Hey Canadian Friends

Well the US Thanksgiving is coming up, just wondering if you have any questions about our customs that you have been dieing to, but afraid, to ask.

Let me start-deep fried turkeys are DELICIOUS.

-yes, collar greens are served on turkey day.

-deer hunting before dinner is a tradition.

-i don't know why inspector wears that funny hat.

-we can't 4-wheel on the moon so we practice the day after
thanksgiving when all the city folk are at the malls.

-did I mention deep fried turkeys are DELICIOUS

Canadians are dying to know:

What are "grits"? You know, when Granny Klampett tells Jethro that they're having roadkill stew and "grits" for supper, what are the "grits"?

If an American doesn't bag a deer before dinner on Thanksgiving, does he just shoot something else instead?

Turkeys and pumpkins both play an important role in traditional American Thanksgiving Day celebrations. There are male and female turkeys. Are there male and female pumpkins? If so, how would they, you know, the pumpkins I mean, do IT?

Grits are like polenta. I grew up eating them and I love them.
We shoot anything anyways the day is unimportant.
Yes pumpkins have male and female. We are not picky when it comes to this though. They both make excellent pies/ Best friends for life.

Vegetarian is an old Indian word for "Bad Hunter" if you don't shoot a deer it is not southernly correct to substitute another animal for dinner.

If you have never had GRITS then you don't know what you are missing. Grits also stands for "Girls Raised In The South" ahh... Grits. Gotta love em.

Where else but the good Ole USA, where the symbol for a Holiday is then an eatable item. Pumpkins, Turkeys, Easter Rabbits, Apple Pie. ummmm Apple Pie.

I did not know that.

Well, I'm amazed.

Grits is (close enough to be called the same thing) cornmeal. I had grits for supper many times when I was a kid, but it musta been a Ukrainian way of making "grits" cuz my GRANDMOTHER used to make it for me and my two sisters when my mom couldn't be around to make supper. And, my grandmother never spoke or read (or probably even understood) a word of English in her life (short of "yes", "no", "hello" and "goodbye").

My grandmother would make a simple porridge out of cornmeal, and on top of it she would put a big scoop of sour cream, and that would be supper for us kids. Easy, quick and filling. I remember eating that at our old house, but I never knew I was eating "grits" with sour cream.

I always figured "grits" was some kind of green vegetable. That's one of the few things that The Beverly Hillbillies never taught me about life in America.

Getting a full size Thanksgiving Deer into the oven of a standard 30 inch wide range must be a real fight, tho.

Nestor_Kelebay said:

Well, I'm amazed.

Getting a full size Thanksgiving Deer into the oven of a standard 30 inch wide range must be a real fight, tho.

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It's one of those 'Hear, hold my beer and watch this" moment.

I actually like grits. Great with eggs, served with butter and lots of black pepper. Don't know about the sour cream thing... Grits are much the same as cream of wheat except it's a corn meal product. Dang now I'm getting hungry, guess we'll make a run to the Waffle House tonite

oldog/newtrick said:

It's one of those 'Here, hold my beer and watch this" moments.

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I'll bet. I'm wondering if Guiness has a catagory for "biggest deer in a standard size oven" and who the current record holder is. No doubt it would involve a lot of planning, just like those 12 Japanese tourists that fit into a standard Los Angeles phone booth.

Clearly, one thing that all Americans have to be thankful for on Thanksgiving Day is that the Pilgrims didn't adopt the moose as the traditional Thanksgiving Day meal. You guys'd be having moose leftovers till Christmas. Obviously, the Pilgrims were a level headed bunch.

In the US, Thanksgiving is celebrated on the 4th Thursday in November. In Canada, it's the second Monday in October. We just celebrate the previous Sunday cuz that gives the cook time to prepare a big meal and family the time to come from the country or neighboring cities. Do you guys just wait for the following weekend, or do you actually carve the Thanksgiving deer on Thursday? I guess, just like in all things, practical considerations overrule tradition, and Thanksgiving is actually celebrated on the following weekend.

Nestor, I have sat in a many woods in Ky, Tn, Al, Oh and have not yet seen the first moose. If the moose replaced the turkey as our symbol for thanksgiving day there would be a lot of meals of grits and pour-age with sour cream.

