All Done!

I spent Monday processing two deer.  So far this meat is reported to have graced five homes.  My share is all in the freezer, except for the ribs I grilled last night.  They are superb.  I'll be enjoying those left-over Shabbat afternoon.  When it's all said and done, eating meat is labor intensive.  Perhaps that's why preparing a young kid or fatted calf was considered preferential treatment, in Bible days.  Even in all the years of processing wild game and my own livestock, I cannot imagine sitting down to "a fatted calf" grilled for a single meal.

A kid for Passover, I've done, but they are small.  I've also noticed that my hunger for meat is different when I've just processed it and it's still quite recognizable on the platter.  A big o' steak just doesn't hold the same appeal when it's taken directly from the roasted carcass.  Now back to our day of processing.

Daddy drives quite a ways to have his game processed just the way he likes it.  He likes it boned, some of it sliced for jerky, a few of the quality steaks, and the rest we grind lean.  He gives quite a bit of it away, as well as filling a shelf in my freezer.  I get my choice of cuts, and the rest is ground.  Deer meat really is a great red meat, with very little fat, and hopefully not full of GMOs, growth hormones, and antibiotics.  I can't really attest to the GMO content, but most deer are free of antibiotics and growth hormone.




I'm thankful to be able to process meat and of course grateful for the opportunity to do this for Daddy.  The hunting quota was severely down this year, and many hunters spent a great many hours to no avail.  I noticed several herds of deer this year just grazing along side the highway, yes highway.   One doesn't even have to be in the country timber, anymore, to see deer.  Sadly, auto accidents with deer have become common place.  The deer have literally moved to town, and the hunters in the country are hard pressed to see them.

The Department of Conservation is turning predators loose in many secluded timbered areas, and the deer have found safety, and food, in town.  Not to mention, suburban sprawl has moved into deer territory, and the deer have simply stayed.  That is also a safety for them, in that there is no hunting in these areas.  Much of what was once farm land and timber is now high end housing editions, and deer are delighted to feast on the ornamental fruit trees, and under the bird feeders.  As America has been settled and changed, and "progressed" from a time that was truly free, we've overlooked some of the unintended consequences, as they call it.  

Meanwhile, some of the old tribal ways are worth keeping.

The slothful man roasteth not that which he took in hunting: but the substance of a diligent man is precious.  a Proverb of Holy Scripture