FREE E-Book: Food Canning: How To Safely Preserve Food

It's been a while since I posted a FREE e-book, so here's:

 

Food Canning: How To Safely Preserve Foods 

Our Neighbor Gave Us A Deer

Drawing showing the various cuts of meat on a deer.

As we were finishing up our supper this evening, our neighbor called to see if we wanted a deer from a hunting trip.  Seeing how we do eat meat and it's so expensive at the store, we gladly accepted.

Anybody that half-way knows me, knows how much I love animals and have taken in more than my share of stray cats & dogs - or any animal that will hold still long enough for me to drag it home. When I can, I try to buy organically raised meat at the stores (harder to find than you think) and we do raise some chickens for meat & eggs at home.  However, I am about half a step away from becoming a vegetarian.  In fact, if I had to kill an animal in order to eat, I'd HAVE to become a vegetarian or just plain starve to death.  When it's time to "process" our chickens on the farm, I'm nowhere to be found, but you can bet I'll be saying prayers for the birds who are about to meet their maker.  I try to keep my distance from the meat birds we raise too or else I'll name them and start sewing them little chicken outfits and suddenly we've got a lot more pets.  Yes, I do realize I'm being hypocritical, but the fact remains, I do like meat and I know without a doubt, our birds have had a much better life than any chicken you could buy at a store - organic or not.

Now, back to the deer.  Darling hubby has only assisted with the dressing of a deer twice before, but tonight he was going to be all on his own.  (Have you ever wondered why they call it 'dressing' when it's much more along the lines of 'undressing'?)  When the fella that had the deer arrived, I made myself scarce as I really don't care to see deceased critters.  Actually, I might start bawling my eyes out.  After I said a prayer for the deer, I thought this gift of meat might be of some interest on my blog.  I grabbed my camera and headed out in the dark to the garage where my hubby & son were taking care of business.  Here's some video, it's not much to see and the lighting is terrible, however I'm really not complaining about that either.  If you're an avid animal lover or the sight of butchering is not your cup of tea, you may not want to view this.

I tried, I really did, but I'm just not comfortable with seeing my meat with it's head still on. 

When the guys were finished, they brought me a 5 gallon bucket of venison to the kitchen where I've already started to trim some of it.  There's a lot of what they call "silver skin" on venison which needs to be removed as it's sinewy and will give a gamey taste to the meat.  There sure isn't much fat though, next to nothing really.  If I make sausage, I'm going to have to get some pork fat (it's a very neutral tasting fat) from the butcher to add when grinding or it just won't hold together whatsoever.  I'll even make some jerky too in the dehydrator. 

The American Indians really had it right when they thanked the deer's spirit for giving it's life so they could live.