At my house Thanksgiving Day is a 4 day weekend. Starts on wed about 11:00 and gets over about noon on Mon. I usually try to take vacation days this time of year and I for one am thankful that all the kids are back in town to live. My oldest daughter just moved back from NYC with her husband, who I really like a lot. Good to have the family within visiting distance.

No venison for me yet this season. Thats what happens when you hunt for one special animal. We are seeing the rewards of managed hunting the past 8 years, with taking a tract of about 5,550 acres and planting winter food plots and providing safe zones for the animals to seek sanctuary, not overly pressuring the animals and maintaining a healthy herd balance for bucks to does. So if you want to see a redneck stuff a deer into a kitchen range I guess you'll have to wait a little longer. Only Guinness at this house is in a bottle. On the bright side we are taking the corn feed hogs (7) to the processor the 2 ND week of DEC. Right now thet are pushing about 225#. You wouldn't believe the difference between corn feed and grocery store bought pork. It's almost like it's a different animal. The sausage and pork chops are AWESOME!

Oldog/Newtrick:

I don't have a problem with hunting, provided that it's done in a responsible way with conservation in mind. I've never hunted in my life, but I'd much rather see wild deer being hunted to cull their numbers rather than see them starve to death if their populations get too high. Just as in the US, our provincial government (and probably federal too) monitors the population of game animals and sets strict quotas on what can be hunted, when and how many of each animal a hunter can take. Years ago, the law was that if a hunter was caught with more than he was allowed to take, then the government would confiscate everything he used to hunt with, including the vehicle he was using, so there was actually a market for old beat up cars. They've changed that, but I really don't know what the laws are now.

Here in Winnipeg, the Canada Geese are accumulating to fly south for the winter. They do that every year, but last year there was a suprisingly large accumulation of them in Assiniboine park. I was riding my bike throught the park, and I musta seen ever bit of 3 or 4000 geese in the field where they play cricket. (We have a large Pakistani and Indian population here in Winnipeg, and the game of cricket is popular with these people cuz of the British rule of India that ended with Ghandi). I think there was so many geese there because we had quite a bit of rain before that, and worms in the ground come up onto the ground after a rain. So, I guess it was good feeding on worms for those geese. I was just surprised to see so many of them. There's about 8 cricket "fields" in that area of the park, and the whole area looked like it was covered by geese. Normally, they accumulate in wetter areas (like along the river) where there's more bugs for them to eat, but I guess the sight of a few birds feeding attracts a flock, and the sight of a flock feeding attracts a bigger flock.

The group "Ducks Unlimited" spends a bunch of money up here (and north of here) creating wetlands for ducks and geese to nest in. Maybe that's why we have so many Canada geese here.

Nestor you are 100% spot on with hunting in a ethical manner. A lot of groups besides DU have invested a lot of money and time to reintroduce species to former habitat areas. The Rockey Mtn. Elk federation has brought Elk back to Tennessee over by Knoxville at a Royal Blue State park. The national Wild Turkey Federation has brought back the wild turkeys to hunt-able populations, grants are available to plant CRP to provide habitat for Quail that have almost disappeared due to the cleaning of farm fence rows and coyotes. All of these efforts are under the guide of our state game and fish commission and funded through the cost of hunting licenses.

I never hunted till I turned 49 years old, never had an interest. Now I really enjoy sitting in the deer woods on a cold crisp fall morning and enjoying all the sights that nature provides. Deer are amazing animals, extremely keen eye sight, hearing and they never second guess their sense of smell, or sitting on a early morning ridge listening to turkeys fly down from their nightly roost and hearing the clucks and gobbles as they try to locate likely partners for the days mating session. It's really enjoyable to be a part of nature, to take the time to enjoy the things we drive by in our hectic daily lives.

This is how I got my screen name, you can teach an old dog new tricks if you are open trying new things.

Nestor_Kelebay said:

Oldog/Newtrick:..................I musta seen ever bit of 3 or 4000 geese in the field where they play cricket. ........................

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I'm amazed that your geese play cricket. The ones down her just kind of waddle around a poop a lot.

on a cold crisp fall morning and enjoying all the sights that nature provides.

