Raising Quail In Texas: Fill & Download for Free

I like quail. It has a nice flavor, perhaps somewhere between chicken and duck.As a kid in East Texas, several people I knew raised quail. It was a regular item on menus around town.Once Dad cooked a casserole using quail and didn’t tell anyone what was in the dish. My sister stopped eating, held up a tiny bone and began to cry. That’s the last quail casserole I ever ate.

A cattle stock pond in Texas is called “a tank”. It is likely fed by a well - no connection to any natural waterway.You gotta be careful. Sometimes a rancher will stock his tank with fish and toss in a baby gator.The gator grows.One time we were hunting quail and our Lab went for a swim in a one acre tank. I noticed what I thought was a log making its way toward her. Then I realized “logs dont swim” .We called her back. She made it in the nick of time. We had 20 guage guns loaded with birdshot but we couldn't scare off the gator without risking hitting our girl.Finally he raised his tail and turned - it was ten feet long.That was close.

First, that depends on where you’re from. London’s a cosmopolitan place, but I’ll assume you’re English (and not Scottish, Welsh or Irish or any number of other nations) and run with that.Texas is a big place. Like, really big. It’s the almost the size of Britain and France combined. About 1000 miles north to south, about 900 miles east to west. Here’s a map of all the things that are closer to Texas than Texas is to itself:The implication here is that you should not assume you can travel anywhere quickly. It takes on average 12–15 hours driving at the speed limit to travel from Houston on the coast to El Paso in the far west — El Paso is actually closer to San Diego, three states away in California, than it is to Houston. (I once traveled from Houston to Palo Duro Canyon in the Panhandle, in the far north. The round trip time was about 22 hours of nonstop driving.)Most of Texas is actually pretty wet. Movies may have led you to think of Texas as filled with arid deserts like in John Wayne movies. Actually 95% of the 28 million people in Texas live in the wet eastern half. By wet, we mean, really really wet. London (not known for its aridity) gets about 600ml (23in) of precipitation a year. Beaumont, near the border with Louisiana, gets 1500ml (60in) of precipitation every year. Bring your wellies.So, wetlands like these in Caddo Lake andPine forests like this (forests literally larger than England) andbluebonnet-strewn prairies like this are much more typical of Texas than the far west Davis Mountains of the Trans-Pecos:Yes, Texans are very proud of themselves, and talk about themselves all the time. The Onion once had a byline: “Texan graduate of Harvard not sure which to mention first.” This stereotype is absolutely true. This will shock you as a Brit, but Texans take it as an expression of self-confidence, not a lack of modesty. Consequently, not all Texans will immediately understand your British self-deprecations, and they might take moaning as a sign of a real problem.In that same vein, Texans usually show a keen interest in their own history, and will appreciate your interest in it. It is perhaps ironic, but for a place that’s so big, Texans act less like a state and more like a people with a small-nation insecurity complex. And indeed, the motto of the Texas Tourism Board is: “Texas: It's like a WHOLE OTHER COUNTRY”. They will constantly remind you about the nine glorious years during which Texas was a Republic (1836–1845), and was recognized as such at the Court of St. James. Before you leave London, you should visit No. 4 St. James Street to see the original site of the Texas Legation, take a photo of it, and show it to all your friends and colleagues in Texas to impress them:Texans have a sense of humor, but it is dangerous to ‘banter’ with them. It is sometimes said that Brits (and especially the English) will let you know they like you by slagging you off in the most gratuitously offensive terms. In America in general, but especially in Texas, at best this will get you the cold shoulder and cringe-inducing looks; at worst, a punch in the face and a multi-generational vendetta will ensue. Furthermore, Brits are not much for formal jokes, but have an ebullient, almost compulsive need to infuse every word they utter with wit that’s embedded in the conversation. Texans will appreciate this, but do not expect them to reciprocate, at least immediately, since they reserve that for people they, like, actually know. Seriousness and sobriety are values that are respected, if not universally observed. Remember that in this respect it is the Brits who are the odd-ones out in a world perspective, not the Texans.Do not, under any circumstances, refer to Texans as ‘Yanks’. Most Texans’ families immigrated long after the War of Northern Aggression, but you will nonetheless spark a fire in their eye if you so much as suggest they might be a Yankee. ‘Yankee’ is an exonym in America: it refers only to those people north and east of you, never to yourself. So, calling a Southerner a Yankee is a faux pas on the order of asking a Scotsman how things are back in England, since it summons up centuries of tribal animosity buried deep in their soul.Food in Texas is amazing. Like, really, amazingly amazing. Whether you’re talking about cabrito (barbecue goat), cordoniz (braised quail), fried nopalitos (prickly pear cactus) doused in a sweet mole sauce, jambalaya made with savory andouille sausage, spicy and tangy gumbo, pulled-beef barbecue, crawfish embrochette dipped in remoulade sauce, mouth-watering kolaches stuffed with Cajun boudin, or just some simple spinach enchiladas with chile con queso, there is an entire universe of gastronomy to be experienced in Texas. Do not take this Texpat’s word: experience it for yourself. Even the New York Times, that bastion of eastern hauteur, recently had to acknowledge this truth in a series of articles: ‘Houston’s culinary bragging rights’ (New York Times); ‘In Marfa, eating the ancient way’ (New York Times); ‘Enchiladas are the saucy cheesy addition to your dinner table’ (New York Times); The Kolache: Czech, Texan or All-American? (All Three). One thing you will learn is that chile con queso is to TexMex what rice is to Chinese food: no mere side-dish. It’s almost an extra food group.(Texas Kolaches made with Cajun boudin and sausage)Texans are not particularly worldly. Maybe it’s because they don’t get much time off and can’t travel, or maybe it’s because they think they already live in Paradise, Texans are pretty set in their ways about things, and aren’t too concerned about changing them. Some of their political conservatism comes from this: if you already think you’re absolutely the best thing on God’s green earth, why would you ever change?(This bumper sticker is ubiquitous in Texas — you will almost certainly see one if you live there long enough.)But Texas is way more diverse than you’d imagine. About 10 million people speak Spanish in Texas — about as many as Cuba or Bolivia. And it’s not just Hispanics: Texas’ big cities rival world-cities like London and New York for the number and diversity of ethnic groups to be found there: In Houston, America's Diverse Future Has Already Arrived; What Makes Houston the Next Great American City?. It’s the kind of place where you not only get French-Vietnamese fusion food, you can vote in Vietnamese too:Oh, about God: all that God stuff you hear on TV is more or less true. As a Brit you know that if someone asks you if you believe in God, you’re supposed to kinda look down and shuffle your feet and mumble something about [inaudible], but Texans (and lots of other Americans) won’t bat an eye at directly challenging you, which is needless to say pretty off-putting to someone raised in a secular country.Finally (and right-wing ideologues aside), Texans are super-nice. Like, walk-over-broken-glass-to-help-you-out nice. It’s real, it’s not feigned. (It’s even in the name: the Hasinai word teyshas from which the state gets its name means ‘friend’ or ‘ally’.) 99% of Texans don’t say ‘howdy’, but if they ask you how you’re doing, they will listen to you and care about what you say. They will open doors for you. They will give you a firm hand-shake to let you know they take you seriously. You will almost certainly like many of them!