NY Times' recipe for garden pest: woodchuck

Woodchuck au Vin


Published: June 5, 2008
The gardener who created this dish notes that the herbs and vegetables in this recipe are available fresh from the garden because they have not been eaten by the dish’s main ingredient.

Recipe here

Geo

Those of you complaining about rabbits ... you haven't seen anything like the damage a woodchuck can do! Not only will a single 'chuck lay your plot bare, burrowing under even fencing buried 10 inches deep, he'll leave large, dangerous, ankle-turning holes where you least expect them.

And they're tough to get rid of. The last time we had woodchuck trouble, we tried all kinds of things until we finally found a method that worked.

We moved.

LAZ wrote:We moved

And it didn't follow you?? Jeez LAZ, must be a real Wuß 'chuck!

Just kidding! I'm lucky that in KC I've only got squirrels, bunnies, 'coons and 'possums--NO 'chucks. Whew!

Geo

Last year, I enjoyed reading The $64 Tomato, wherein the author discusses, among other things, his battle with a couple woodchucks involving electric fencing and traps and precious brandywine tomatoes. It kept me up nights.

The neighborhood: "I like to roam, but have a good home" kitty scored 1 against our woodchuck hordes today....I felt kinda sad, at first, then said, "fuck 'em."

Ok...it's war.

I'm a cat person and I was allright with our feline vigilante and his woodchuck hunts

until this evening when, as we were talking with our neighbors, he came sauntering down our driveway with..."izzat a woodchuck?"

"no...damnit...he killed our baby bunny"

a rabbit we'd been keeping tabs on and just recently saw the infant was bracketed by two adults

come to find out this one cat's responsible for innumerable vet trips for dachshunds, golden retrievers, and others

it's nature's way, I understand, but he's run through my largesse

(he couldn't stick to the scourge of woodchucks?)

I could tell you all sorts of woodchuck stories including about a guy I know who had the cedar sidingg of his house eaten by them. They're eating machines. We tried everything but kept having holes pop up everywhere including under the slope side of the garage. Our good sized schnauzer would back off from them, the 'chucks can give a fearful snarl and bareing of teeth in a face off. I worked with a guy who was a trapper, he took away 3 but we still had some and eventually took LAZ's route, we moved. Just some chipmunks now at the new place but a resident hawk keeps them in check.