I’ve been trying to get to a turtle soup/stew outing for maybe a couple of years now. It’s not that common to have them, but it’s also not that uncommon also. I know that probably doesn’t make sense, but what I’m trying to say is that you can find someone having one in our area at least once a year. So there was a Turtle Feed going on Saturday night not that far from where we live. It sounded like the perfect chance to finally get to one of these meals. The advertisement was for a Turtle Feed and I wasn’t sure what that meant. We weren’t that up on the turtle lingo. So I guess tonight was the night that we were about to find out. After church and working at the soup supper we were having for the parishioners (no turtle soup – only beef and barley & chili) off we went to pick up my brother and sister in law and head north. I was sure hoping that they didn’t run out of whatever they were cooking with the turtle before we got there, and Daryl said with more excitement than I was thinking he should have, that we could really easily go to the restaurant in town and grab some sandwiches. I’m getting the feeling that eating turtle wasn’t on his bucket list 🙂 Once we found where the meal was taking place, they were still serving turtle. They said in the past they served turtle soup, but the turtle stew was more of a favorite and they were serving that tonight. When I was standing in line for the bowl of turtle stew, I asked where they get their turtle from. Well they trap some of them and the group brings that meat in to put towards the supper. And then she asked me if I saw the big snapper turtle at the fair this past summer? She said it was huge! When I said ‘it was’ huge, she said yea he’s part of the supper tonight. Now I’m all for this, but I kind of felt bad for the turtle. Well just maybe for a second and then I had my bowl full and was looking for a good spot to sit down and try this.
Turtle Stew and deep fried turtle
It did taste kind of like clam chowder or something, I’m not sure. But it was good and I would eat it again if I had a chance. Then one of the workers came around with a plate of deep fried turtle. I had two and both of them were really dark meat and very tender. Some of the other ones that were tried at our table were white meat. One of the workers said that there is 7 places off a turtle that you can eat. Now some of these places were obvious ones.. feet, belly, tail, neck, but the comment that he said that surprised me was about where the ‘best’ meat was. He said that there were two small nuggets that you get from the head and they were like the prize jewel or something. OK, I won’t go any further than this. Living on a farm you know that if you are raising food for others you shouldn’t waste it, but I’m just saying that I don’t think that I’ve ever thought of eating some nuggets from a head of a turtle before. But guess what? We did eat some smaller pieces of deep fried turtle last night. Who knows right? 
So now I can finally check this off my Bucket List. I wonder what else I have on that list?
my great grandmother, who i lived with for many years, used to make mulligan. most of the time she would put ground turtle in it and boy, was it ever good! i can remember my great grandpa putting a snapping turtle in the tub by the pump outside until he was ready to butcher it.
I watched a video on how to clean a turtle, and it sure looks like a LOT of work!