How we became Self-Sufficient in our Meat Processing
October 12 2019, somewhere around the “Switzerland of the Rockies”.
It was about 9:37 am, and a small buck about 200 yds below us showed up out of nowhere. I ran to Rach and told her to crawl over to the edge but be careful there were about six deer right below. She put her “budget” no brand name, previously used rifle on fire. Rachael had just taken her first buck!
Its not hard to tell that this family loves the outdoors, especially hunting. There are many reasons we love the pursuit of wild game, but the main reason is because we see it as a natural resource for our own survival. We watch these animals forage on natural grasses and shrubs, they are not feeding on substances harmful to their own body and the predators that consume them. This is one of the most important aspects in our chase for our own protein. The other aspect is the fact that we are completely involved in the life, death and the nourishment that animal provided. Its fairly simple steps from the grasses it was eating to our dinner table. There is no second or third party.
Rachael’s buck was deer number 2 for this trip. I had harvested a deer the day before around the same location Rach did. We packed that buck off the mountain and took it to the local butcher shop in town. Our mindset was similar for this second buck, take it off the mountain and bring it to the local butcher shop. This is the typical and normal approach when harvesting an animal. But, this shop at this time in the hunt was so packed they could not get to our deer for another week or so. We had a few questions arise in our mind about that but ultimately said okay well just do it ourselves. Rachael’s brother was in town and he was a recent graduate of Texas A&M University with a Masters in meat science. It was perfect, he had worked at a butcher shop on campus and had the knowledge to show us what to do. So, we went home and began cutting up a deer in our Airbnb. I actually didn’t absorb much from that night other than its 100% possible to do this yourself. I didn’t remember the certain cuts or names, but I took away that any man or woman can ultimately prepare an animal for their dinner plates of his/her family.
Where we are today
We ended up processing Rachael’s small buck and picked up my buck from the butcher. To our surprise, we had a quarter more meat from Rachael’s smaller buck than my buck. We can make our assumptions on why but it didn’t matter. We were going to take the process of harvesting our food from harvest to table and put it all in our hands, forever.
Today we are much better hunters and usually find a way to harvest an Elk every year, which is a staple in our diet. If you aren’t familiar with Elk, they are large animals and it usually takes my family about 3-4 days to completely process it.
It’s a family affair from cutting, to grinding, to packaging. The process has taught my children how to be food safe, safely and purposefully use a knife, and truly understand anatomy of many species of animals. Our kids are a part of the journey from beginning to end. What’s truly amazing is my children have found the natural interest in helping put their food on the table. They are completely aware and in touch with their food and where it comes from. It is so normal to them, it’s just something that must be done.