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Everyone likes that. One of the reasons why golf is so popular is because if it wasn't for the little white ball, the whole game would boil down to a long leisurely walk in the park.

There's a fair number of deer in the Winnipeg area. There's a road called "Wilkes Avenue" that used to go (they've since changed it) from close to where I live to close to where my sister lives, and so I've traveled that road many times. I frequently saw wild deer when driving down Wilkes Avenue, and my sister had her car written off when she accidentally hit one (again, while driving down Wilkes Avenue). That really shook her up. Not only did she feel bad about hitting the deer, but it wrecked her car and she had to spend time shopping for a new one. The problem is that deer don't have any concept of the speed the car is going and there's a 90 Km/hr (about 55 mph) speed limit on Wilkes Avenue, and so what (to them) seems like a safe distance to cross in front of the car results in them being hit by those cars.

travelover said:

I'm amazed that your geese play cricket. The ones down her just kind of waddle around a poop a lot.

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Yeah, ours waddle and poop too. But, to be honest, I can't say that I've ever been inconvenienced by their pooping. I think that's probably cuz about the only time you see them in/over the city is in the spring and fall when they're flying north and south respectively. In the winter they're all gone south, and in the summer you see the odd family of Canada geese on a river or pond somewhere. Or, you can go to a place like Oak Hammock Marsh which is a wet swamp about 10 miles from Winnipeg that was built by Ducks Unlimited with financial help from the provincial and federal governments to provide a wetland habitat for ducks and geese. Ducks and geese live at Oak Hammock Marsh throughout the summer. I've only been to Oak Hammock Marsh once, but I really didn't see any ducks or geese when I was there. It's a huge place, and I guess the ducks and geese mostly don't fly around when they're mating, feeding, or tending to their young. I think they probably just feed on the bugs that live in the shallow waters there, so there's no need for flight.

http://www.oakhammockmarsh.ca/

I guess the ones that continue flying north prefer the rivers and gazillions of small lakes in northern Manitoba to the relatively dry farmland of southern Manitoba. So, during the summer we only see Canada Geese along the river banks or in ponds here and there. The only time I ever see them in large numbers is when they're congregating to fly north in the fall. They'll congregate in grassy fields where they feed on the bugs in the ground, and it's not uncommon to see 100 or more of them in one area. I guess they congregate in groups like that because not all of them know where to go when they fly south in autumn and north in spring. So, the experienced ones teach the newbies, I guess.





Imagine seeing a huge field packed full of these honkers. It's like seeing an international goose convention.

You can tell Canada Geese by their distinctive white cheeks. People hunt the Canada Geese. I've never hunted cuz I've never wanted to. I'd rather spend the day on my bicycle or on the couch watching TV. I'm too lazy to hunt.

You tell them from a distance from the Honk Eh, Honk Eh. I think you were thinking about Collard Greens maybe Nestor? If we had chose the moose we first would have to have them. And we don't actually eat the deer on thanksgiving we keep it till the end of deer season then turn it into useful food products ex. Sausage, Tamales, More Sausage.

Tx, Tx, Tx... don't tell Nestor were not trying to stuff a deer in the kitchen range on turkey day. I was really hoping for him to have the mental image that at 1:00 on Thanksgiving Day there was a national passionately trying to stuff a deer carcase into the oven to feed the hungry masses assembling to devour everything in site. Oh well... guess we won't bring up the truth about snipe hunting.

What did I miss, and who took my hat ? I' for one need some advice...tell me about snipe hunting, I have seen a few around here, but they are to quick for me...any advice?

Well guys, I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed, but I knew the Thanksgiving Deer was bogus.

I have no clue what collared greens are, but I could guess that it was some sort of green vegetable. If we have them up here, then they go by a different name cuz I've never heard any store advertising them for sale.

There are lots of "traditional" American foods that we don't have here, like "grits" (although we have cornmeal), collared greens, black eye peas, corn bread, corn dogs, sasparilla, and other stuff like that. But, we have Whopper's, McNuggets, Pizza, Twinkie's, Potato Chips, Coke, Pepsi and Kool-Aid, so we're good.

Collard greens - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Re the geese - they were so numerous on the campus where I attended college that the sidewalks would get slippery from their droppings.