Wild Meat, A Family Process

I grew up helping to process animals for food. Both wild game and critters that were raised on our farm that we could not help but fall in love with. There was never anything great about that as a child but that’s just the way life was for us. In fact, the house that I grew up in was built by my dad when I was in the third grade and had a built in “butcher room” I still don’t like that word!

We ate a vast variety of meats. Raised on our farm were turkeys, chickens, rabbits, goats, beef, duck and pigs. The wild meats that were hunted by my dad (and my sister and I when we were old enough) were deer, squirrels, rabbits, grouse, turkey and ducks.

So, that was life. I did not embrace anything that came along with this but now I value so much about this with the self sufficiency aspect being toward the top of the list.

Gavin was fortunate enough to harvest two deer during hunting season this fall. So it was time to teach him how to process this wild meat into food. I had not done this for many years so I was so very thankful to have my dad close by and willing to help us.

The deer hung for a few days out in our shop and the temperatures were just right for that. Dad started the stove in the shop so we were working in comfortable temperatures.

The whole family was a part of this process. Draven played with buckets of gravel and asked questions while we all worked with knives. My dad was the “ring leader” and gave out orders and taught us what to do. He let us know what all of our options were for cuts of meat on a deer and then we cut and processed it according to what we thought we would use the most. We cut 15 pounds of meat for jerky. Appoximately 35 pounds of meat that we ground into burger, and the rest into steak cuts. Dan did a lot of trimming work, Gavin did the steaks and I trimmed off the carcass to make use of all of the meat. That was a good job for me since I have great attention to details. Dad also showed us “how” and “where” to make cuts on the animal.

Also, Gavin did not realize that we could use the heart for food so he left it in the woods while dressing the dear but he now knows that we grew up pickling and eating the hearts and it was our favorite part. Next time, next time…..

We also utilized the carcass of the deer by hanging it in the back yard (at the bird feeding station) from my dads tee pee poles for the birds and woodpeckers to clean off.

Gavin sold his two hides to a dealer. He took money for one and traded for a pair of new leather mittens for the other hide.

I am so grateful to have a son who enjoys hunting wild meats for food and knows the health values of the meat.

In my opinion, one of the best things you can teach your children is how to be self sufficient and that comes in many different ways! This is just one……