Delpit "Average as Grits"

[bayou gator]

@Fodderwing and @crosscreekcooter

Cane syrup! If the Good Lord has a sweet tooth, this must be the result. Biscuits or pancakes (buttermilk please) and fresh pan or link sausage from Jones’ Meats in Climax Ga would be my last meal if I were a condemned man. Heck, keeping with the theme of the thread, a little syrup won’t hurt your grits, either.

When I was a boy, my granddaddy would ride us up to this old man’ place near the farm where he ground cane and made syrup. Granddad would always make a point to go when he first started grinding and buy a couple of mason jars full of cold cane juice. It was too sweet for me to enjoy, but he’d guzzle it. Told me that this was one of the few sweet treats he got during the year when he was growing up.

We went through some cane syrup. Had it every time we ate breakfast. Used to enjoy it with salt fish, too. Haven’t had that in years. Best tater pie I ever had was made by an old black lady who used cane syrup in it. It’s funny watching a tenderfoot that grew up on Aunt Jemima/maple syrup try it for the first time. If cane syrup is a good brown liquor, metaphorically speaking, maple has to be a Zima.

I miss seeing the old cane mills running during the late fall. Not many mules around these parts any more. Glad they use tractors or other mechanical means so we still have plenty. Sorry to go on, but it’s pretty soothing talking about the good life and things like syrup and biscuits that helped make it so.

Great stories in this thread! Cover, your stories remind me so much of my childhood, growing up in the South with a dad who was just a po' river rat from Juliet, GA. And I totally agree that syrup makes damn near anything better. And a good tip for everyone to try is to cook your grits with chicken broth. It's damn good.

 

[Swamp Donkey]

Everybody ought to have a grandma like that! I had two pretty good ones that I spent a bunch of time with growing up. My maternal grandma, who we called "Lulu," would fight you over a quail. I hunted pretty heavy, so I kept us fairly well supplied. .

Have you seen any of the youtube videos of people raising jumbo browns quail in rabbit cages or similar? Supposedly the best feed to meat ratio out there and they start cranking out eggs in only a few months.

 

[cover2]

Have you seen any of the youtube videos of people raising jumbo browns quail in rabbit cages or similar? Supposedly the best feed to meat ratio out there and they start cranking out eggs in only a few months.

I have not seen any of the videos, but have heard a few folks talk about raising the jumbos. Always heard of them as Wisconsin Jumbos. They say as you mention about the how quickly and efficiently you can grow them. I'm more familiar with a few outfits that grow the birds for game. The big deal with them is to have flight pens that you can rotate that are long enough to give them room to fly from one end to the other. The majority of them are still a little larger than a wild bird, but very lean compared to the jumbos. We've been lucky the last few years to be able to buy from a guy whose birds fly really well. He says his trick is to make sure he is in the pen at least once a day to flush the birds and make them fly. I've heard others say that the less human interaction the better. There's also a place in Alabama that supposedly raises the birds in a kind of indoor flight pen that has red light only that they claim promotes a better flushing and flying bird. But if you want to raise them just to eat, the Jumbos are probably the way to go what with less tending. I've never eaten a quail egg, but I hear they're pretty good. I have a hard enough time cracking hen eggs with these big mitts of mine so I'd hate to try and crack some of those small ones.

 

[Fodderwing]

@cover2 Man I thought you'd be a pickled quail egg man from way back???!!

 

[Swamp Donkey]

I have a hard enough time cracking hen eggs with these big mitts of mine so I'd hate to try and crack some of those small ones.

I have had them. you don't really crack them so much as you cut them because they are very thick. you something that's akin to a cigar cutter. Quick and easy. takes about three quail eggs equal a chicken egg though.

friend of mine was trying to raise some quail to release to the wild, those kind of quail need a flight pen to practice before you cut them loose. Those jumbo meat birds dont need flight pens. They are pretty damn tasty, especially w season salt and wrapped in bacon.