Off-grid eating

[dnix71]

I have raccoon, possum and iguanas in the back yard which is on a canal.

The Cuban igauanas are considered an invasive pest so we are encouraged to kill and eat. I have been forced to put nets and sheet metal collars over my plants to keep them from destroying my garden.

The meat is a bit gamey because the canal is there for flood control and water storage and is not a flowing stream except when it rains a lot. If the water flowed all the time, I would use it for microhydro. It's 10 feet deep in the middle and 50 feet wide.

A double-ended trap ($40) from Harbor Freight has caught two iguanas in the last two days as they walked along the fence to sun themselves. They bloody their noses ramming the cage trying to get out.

I ate a smaller one 3 days ago caught in a different trap set in a slot in the hedge along the canal. This big one will be given to a friend to curry. The meat needs something sweet (honey barbeque sauce or curry) to balance the taste.

The larger one here is only medium size as iguanas get. A friend from Trinidad who eats them said he doesn't keep them for pets because "they get way too big." I knew someone who had one as a pet. If you raise them correctly they will eat from your hand without biting, but you definitely don't want it loose in the house.

When you boil it, the meat and skin fall off. It doesn't get rubbery like chicken. Once you kill the lizard you have to cook the meat right away or it spoils.

It is a lizard, so you need a really sharp knive to skin and gut it. Lizards only have one hole out the back, so if you cut the intestine and trachea their insides come out whole cleanly.

There are more full size pix here: http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj62/dnix71/

My photobucket pix as not safe for PETA types, unless you define PETA as "People Eating Tasty Animals.

[fabricator]

Man, I've been known to eat all kinds od stuff, but I'm sorry, I aint eatin no lizards.

[ruddycrazy]

If you guys ever make it over to OZ ya gotta go outback and find a 6' goanna as when BBQ'd over an open fire they taste great. One good tip I got from one of the natives was only eat the bush ones as the town ones will not only give ya sore gut but you'll be the laughing stock of the town as the town goanna usually live and eat in the sewers.

Cheers Bryan

[dnix71]

I won't eat fish from the canal like many locals do. One of my neighbors caught a Chinese carp and ate it. The water managers put those carp there to eat the hydrilla and hyachinths (also from China), that clog the canals during the summer.

I cooked that iguana for over 2 hour just to be sure. They are NOT vegetarians as some people say. I have never seen any that were not near water. There is no way they could get that big and fat on leaves and bugs alone.

[frepdx]

I happen to believe that killing and eating an animal is fine, it's what we're supposed to do (as long as it's edible). But just killing for sport has always rubbed me the wrong way. So good job on doing the right thing

You said meat needs something sweet to balance the flavor, you could try a slow braise of some sort. There are a lot of recipes for pulled pork with sweet sauces.

[hiker]

i live in anchorage alaska--you would think the streams around town would be clean..

ha.........caught a trout awhile back that looked like HOMER SIMPSONS fish...

called up fish & game--they said all fishing around town should only be catch and release--do to run off pollution..funny they dont make it public !!

  havent caught any lizards of a late..... :}

[dnix71]

Here's some Jamaican cuisine you will only find on the island or in south Florida.

People without refrigeration keep their fish by salting it. Before they cook the fish it has to be soaked in fresh water to remove the salt. So s common breakfast is ackee, salt fish, callaloo and dumplings. This is breakfast - not lunch or dinner.

My posssession of the unripe ackee pictured is something of a breach of protocol. I found it on the lawn yesterday. Some kid probably picked it without the tree owners' permission on the way home from school and tossed it aside. Unripe or improperly prepared ackee is deadly. I will NOT be eating the one you see.

Ackee is native to Africa, but it isn't eaten there anymore. Slaves brought it with them to Jamaica along with the knowledge of how to prepare it so it wouldn't kill them.

The superstition is that it has a poison gas, so one that does not open on its own is not to be eaten. The reality is it contains an enzyme that blocks ATP synthesis in the mitochondria. No ATP = no blood sugar = pass out and die. Ackee is always that peach/pink color so there is no way to tell ripeness except when it opens. It opens from the bottom like a flower to expose several black seeds and bright yellow flesh.

After soaking the salt fish in water, the salty water is used to boil the flesh of the ackee, then that water is discarded. Usually it it then boiled again in fresh water and that water is discarded. Then it's fried with the fish and ends up looking like fried eggs. Allowing it to fully ripen and cooking thoroughly denatures and removes the toxic enzyme.

Callaloo looks like a weed, but it's fairly nutricious. The local muscovee ducks and the Cuban iguanas will eat it if they can get it, so I'm starting mine indoors until I have a big pot with a net outside to put it in. It can be grown from seed or cuttings.

It's steamed with onions or peppers and served as a side with any meal, including breakfast.

The leaves on the far right of the callaloo are from a neem seedling (it's not "herb") I don't do that part of Jamaican culture.

Dumplings (boiled or fried) round out the meal.

[dnix71]

My neighbors' sea grape tree is full of ripe fruit. There isn't much flesh, they're mostly seed, but they can be eaten as is or made into wine.

Sea grape is completely salt resistant. They are used for erosion control on the Atlantic beaches. This one has gotten way too big, being on a canal. Part of it fell during a thunderstorm a few years ago and mashed a nice aluminum shed the owner had in the back.

This is also the tree the brown iguana lived in. It's been real quiet in the back now that he's gone. He was the dominant male and they are territorial, so the females have scattered.

[fabricator]

Wow, really cool stuff, I kinda wonder why somebody would go to so much trouble and effort with the ackee though, does it taste really extra good?

[dnix71]

Ackee is fairly nutricious. Essential fatty acids and vitamin A, plus zinc.

Even a small tree produces a lot of fruit, so it makes a nice dietary supplement that doesn't cost much.