Tag: Rappie Pie

It’s Rappie Pie Season and We Have Your Rabbits

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Making Acadien Rappie Pie

The Yarmouth & Acadian Shores has a Recipe for Your Next Rappie Pie, or râpure in French!

Now, You may just be wondering, “What the heck is Rapie Pie!?”

Well, the Yarmouth & Acadian Shores website describes it as, “a well-loved traditional Acadian dish. It’s unique to the region, made from a delicious mix of potatoes and chicken.”

Of course, if You’re from here, You probably know that the best râpure (Rappie Pie) is made with Rabbits!

Of course, there are those who prefer Rappie Pie made with Beef, Chicken, or even Clams!

Yet, many of us prefer Rabbit Meat in our râpure!

If possible we prefer Wild Rabbit! However, it’s become all but impossible to obtain Wild Rabbits! See, the Wild Rabbit population has nearly disappeared! Thanks in no small part to the “Eastern Coyote”, or as some suspect it to be, The Grey Wolf. Considering most Coyotes weigh no more than 35 – 40 lbs, and the Eastern Coyote weighs as much as double that, it seems possible they are wolves! Some say that the Dept. of Natural Resources, then the Lands and Forests, quietly introduced them to Nova Scotia in the early to mid-1970s when the Grey Wolf populations in other areas were becoming all but extinct. Nevertheless, I digress!

Whatever the reason, the Wild Rabbit populations in Nova Scotia have drastically declined in most areas. Although they have started to reestablish themselves in some areas. In 2017 NovaScotiaHunting.com reported that

A decrease in hunters and the arrival of coyotes can likely account for the huge drop in the number of snowshoe hares harvested annually over the last 30 years in Nova Scotia. In 1983-84 the number was more than 500,000, but by last winter it had dropped to 65,000

An alarming decrease of 87% over a 30 Year Period.

Knowing, that we’ve, for whatever reason, lost most of our Wild Rabbit Population, I started working on a substitute! See, I’ve never been impressed by Domestic Rabbit Meat! Domestic Rabbit Meat is usually sickly pale, and lacking the taste of our Wild Rabbits. I should also mention that in Nova Scotia, our Wild Rabbits are actually Snowshoe Hare. Our Snow Shoe hair have a darker reddish-coloured meat and is much more flavourful than domestic rabbit. Over the past few years, I’ve managed to develop an end product that more closely resembles Wild Rabbit than Domestic Rabbit! 

Skeptical? I would be too! So, buy it to try it!
If You don’t agree that our “Nearly Wild Rabbit” meat isn’t closer to Wild than Domesticated let me know!

How do we do it? We keep our Rabbits in mobile pens, moving them every day to new forage. They are outside for at least 8 months out of the year. Their diet is primarily natural forage similar to that of a wild rabbit. Keeping them in a natural habitat and on a similar diet gives them darker reddish meat with a more robust flavour like the Wild Rabbit. Making them ideal for Rappie Pie!

So, whether You’re making Rappie Pie, or You’re craving for the taste of wild rabbit, we invite you to get our “Nearly Wild Rabbits” and I think You’ll be glad You did! Contact me, Brian at Briden Farm, 902-907-0770.

 

Categories: In The Pantry Meals Meat Nearly Wild Rabbits Rabbits

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Rappie Pie And Chicken Soup

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Rappie Pie and Chicken Soup

Two things that make a Winter Day a little warmer, and a Winter Storm more bearable, are Rappie Pie and Chicken Soup! Today we made both!

We were recently given four roosters, and yesterday we processed three of the four! I made a mistake of looking at the beautiful feathers on the their and he’s looking for a new home now! Actually, I think we have found one for him already! 

I know to some processing animals and birds for food may seem rather mean, but the truth is it’s part of survival and it’s part of farm life. Especially on a working farm. 

Certainly the end result of our efforts helps make it a little easier! A life, any life, from the smallest to the greatest should never be taken lightly. Always with Thanks, reverence and respect, for the life taken, and the food provided. The sad fact is there are too many Roosters, and while every would like to keep them around it simply isn’t possible. In nature the males, the protectors often get killed by predators protecting the females, and around the farm when there’s to many Roosters they’ll attack and kill each other! So, in many ways, it’s more humane to process them! We give them the best life possible, for as long as possible, but when it comes time we dispatch them as humanely as possible and they help feed us! 

Most people, who think this is cruel  or inhumane, don’t generally stop to ponder all these things when they pop into their local Grocery, or Deli, to grab a BBQ Chicken on their way home from their 9-5 job! However, on the farm, among farmers and their livestock, it all takes on a far more intimate approach! It’s a symbiotic relationship where we feed them, give them the best life possible, for as long as possible so that they can better feed us!

For us, one of the best ways to make use of these Roosters is to make Rappie Pie And Chicken Soup! 

Categories: Meals Survival Winter

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Making Acadien Rappie Pie at Briden Farm

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Making Acadien Rappie Pie

This has been a hectic week, three days ago we processed some of our Roosters. Then took the meat from two birds and cooked it in a pot on the Kitchen Wood Stove. Once that was done we separated the meat from the bones. For Making Acadien Rappie Pie at Briden Farm. 

Now, You may be wondering how to make Rappie Pie, or even what Acadian (Acadien) Rappie Pie is? For those of us from South West Nova Scotia we grew up knowing, and even making, Rappie Pie! It’s a traditional Acadian (or in French, Acadien) Dish.

If You are from here, you are probably aware that there at least two different ways to make it! One is very labour intensive, the other still requires a lot of work! No real shot cuts, unless you buy a finished one!

So, I know someone is asking, “What the Heck is it?” 

To best answer that question we defer to A Canadian Foodie’s Demystify Rappie Pie!

While A Canadian Foodie talks about the method used at D’Eon’s Rappie Pie, a 3rd generation family owned business, I dare say that the traditional, by hand, way is even more labour intensive!

Traditionally Rappie Pie is made by grating locally grown potatoes, removing the starch liquid from the potatoes, cooking and separating the meat from the bones, measuring and replacing the starch liquid with water, and baking it! The hardest part of the process, when doing it by hand is wringing the liquid starch from the grated potatoes! Often done ith a pillow case, or in some cases, especially in times past, employing a Spin Washing Machine! The Spin Dryer was used to spin the pillow case full of grated potatoes to remove the liquid starch!

Yarmouth and Acadian Shores: Rappie Pie Recipe

You might say, “We Cheated”, but really we did it the smart way and got a Rappie Pie Potato Mix from D’Eon’s Rappie Pie. It saves hours of grating potatoes and maybe even a few finger tips! With the final product being nearly as good as the traditional method! Less the Finger Tips! 😉 

 

Categories: Meals

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