eat their smaller siblings which helps keep the population in balance. By taking out the bigger dominant crayfish you will inadvertently destabilise the population which could cause it to expand in area.
Fishing for signal crayfish not being acceptable is likely needed to prevent the capture of native crayfish (if there are any left). Usual stuff about landowners permission required etc.
We have some Lakes nearby, I noticed a person throwing in something on a length of string not too far out and retrieving it. I was on the other side of the lake so could not a good looksee. My guess at the time was crayfish. He was certainly not fishing, for fish. Bait? bits of bacon etc? on a string, no hooks needed? I think many of our lakes and rivers have signal crayfish. Are they boiled in water (when dead) like crab/lobster?
Look forward to hearing how you get on.
John
Not really relevant here but this reminded me of times spent in Sweden when I was a teenager. Crayfishing was hugely popular in June there, and the method was quite amazing. I'm not sure what type of crayfish they were though, just native to that area. The place we lived in (just north of Stockholm) was a very "lakey" area. In June it's light almost 24 hours a day there with only a medium dusk for a few hours each night. The locals would go out onto the wooden jetties on the lake shores and lie on their stomach - a hand trailing in the water so that they didn't splash. After a while it was possible to see the crayfish moving along and they could actually be lifted gently straight out of the water into a bucket. I hate to say it but these were cooked next day in the "classic" way, ie thrown alive into a pot of boiling water. And I'm loathe to admit that I ate plenty of them with fresh mayonnaise without a thought to any environmental issues!
Don't be tempted to sushi them...
I read that freshwater fish and crayfish need to be thoroughly properly cooked as they can carry lung flukes which can be very nasty; sometimes fatal or can ruin the central nervous system if they migrate to the brain. Fish are apparently a stage in this parasite's life cycle that allows it to invade a human host.
Maybe somebody here knows about this and can advise properly... but I'd do some research to be safe
Frehswater plants such as watercress are also dangerous if eaten raw.... especially if livestock are upstream, as there's a definite risk of getting liver fluke... another bad one.
The advent of Signal Crayfish is probably one ecological disater we can do nothing about unless we capture every last one of them (an impossible task). We're stuck with them and it means the eventual total loss of the native species. Regular netting of a site does reduce their numbers, but only on a local basis (and they very soon return if the netting stops). It also reduces the availability of the big uns simply because, as it takes a crayfish longer to reach a larger size, there are less of 'em. However, a net will catch a proportion of big crayfish and the same proportion of smaller crayfish (all in all, the mix will be the same as the mix in the local population) so the claim that it will imbalance that population is nonsense (as any mathematician would tell any ecologist).
I think the "don't fish for signals in case you catch natives" is also a red herring - if the signals are there, the native population has either gone or is about to go, and nothing you can do about it.
The secret of life is to aim below the head (With thanks to MMM)
I think the thinking behind that is big cray fish eat little crayfish, so even if you catch 1 big one and 10 little ones, the big one would have eaten those 10 in the next week anyway, and another 10 every week onwards.
So the 10 he would have eaten next week grow bigger, 1 of them becomes dominate in that spot and the 9 others all pack their bags and wander off looking for a new, uninhabited pond.
Doesnt seem to sit with the silly amounts we spend trying to exterminate grey squirrils though.
Our native crayfish are doomed to extinction, we might as well accept it and eat the newbies, well, not me, I dont like shell fish.
I'm not a hippie, I'm a realist.
I think everyones English
Never thought about eating grasshoppers, we have them all over our allotment. Are they tasty? Not sure if I will bring myself to eating them yet but worth knowing how to prepare them ect. - Perhaps should start a new topic.
I take the boys crayfishing occasionaly. A couple of hours in our fav spot with a rod and bacon fat gives us enough for dinner, pop 'em in the frezzer for about an hour boil for 5 mins, shell and fry in butter and garlic serve with chips.
Very yummy, and so much better tasting that the shop bought crayfish.
I love the gesture towards a salad.
