Sunday, May 31, 2009
Pennsyltucky venison
There's alot of talk in the foodie world about local foods, sustainable practices, homegrown and DIY techniques. Often these ideas lead to some good habits but in the end, it's very difficult to take these to heart for each and every meal of your life.
Last fall, I took this to heart when I went with my uncle on a deer hunt. He's been hunting for years and is pretty good at it, judging from the amount of venison in his freezer. He also absolutely loves it. When I asked to come with him, he was psyched to finally have a family member go with him after all these years. I was equally happy to have someone so eagerly guide me and provide the gear and expertise.
I wanted to hunt for a couple of reasons. One is that I understood what it takes to harvest an animal and I wanted to test my will to do so. The second is that I wanted to have a freezer full of meat that I could call my own. When people asked, I had them consider it like apple picking, but for meat.
We hunted land in Buck's county, Pa belonging to a friend of his. The private land, which we hunted, abuts state land so there's lots of free space for the deer but also a lot of hunters. The woods were filled with random gunfire all weekend. Most of the time, I sat in a tree stand trying to keep warm and hope a buck walked past. When one finally did, I couldn't get him in target and get a shot off before he went out of range.
Luckily, my uncle had better luck. He took two in as much time as it takes to fire a shot, reload and take another. It was an unlikely way to get deer but that's another story, for our purposes, all you need to know is that there were two animals that needed to be field dressed and butchered. Since I had nothing else to do, I helped out. My reward was meat from one of the deer. Next year, I hope to get my own.
If you're really, really curious about how to field dress a deer (aka gut it so the meat doesn't spoil,) you can see a brief video clip my uncle made while walking me through the process. It's not for the squeamish but is kind of funny!
Last fall, I took this to heart when I went with my uncle on a deer hunt. He's been hunting for years and is pretty good at it, judging from the amount of venison in his freezer. He also absolutely loves it. When I asked to come with him, he was psyched to finally have a family member go with him after all these years. I was equally happy to have someone so eagerly guide me and provide the gear and expertise.
I wanted to hunt for a couple of reasons. One is that I understood what it takes to harvest an animal and I wanted to test my will to do so. The second is that I wanted to have a freezer full of meat that I could call my own. When people asked, I had them consider it like apple picking, but for meat.
We hunted land in Buck's county, Pa belonging to a friend of his. The private land, which we hunted, abuts state land so there's lots of free space for the deer but also a lot of hunters. The woods were filled with random gunfire all weekend. Most of the time, I sat in a tree stand trying to keep warm and hope a buck walked past. When one finally did, I couldn't get him in target and get a shot off before he went out of range.
Luckily, my uncle had better luck. He took two in as much time as it takes to fire a shot, reload and take another. It was an unlikely way to get deer but that's another story, for our purposes, all you need to know is that there were two animals that needed to be field dressed and butchered. Since I had nothing else to do, I helped out. My reward was meat from one of the deer. Next year, I hope to get my own.
If you're really, really curious about how to field dress a deer (aka gut it so the meat doesn't spoil,) you can see a brief video clip my uncle made while walking me through the process. It's not for the squeamish but is kind of funny!
# posted by Yossie @ 10:24 AM 
