With another three months before we need to be worried about Punxsutawney Phil, it might surprise most people to learn that groundhog is, indeed, edible…….and apparently delicious. It all goes back to a man named Everett J. Castro, who wrote in detail about the joy of eating groundhog in a 1984 edition of Mother Earth News. He talked about his family’s tradition of trapping, skinning, and eating the prized rodent. He even provided a recipe for groundhog pie, which consists of carrots, potatoes, butter, onion, and, of course, groundhog meat. It turns out that during the Great Depression, many rural families had a variety of groundhog dishes. You might be wondering if you can get worms or rabies, or worms with rabies, from consuming groundhog. Technically, you can get diseases from eating any animal, so your chances of getting sick from eating groundhog meat are not greater than eating the meat from a chicken, cow or pig. So, if you’ve got a hankering for groundhog pie, set yourself a trap and get to cooking.
