THERE'S A BIG MONEY IN THE SECRET ART OF FROG FARMING!

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As Leonard points out: "Wild frogs do spook easy, but domesticated ones—which soon become accustomed to seeing their owner puttering around every day—get to be just like pets. Mine usually jump into the water when they see me comin' . . . but pretty soon they crawl up on the shore again to find out what doin'. I have to be careful not to step on'em."

This herdsman/livestock relationship explains why Slabaugh's harvesting technique may not be exactly sporting . . . but why it surely is quick: Leonard simply walks around at night with a flashlight and plucks his amphibians off the ground with no more difficulty than a gardener collecting cucumbers. That's for the small orders. When Leonard wants to gather several hundred of the frogs at a time, he just scoops them up in a fish net.

CLEANING THE CATCH

Although some people (the inexperienced among us) tend to lump frog legs into the same category as escargot (Ugh! Snails), that comparison is really a mistake. Bullfrogs may be a little short on beauty, but they're extremely clean animals. And they're definitely not (how should I say this?) . . . slimy. . . like trout (and most other widely eaten pan fish) are when they're taken fresh from the water.

"Frogs are easier to clean than any other animal," says Leonard Slabaugh (and he ought to know, because he's cleaned a passel of 'em in his day). As a matter of fact, cleanin' a frog is a whole lot easier than cleanin' a fish: Just remove the head and the insides and then skin it. That's all. Every bit of the meat makes for good eatin' . . . even if the fancy restaurants do just serve the hind legs."

Slabaugh's marketable frogs weigh in at about a pound live . . . and a halfpound dressed. Which means—at prices currently ranging from $2.50 to $4.50 a dressed-out pound—that Leonard is realizing a minimum gross income of $1.25 to $2.25 from every frog he sells. (And he makes even more, of course, on the smaller animals purchased live at higher prices by schools, colleges, and research labs.)

At that, Slabaugh stands in awe of another grower he knows who lives near Las Vegas, Nevada. "Those restaurants out there charge $18 a plate for just two fried frog legs," Leonard says. "And that of boy is gettin' eight dollars a pound for the meat he sells. Why, he's sittin' on top of a gold mine."

And why would anybody pay $18 for two frog legs . . . or even half that much (as is more common) for three or four of the drumsticks? Because the meat is pure white and tastes very much like chicken . . . a very tender and very delicate chicken. If you've never eaten frog legs, you've missed a rare treat.

HOW TO GET STARTED

Raising bullfrogs—then—can be fun, profitable, and easy . . . if you've got a couple of acres to work with, have just a little bit of common sense, and are willing to let an "old-timer" in the business help you get off on the right foot.

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