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RE: The Blue Heron and I...
Haven't heard of anyone trying Blue Crane. They are a protected species anyhow. Guinea fowl and partridges are hunted for the table though. Ostriches, originally wild indigenous birds here are farmed large scale for everything from the feathers to the leather, the eggs and of course the lean meat. Someone smuggled live eggs out your way, so you should be able to buy ostrich products locally over there in Lone Star country, should you want to give it a try! Best in a well flavored pot compensating for the leanness of the meat I dare say.
I have a pair of smooth skin ostrich leather boots, very comfortable and very nice looking. I don't much care for the full quill ostrich leather with the bumps, those boots look like they have a case of the chicken pox.
I remember about thirty years ago or so that ostrich and emu farms were popping up around here left and right and those birds had some high price tags on them.
The meat didn't go over very well here mainly because of the price and it got where the people farming them in a lot of cases just turned their birds loose in the end.
I know of a couple places over by San Antonio where there are still a few ostrich being raised but I don't know if they are selling the birds or just raising them as a novelty.
I haven't seen any ostrich or emu meat for sale in a meat market in probably 25 years here, it didn't last long in that respect for sure but I also haven't searched for a place to buy it either.
The very lean meat is not exactly inspiring. Relatively inexpensive around here and can help stretching the pot at times...
I think the economic advantage, here at least, lies in that these birds can be farmed on relatively sparse and dry and therefore relatively cheap land and what isn't useful for humans can be turned into pet food. And except for some bird flu viruses that can run amok on densely populated farms, once they are over a few months old they are quite hardy animals.
The better cuts find their way into exotic dishes in the tourism market, along with things like crocodile meat!
Thanks for that info.