Cathy2 wrote:My searches indicated people tended to drown their raccoon in strong flavors...

I was thinking of using a rain barrel ... Better yet, one of Hammond's rain barrels!

OK who want's this guy?

email me at mel AT melhill.com
I live in North Hoffman Estates (just off Palatine rd west of Ela east of Barrington rd)
and he's all yours.

I'd be glad to dispatch him but no room in the freezer and I've never prepped a fresh kill so I'm going to need some help.

Let me know by Thurs. noon or he's going to be driven to his new home

Hey, it's NOT raccoon season. "Legal seasons for hunting and trapping occur in fall and winter, after the young are grown." http://www.dnr.state.il.us/orc/wildlife ... accoon.htm

Louisa, anytime my garden is growing, it's racoon season: if *he* thinks my garden is in season, then, in turn and turnabout, *I* think he's in season.

Geo

Geo - check out the link and read the PDF. You're lucky if they're only messing with your garden and they're not INSIDE your house.

"More than 65,000 nuisance wildlife complaints occurred in the Chicago area in 2003. Raccoons are responsible for more of these complaints than any other species because they readily den in people's attics and chimneys. People with special licenses are allowed to remove raccoons and other wildlife that are causing damage. Many problems can be avoided through proper home maintenance and by removing food sources; see Keeping Wildlife Out of Your Home (PDF)."

Louisa, I grow wine grapes, have done for 35 years. Racoons LOVE wine grapes. I also always have a cat or two around the house. Racoons LOVE
cat food, almost as much as they love wine grapes. Mind you, I do this in Midtown Kansas City. Here's what part of my protection scheme looks like:



What you can't see is the electric fence!

Needless to say, I'm quite serious about defending my grapes against the rampaging horde of 'coons and 'possums.

Cat food, same thing. The first time the 'coon got into my garage, and then into the kitchen¶, I replaced the standard cat doors with German-made, electric ones. Having nothing better to do, and smelling that cat food, the little bugger figured out how to pick the electric lock on the cat doors. So I waited up and shot him. Defending my house, I was.

I pretty much know about racoons.

Geo

¶Not surprizingly, the little bugger washed each pellet of cat food in the cat's water bowl.

Mmmm...wine grape infused raccoon...maybe you could let them fatten up until hunting season.

Hmmmm, good point! And then maybe a gentle wine-laced braise? Yummm, already.

Geo

Raccoons overrun lake front, Trib reports. I may have a fix for that.

Hi,

Serious Eats has a raccoon slide show, which begins with trimming the carcass: http://www.seriouseats.com/2012/11/how- ... how-288287

Regards,

Thanks Cathy2, for posting the link. Butchering a Raccoon looks like a PITA since they seem to be full of musk glands.

I've hunted since I was 13 years old and have been at it for over 40years. I have known many many farmers over the years who farmed just about everything one can raise in the Mid West but I have yet to find a farmer or hunter that has eaten or would eat a raccoon. Raccoons have thier place on this earth and I don't go out of my way to dispatch them but every famer I knew/know kills them because they are eating machines and quite resourseful. We had a small farm at one time and I would have the trash in my garage. One morning after putting lobster shells into the trash, I found the shells all over the garage, the door had been closed, I was mystified. Coming home late one night I saw in my headlights a raccoon with it's paw lifting up the garage door to enter! So after, I simply locked the door, problem solved.
BTW be very careful if you have one caught as they are very very vicious when trapped. We had a skunk problem a few years ago and I had the 'Skunk Man' set out traps. He caught a number of raccoons in the process and those little devils would try to get at you through the cage. Skunks are gone but it was quite a sight to see a mother skunk surrounded by 4 little ones walking across my lawn one summer! It was a rolling Black & white and black & white!-Dick

I have to agree with budrichard. Raccoons have a habit of finding a nice warm place to sleep and then getting very upset when disturbed.
I’ve had them sneak into my tent while camping and then being VERY upset when we woke together. A pissed-off raccoon is NOT something you want to wake up to.

Why President Coolidge Never Ate His Thanksgiving Raccoon

If you want to try it, on the last Saturday of January each year (I think this year will be the 94th annual), the Delafield American Legion holds the Annual Tom McNulty Coon Feed. They get the coons from the North Hunters and marinate for days prior to roasting. Very good.

Puckjam wrote:If you want to try it, on the last Saturday of January each year (I think this year will be the 94th annual), the Delafield American Legion holds the Annual Tom McNulty Coon Feed. They get the coons from the North Hunters and marinate for days prior to roasting. Very good.

The Delafield people understand how to cook it: braise it like pot roast.

My first raccoon meal could easily have been my last: roasted coon, but roasted to the very edge where it could easily be described as carbon. I ate a small sample out of curiosity.