November 25, 2012 Squirrels I Have Known and Loved

And alligators I have not.
Jasmine is blooming out of season on a sunny fence post as Boofa and I head into the woods.  Gray squirrels dart everywhere and Boofa is nearly dislocating my arm as he tries to chase them.

I have seen an occasional white squirrel in these woods and near my home and I have seen some of the famous white squirrels of Brevard, just north of here in the mountains.  These are not albinos but a variant of the gray squirrel.  The story goes that 50 years ago, a circus van turned over in the yard of a Mr. Mull and two white squirrels were left behind, which he gave to his niece, who kept them for a time until they were released into the wild and became the progenitors of a huge tribe of white squirrels.  In 1986, Brevard proclaimed itself a squirrel sanctuary and took the title of The Squirrel Capitol of the World.

There are beautiful Fox Squirrels on the South Carolina coast and low country, particularly on the many golf courses as they like places without undergrowth, such as pine forests. These southern squirrels are large with fluffy long tails and come in a variety of mixed colors such as gray and white and black and white and red and white.(They were described by Linnaeus in 1758, sciurus niger, perhaps Delmarva Fox Squirrel, s.n. cinereus) The Western Fox Squirrels are apparently a reddish brown .  I saw my first Fox Squirrel a few years ago on the DNR site on Highway 17 between Jonesboro and Yemasee when I took my mother and her sister, Elise on a rainy day while we were at Edisto. We visited the office where there was a gigantic alligator skull from Barnwell County displayed on a counter.

"Do you want to see some more alligators?" they asked us.  We said we did and we off in the car down a dirt road into the woods.  We passed over a dirt dam on the edge of a pond and went on to an old abandoned cemetery and turned around.  We stopped on the top of the dam to look more closely for the alligators and suddenly they were everywhere, approaching as if they thought they would be fed.
We were fairly terrified, especially me as I remembered my visit to a pond of sacred alligators in Ghana where the priest would paddle out in a boat daily to feed the creatures live chickens.  One day he fell in and that was the end of the story.

Here is a recipe for SQUIRREL COUNTRY STYLE from the Baton Rouge Jr. League Cookbook, River
Road Recipes, originally published in 1959.

2 squirrels
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste
Flour to dredge
3 tablespoons fat
2 cups water

Cut squirrel into serving pieces and shake in a paper bag containing seasoned flour to dredge well.  Fry in skillet until golden brown.  Remove squirrel from skillet and pour off all grease except 2 teaspoons.  Add water and bring to a boil.  Return squirrel to skillet;  turn to low heat, cover, and cook for about 1 hour, until meat almost leaves bone.  Turn squirrel occasionally and baste often.  Serve with grits, hot biscuits, and honey.
Serves 3 or 4.  Good!
Attributed to Mrs. H.L. Field

DO NOT MAKE THIS IN BREVARD, NC