Pigeon Pie

Which are the most precious, cabbages or pigeons? Well, if I’ve planted the cabbages there’s no argument. Pigeons have been a real nuisance in the kitchen garden this year, virtually destroying our cabbage patch. Fortunately there’s help at hand. Before breakfast this morning my youngest daughter, wearing her camouflage gear, climbed the Prospect Tower which overlooks the kitchen garden, with her 1.78 rifle, ready for the kill. ​

It took an hour of patient waiting before the first pigeon obligingly landed on top of the metal frame of the fruit cage eying up its breakfast down below. It never got to touch my cabbages. A single shot in the head dispatched it, from a range of 40 yards. A job well done.

And the pigeon pie? The bird was a feral pigeon, otherwise known as a flying rat and does not make for good eating. For a pigeon pie, you need the plumper wood pigeon.