Monday 4 March

Awoke to news of our niece Emma’s engagement and had a long chat with Jenny. 

It is decidedly bleak outside today with light but constant rain and cold wind. Not a day for driving on narrow country roads. So it will be am admin day with catching up on emails, paying bills and reading by the fire.

Lady P has just about booked the four weeks of Ireland for April with two pet sits and one home exchange. This three weeks of free accommodation makes the trip financially doable and leaves euro in the account for cultural activities such as Guinness.

I mentioned yesterday that we had ticked off the culinary delights of Cornwall – pasties, scones and fish and chips, but we have missed one – rabbit. I saw a story on the ABC about Australia’s rabbits in the 1900’s and as many of you will know, old Flashy was a rabbit trapper, shooter and ferreter in his youth, selling the skins and the meat to earn pocket money. He is also a keen consumer of the meat, prepared in many different styles. We shall see if there is any rabbit on menus hereabouts.

However, the story of tinned rabbit, not properly prepared and swelling up and exploding, which I found while lying about here this morning, prompted me to remind the Major to check his covid emergency supply of tinned mutton.

The story, from South Australia, said that exploded cans of rotting rabbit meat blanketing a scarred jetty is where the tale of the canned cottontail cuisine culminated for the port of Kingston in South Australia. The stench of the 1906 explosion, made the local newspaper and helped bring rabbit canning in the town to a standstill.

But despite the local industry's grisly end, tinned rabbit was once in demand on the dinner plates of London's diners. 

In its four years of operation, Kingston's cannery produced some 800,000 tins of rabbit meat for the export market. Between 1870 and 1970, more than 20 billion rabbits were trapped or poisoned in South Australia and Victoria for commercial purposes. Let alone the number in NSW and QLD. That’s billion by the way!

And by the late 1920s, the rabbit industry was reported to be the largest employer in Australia. The ABC also said, that in 1944, a banquet was held at the Federal Hotel in Mount Gambier, where canned rabbit was served. The report said diners were 'loud in their praise of the quality of the meat', which was served at the dinner and apparently canned at the factory in 1910. They obviously didn't have used by dates.

The day has passed and we managed a short walk when the rain stopped.

Now doesn't that sound delicious?



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