I've never cooked a guinea fowl but it wouldn't surprise me to learn that some cooks put parsley on their guinea fowl. Not me, though, I get guinea fowl on my parsley!
I don't know, call me unreasonable, but I think I have a right to whinge about the fact that I struggle to grow anything in my garden. Aside from the lousy soil (despite tons of compost added), the profusion of snails, the ever-digging squirrels, I now find there are guinea fowl digging scrapes for themselves all over the place.
Clearly my attempts at gardening are not impressing the fowl and they are behaving in a way which I consider most seriously foul. I had planned to plant some thyme and oregano more or less where Mrs Guinea is lying but I suspect she may just dig up the lot. Or sand-shower anything that gets in her way. If it's not bad enough being woken up at 5am with a rousing rendition of ba-kaaak, ba-kaaaak, heck-heck-heck, I now have to contend with herbs a la guinea. (It's making me think that if this carries on it will be guinea a la herbes soon... Be warned, oh foul fowl!)
Let's face it, a guinea fowl isn't exactly a small bird so when a scrape is dug in which to lie to take the sun, my dear, there's a fair whack of gardening attempts that are displaced. Perhaps I just won't bother. Of course, in keeping with the old adage, "if you can't beat them, join them" perhaps I should stop gardening and just spend my weekends reclining on the sunlounger (I don't really think I'm up to wallowing in the soil).
Oh, and this is him, Mr Guinea, looking on and preening and entirely unphased about having his picture taken. Hmm, clearly it's a tough life in my back garden.
FOOTNOTE: Lest anyone honestly think I've got it in for the guinea fowl - I hasten to assure you I haven't and no guineas were injured in the making of this post. We love them to bits and spend a fortune on seed and corn every month. Suckers for punishment, that's what D and I are!
UPDATE: And today there are three guinea fowl in the parsley - will someone please tell me about the appeal of parsley?!
19 comments:
Guinea most foul indeed but they're oh so pretty! C'mon, I sacrifice my pool for wood ducks every winter (took me three weeks to get it blue again) and my orange tree to cockatoos but I'd rather have the birds - and parsley's cheap enough! Maybe you should resort to a herb garden in tubs?
Actually, Bains, I love the guinea fowl, scratching and scraping and squawking notwithstanding. They're actually very dear and have become increasingly tame, hopping onto the window sills to demand food - and they make terrific "watchdogs"! Lest I appear disgruntled, I assure you I'm not - I can't be, we spend a fortune on seed every month! ;-)
loud, aren't they?
and lovely, too.
(and - shh... so tasty - not even a smidgen of parsley required...)
:-)
Vanilla...are there your pets?..or they just wandered off into your garden :)
our diminished flock of 3 home guinea fowl are a tiny part of the reason we now live in a dust bowl! maybe you could plant your herbs in pots, or window boxes?? Guineas are fun to have around :-)
Very loud, RLB, especially when they wake up in the middle of the night to produce series of alarms calls, or "oh gosh, I've fallen off my perch, where am I, where are you?" calls!
They have a lot of character - though I'm not sure if that character follows them into the pot! ;-)
No, not my pets Rambler, they're wild - though you wouldn't say so half the time! Let's call them "surrogate pets", howzat?! ;-)
Well, Val, I've already lost a piece of lawn to guinea fowl so have now pebbled the area, of course, this just means now more lawn is vanishing under a lot of scratching and digging. It's an unequal struggle, I suspect!
As for pots, that seems to make it too easy for the snails - which I keep wishing the guineas would eat!
Ah, so that's why I can never seem to grow plants. A Guinea Fowl gets to them in the middle of the night...
www.silverneurotic.weebly.com
Wandered in through the magic of the Black Box---My chickens have two places in my beds that, despite my best efforts, are their favorite bathing places. I have given up, as I suspect, you will.
Lovely blog, btw. :)
That would explain everything, Silver! :-)
Well, I've mostly given up, CeeCee - but not entirely, not yet... :-) Thanks for dropping by!
maybe you could encrust coarse salt around the lip of your herb pots - like they do with margeurita glasses - to discourage the snails!... if its not one thing... :-)
Those fowlies are really naughty,not as innocent as they look :P
Ooh, that sounds like a good idea, Val, I'll give it a go! Thanks!
Innocent? That lot? Not a chance, Sameera! :-)
Who knew the guinnea fowl was so pretty?
They are very pretty, Susan, though they can look a bit prehistoric at times! :-)
I love guinea fowl too - - - cooked with saurkraut and a little white wine!
*ducking and running*
:-D
I'll send a guinea fowl after you, Sam! ;-)
It's kind of like self seasoning then really - give them the parsley to eat and you don't have to put any in/up whilst cooking the bird?? Or did someone suggest that?
those feathers are just extraordinary, aren't they?
apparently parsley (at least in quantity) is poisonous for parrots.
Clearly not for guinea fowl.
Guinea fowl are so neat-looking with their blue colour. Do you eat them like we do chicken? They sort of look like turkeys! (I'm thinking about them since we're having Thanksgiving this coming weekend!
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