Friday, July 13, 2012

If you have to buy your meat at the store....

I recently found the show Mountain Men on tv. I think it is on the History Channel or maybe Nat Geo. Anyways, one of the men said something that has had me thinking. He said ( and don't quote me) but something to the effect of " When you have to start buying your meat from the store, it's the beginning of the end"..... WOW.

This particular episode had the man above that lives in Alaska and he was taking his wife and young daughter on a caribou hunt. They needed meat. Their freezer needed meat to sustain them for the winter. So they hunt. Such a simple complex, yet it seems to be so foreign to so many people now a days.

If you follow my blog you know that our family only eats deer meat and fish that we catch.(We enjoy a wild turkey, pheasant, ducks, geese, rabbit and squirrel also, but those are special treats).   Also on rare occasions we eat seafood when we are fortunate enough to get some fresh from the coast. That was the case this week. We had the great opportunity to share the wonderful experience of oyster tonging, crabbing and some sea fishing with our daughters. They are used to fishing in lakes, but they have never harvested oysters or crabs fresh from the gulf.



Here is a picture of my oldest daughter pulling in a crab trap. You pull it in with a big hook.


Then you empty your yummy crabs from the trap, re bait and throw it back in. You can't see the crabs too well from this picture, but between about 6 traps we had an abundance of crabs for dinner.

Next were the oysters. If you have never seen anyone tong for oysters before it is pretty great. They use what look like post hole diggers with rakes on the end, and basically scoop them up.

You just dump them out and then go through them and kind of cull them. You don't want all the extra materials, only the good oysters .

The shells of the oysters can be sharp so it's important to wear gloves. You can sea the girls helping here which is kind of adorable in my opinion.


Next was fishing. Basically the same as fresh water fishing, just different types of fish. This was a kind of saltwater catfish we caught. We got 6 of these puppies on the day we were out.

We had a feast of crab, oysters and fried catfish for dinner and had plenty to share with our family.
I really want to encourage everyone to think of ways to harvest some of their own meat sources.
Of course not everyone can have herds of cattle, nor does everyone want that. I can't tell you the last time we had beef and we are okay. Not everyone can raise chickens to eat, and again even though we have chickens we don't eat them. But hunting and fishing is something that most can do. America has an abundance of these harvestables and to our family it is a real blessing. Hunting and fishing done humanly, respectfully and lawfully is one of the greatest lessons in sustainability we can leave our children .

What all do you hunt for your family??





11 comments:

  1. I wish that we had an area here were we could hunt. But there are so many restrictions and the wildlife is already having a tough time coping with the encroaching development. With my husband's job, it is nearly impossible to go on a hunting trip during hunting season.

    But we hope to move back to our home town when he retires, and then we will be able to hunt the numerous deer that seem to be taking over the area.

    Until then, we are raising our own chicken and turkey and I order sides of beef and pork from local farmers. We don't have room to raise our own.

    I enjoy hearing about your foraging adventures!

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    1. I understand. We are blessed to have many places to hunt and fish, and a variety of different things we can harvest, but I realize not everyone does. Thanks for stopping by!

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  2. I also have been watching that show and heard that quote. It also got me thinking about where I we get our food from. I think that its so great that your family only eats what you are able to catch and hunt yourselves. My family is trying to transition to this but are not there yet. But someday we will be. Thanks for sharing.

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    1. It takes time, start slow and do what you can and feel comfortable with, you'll learn as you go. Thanks for stopping by!

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  3. We are fortunate to live in a place where we have ready access to the sea, and to wild pork and venison, which supplements what we raise ourselves for a full compliment of meat.

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    1. YAY! Sounds perfect. Thanks for stopping by!

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  4. We are blessed to live in Arizona, which has ten big game species and a bunch of small game and fish. Over the years, we've enjoyed elk, whitetail and mule deer, antelope, javelina, buffalo, bear, bighorn sheep and turkey.

    But I have to admit it: I wish we had better fish. I'm not wild (har har har) about bass and crappie. After 28+ years of it, red meat is wearing a little thin. :-) Hubby brought home Alaska halibut a couple of times and that was pure joy! Your fishing, crabbing, etc., looks great. Would you care to make a trade?

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    1. Patricia, you are blessed for sure. One elk will feed a family for a while I'm sure! The Elk population around here is slowly getting larger. We do love our fish, but I agree that some halibut or salmon for a change every so often would be fantastic. Thanks for stopping by.

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  5. I only hunt for bargains! I know a lot of people who hunt (mostly deer), but I could never do it myself. I have a hard enough time just cleaning the chicken I buy at the grocery store LOL. I don't eat seafood at all and now cringe at the thought that I used to eat steamers when I was a kid. My Dad would take me, my sister, and my four (girl) cousins clam digging in the summer. We ate so many lobsters back in those days were were a bunch of little kids begging for a plain old hot dog or hamburger after a while. I'll still steal a bite of someone's lobster, but the thought of eating the clams grosses me out now. I'm a BIG wussssss! The girls are gorgeous! Too bad they didn't find any pearls. ;) [#TALU]

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  6. Hi Rachel. I think it's fantastic that u r so self sufficient with ur meat! We're not a hunting family, but I did raise chickens for meat recently. Thanks for joining up with TALU!

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  7. This is awesome. Love the fact that you are living off the land and I wish my family could do more of that too. I also LOVE venison. (talu)

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