[Music]
Mark Gilchrist and wood pigeons have something in common - it's not speed or agility, the
ability to breed all year round, or muscle bound legs... it's their love of peas.
As a result Mark has two things to do today - protect the farmers pea crop from hungry
pigeons and create a quick tasty meal for us... using you guessed it ......pigeons and
peas...
Here are the peas.
As you can see they are getting tough now.
When you squish them they are more like the dry peas you get at home, rather than sweet
peas.
On the subject of sweet peas, well done little pea, good sausage.
Right off you go, go on.
There is an important message here, which we'll get to later.
First let's get Harvey the farmer's son set up on one side of the crop - and it looks
like he'll need planning permission for his hide.
We do like to see a well constructed blind but, before we start taking the mick, bear
in mind it's a breezy day and knocking the posts in might be a lesson for us all!
Harvey doesn't get to shoot very much and he's keen to learn about hides and decoys,
he's also keen to learn about preparing the birds for the table.
I am going to go down like that and turn when you hit the bone and then you just take the
after off here.
All birds are the same shape so if you can do a pigeon you can do a pheasant, you can
do a duck.
Another tip I found when I was making game pie is if you put all the meat into water
all the pellets fell out.I don't know why, something to do with it floating and relaxing.
Of the three hundred that come out of the gun I should think no more than ten will hit
the bird.
It's interesting how quickly people respond to a challenge and the chance of learning
a new skill - Harvey's friend Yoshi also gets stuck in
I have never plucked a pigeon before.
You should have come out this afternoon you could have shot a pigeon, plucked a pigeon,
eat a pigeon.
I would love to be able to kill a pigeon and eat it.
Oh it's warm.
The girl that was a vegetarian for two years and can't kill bugs.
Don't worry we are saving you.
It feels like a good thing, sorry I am putting feathers everywhere.
They are very fluffy.
A former vegetarian recently forced into carnivorous submission by the vegetarians' kryptonite
- the bacon sandwich!.
Talking of vegetarians we're going to get on our soap box now.
A lot of us will have had conversations about shooting with a veggie friend or family member.
For many, not all, it's a concious decision because they don't like the idea of killing
animals.
But the truth is that veggies ARE responsible for a pigeon becoming an ex-pigeon, a rabbit
becoming a ex-rabbit and we've asked Mark to set the record straight...
Vegetarians are fairly complicit in the killing of animals even when they eat grain.
The story is very simple, no matter where you are in the world you have pests, let's
take England for example you have got rabbits, pigeons and deer would be the biggest pests.
So every time you eat a bowl of Weetabix, slice of bread, can of beer, mayonnaise anything
like that you are killing animals.
You might think you are not, but I am afraid you are.
It is how grain is produced.
The farmer financially cannot afford to let his crop get eaten by pests.
It is him who takes the cost.
The supermarkets don't say terribly sorry you have lost 10% of your crop to pigeons,
we will compensate you for that.
I can't think of a food source which is produced on a large scale which doesn't involve killing
animals.
They all come from farms, they all have pests, all the pests are controlled, it is that simple.
Back to our pigeon prep and it's time for the precious peas - and Mark is making the
pea puree...
Mark blends the peas with mint and olive oil with plenty of seasoning.
Just olive oil, salt, pepper, mint, peas and then hot water, we do frozen peas.
That is right.
It takes just a few minutes and can be done while he is pan-frying the pigeon.
Let's return to the shooting and Mark's Mossberg pump action from York Guns is still doing
it's job.
The pigeons are not decoying brilliantly but there is a lot of passing interest.
The pea crop is 150 acres and having just 2 guns means we are struggling to keep all
of the birds in the air.
One pigeon is really having a bad day...
it's injured but before Dawn the dog can get to it a bird of prey drops onto it - but it
doesn't stick around - If anyone can help us with the species and why it might not have
taken the pigeon - please let us know.
Now as we're enjoying the soapbox Mark has another issue - he's concerned that people
who are coming into shooting spend money on the gun and scope and shirk on other things
like eye protection and hearing - like this chap snapped in South Africa...Mark's lucky
enough to have CENS digital as a sponsor, but you don't have to spend hundreds,you just
need to take it seriously.
You have got to use something.
It is so important.
Once your hearing is gone, it is gone.
It never comes back.
For the people that have gone out and spent £10K on their first gun, it would be as well
to go and get a £600 gun and getting something like this done because these chaps will last
much longer than the gun will.
An average gun will only last 20,000 shots for some people that is a long time that is
a year for me.
Back to the food and Mark is pan frying the pigeon breasts in olive oil and some fresh
rosemary - He likes to keep the breast pink - if the cooker is hot, a couple of minutes
either side should do.
The biggest tip with pigeon is not to over cook it.
So I want to keep it nice and pink.
Do if for a couple of minutes really fast, flip them all over another couple of minutes.
Take it off the heat.
Give it five minutes to relax, slice it nice and thinly and wrap them up.
Mark bags about 50 birds so plenty for our gathering and Harvey has about 12 - Opening
the crop shows just how big the pigeon pea problem is - imagine the impact of a few thousand
birds.
And those are the peas and his crop is absolutely stuffed with them.
Right the finshing touches - some warmed wraps - a layer of pea puree, a generous helping
of prime pigeon meat finished off with a smothering of yoghurt and hey presto Mark's rolled a
fat one - and it is delicious.
Two of us plucked it out in a couple of minutes.
Ten minutes in the pan.
Bit of pea puree and you have a really classy meal for nothing and very easy to do.
You don't have to do it in a really fancy way, simplicity is often the best.
So next time you're out shooting pigeons why not rustle up a quick meal in order to have
your post match debrief.
It's cheap, easy and, you never know, you might convert a few veggies at the same time.
Sorry why are you still here?