Hugged Hare

Idea

I've been interested in foraging for some time now. But it's been a marathon, not a sprint. Not as easy, for me, as it sounds. Worry about picking the wrong fungus for example. I have however

• hosted a dinner party to which guests brought something foraged, caught, grown, stole or killed
• arranged a couple of walks with experts for some friends
• stumbled across fungi which I have considered bagging
• explored the Suffolk coast and found some sea kale stalks and lots of stones
• started noticing much more, even deer and birds

Discovery

Little did I think that one fine Saturday morning, whilst driving along with a friend, we would almost drive over a fine looking hare in the middle of the road.

Confirmation of death

It wasn't moving.

I said to my friend "That's surely a dead rabbit", only to be asked "don't you know the difference between a rabbit and  a hare? I thought you were interested in foraging".

"Yes, of course I do", I said.

Anyway, I got out of the car wondering what the difference was, and thinking I would just move it out of the way so we could continue on our merry way - we were off to a farm shop to buy some eggs. I grabbed it by the hind leg to check whether it was dead or not. And I raised it into the air.

Examination

I heard my friend say behind me: "Be respectful, it's a dead animal". Fair point.

There was no movement whatsoever. Rigor  was present and the eyes were shiny. Blood was coming from one ear. The head flopped on the neck. It wasn't warm, but it was very cold out.

Life was extinct.

I laid it carefully at the side of the road so we could move on.

My decision to do it

On we went. Having moved it out of the way, I thought I had seen the last of it.

After a minute or two my friend said, "why don't we keep it as road kill?"

I thought to myself "Now, why didn't I think of that, foraging interest and all"?

"Let me think about it", I said. (I needed to find a way of making it out to be my idea, so that my friend would think I was on it. Anyway, we continued on to the farm shop, browsed the vegetables, the plants, the fish, some gin (including chocolate gin), walked the dogs, looked at the alpacas, the pedigree Shetland sheep, and the vineyard and browsed the books and gifts with our muddy boots on in the shop. We admired a hob top coffee percolator on sale for £56 and bought some English Bacchus wine. Something must have happened to me during this period because as we, my friend and I, made to return home, we decided to do it.... to collect the hare. 

Retrieval

Retrieval was easy. It was still there, and still stiff. Having stowed it away behind the driver's seat away from the dogs in the boot, we made our way back to the house.

Placement in shed

I was all for placing it on the kitchen table, but my friend persuaded me to put it in the shed, and think about how to proceed.

Research

The gist of the websites which we read to research how to proceed was the following:

1. Amputation and beheading
2. Skinning
3. Eviscerate; gastro-intestinal system, then heart and lungs
4. Kidney salvage - my addition
5. Soaking and Cleansing
6. Butcher
7. Casseroling

Second retrieval

I retrieved it from the shed, and placed it on the lawn, on some newspaper. Neither the dogs (Darcy and Pip), nor Dillon, the cat, were that interested, interestingly. I think this was another thing which suggested the kill was fresh.

Squeamish bit

Don't read this if you are squeamish, or un-medical:

• Amputation and beheading: I did not have a butcher's cleaver so I used an axe, sharpened as best possible, to cut off the legs, below the thighs. Off with the head using a pair of scissors... the skull was already separated from the cervical spine, a closed injury (or possibly an open one given the blood from the ear). I thought the skull seemed a bit to 'fragile' but have since read (see link below) that hare's have articulated skulls - I think this means that whereas we have fixed skulls with sutures which have closed, hares maintain articulations/joints between the plates of the skull.
• Skinning: Quite easy. A laparotomy incision - he was a boy, definitely. The skin came away from the torso without difficulty, and off the limbs using minimal force. In the process it became obvious that one of the femurs was broken - the spike of the distal fragment forced up into the pelvic cavity, and the pelvis fractured.
• Evisceration: The bowel, I suspect due to the pelvic injury though it might have been my handling of the carcass, was perforated, and spilled its contents into the abdominal cavity. Very little smell - a vegetarian diet. Meanwhile, the newspaper stuck fast to any exposed piece of moist flesh. The intestines and hepato-biliary system almost fell out in my hand. . The heart and lungs were easily accessible and fell out of the chest cavity with a mild pull. The heart, plum sized, seemed small.
• Kidney salvage: These should have been in the usual place, retro-peritoneal, just in front of the loins. I could only find the right one. it is unlikely that the hare had donated one prior to death, so I am not sure why I couldn't find the other. Congenital maybe.
• Soaking and Cleansing: Into a bucket he went to soak, and cleanse, over a couple of hours, with several changes of water. Some visitors called in for a cuppa but didn't want to see him, which most of me understood, the other bit thought what an opportunity missed.
• Butchering: Straightforward; limbs and loins, the rest into a pot for stock.
• Casseroling (or braising): Using a recipe for jugged hare, found on the internet; a stock with red wine, a few vegetables (carrot, leek, garlic) and some seasoning. Not the stock from the hare, save that for something else, a soup maybe.

Consumption

The casserole went well with a red cabbage dish, peas, and some of another friends house red... the remains were boxed up for left overs.

Secondary consumption

The leftovers were secondarily consumed over the course of the following week, each time equally tender, and equally  garlicky.

Consulting regarding tanning

I consulted widely regarding how to tan a hide, and a consistent belief was that the soft tissue on the back of the skin (beneath the dermis) merited removal, so I promptly left it where it was, and popped the whole thing, rolled up like a herring, but without a skewer, in my freezer, pending consultation with someone who actually knows about such things.

Hiding the hide

The Plan is to defrost it during better weather, scrape the soft tissue off the inside without perforating the skin, perhaps using the two flints which we picked up in the farmer's field on the dog walk the day of the meal (with the purpose of having something a/ more natural, and b/ not as sharp as a knife), and then treat the hide with an oil - if we'd been really smart we might have respectfully used the hare's brain. Each animal has a brain just large enough to treat it's hide, it is said.

Telling the story

I've told the story a few times; the reaction varies from interest to repulsion. No disgust though. I ensure I talk about the hare with respect.

Tail

The difference between a rabbit and a hare: See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hare.

Index:

Idea

Discovery

Confirmation of death

Examination

My decision to do it

Retrieval

Placement in shed

Research

Second retrieval

Amputation and beheading

Skinning

Evisceration

Kidney salvage

Soaking and Cleansing

Butchering

Casseroling

Consumption

Secondary consumption

Consulting regarding tanning

Hiding the hide

Telling the story
Tail