It's before 7am on Good Friday morning. Furry, the masterful hunter-gatherer, checks his equipment
The loneliness of the long-distance hunter.
Some locals look at him as though he's crazy.
Years of experience, and calling on his Koori roots, he finds a secluded spot to wait for his prey.
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I have been really excited about this coming series of "frugal food" posts, I've been planning them, in my head, for weeks now, so I was right chuffed when I finally convinced Furry to get out the yabbie net and get us some free food. I mean, how much more frugal can ya get?? I posted about yabbie hunting and recipes last year, and I was looking forward to revisiting cooking with this really really lovely native Aussie "crayfish". Methods of catching yabbies, and varieties of bait are as numerous as there are yabbie hunters. It's a part of the OZ childhood psyche that you spend an afternoon, on the banks of a dam, ankle deep in cow manure, trying to lure yabbies into your net, with a bit og bacon tied on a piece of string. Furry favours a couple of stinky chicken necks or some canned dog food.
So it was with a light heart, primed taste buds and a hot pan, that I awaited Furry's return, 8 hours later.
**sigh** We had canned tomatoes on pasta.
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9 comments:
That's why it's called "fishing" rather than "catching"!
Where was that dam, BTW? (Generally, not exact) I have found over the years that as a rule you get more yabbies from dams with sheep in the surrounding paddocks than those with cattle. OTOH, if the yabbies don't like a prticular dam, it matters not a fig what's around or what you do, the little beggars just up sticks and go somewhere else.
BTW, Furry does have a fishing licence, doesn't he? [evil grin]
Hey Bluey!!
Yes to the fishing license, the dam is off Purves Rd, in Dromana. We also tried the OT dam, a 2.6km walk down Arthur Seat, where we caught a whole 4 of the little bastards! (which we obvioulsy threw back).
Going to try the dam off Boundary Rd, where we got a goodly haul last year.
Either that or cultivate them in the bath!!
how funny i did my first yabbying on the weekend and we ate them for dessert. just boiled for 20 seconds and eaten over the kitchen bench. yum
Dessert yabbies???
Where did you go, Ran?
Nice idea. Something similar happened to me this weekend- hubby went kayaking (we were in tassie for the weekend) and came back with a kayak full of mussels- they were damn fine!
Oh look! It's Mr. Furry! It's been a year since we saw y'all. I'm Jonesing to get back to Oz...
my in laws farm in casterton (west vic). there wont be many for long though as the dams all dry up (all of western vic past geelong is still so dry its depressing)
we ate them after dinner so we called them dessert yabbies. they were sweet enough!
Oh I remember yabbying! Don't ever remember eating any of them though. At the age of 8 the thrill was in the catch I'm sure.
Stick to the canned tomatoes...last night we had a divine all'amatriciana for about $3 a serve...include fresh pasta. Yummo
Oh yeah, yabbies. I remember the days of going to Murchison and yabbying all aftertoon with my Dad and brother. We'd fill a 20L bucket with them and take them back to the homestead where my grandma had a HUGE pot of salted water boiling in wait for our return. 2 mins in there, served with some lemon juice... MAGICK.
That was 27 years ago, when private property owners didn't mind you going thru their fences and yabbying in their dams.
These days, you'd probably get shot......
Jen
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