Deer Meat....

A few weeks ago my husband killed a deer. No matter how you look at it, it is still taking a life and we don't take it lightly. We teach our kids that it isn't a sport or a game, it is necessary for conservation efforts of the deer population, but it also provides our family with meat. I do'nt need meat to live, I have gone years without eating any meat at all, but my husband appreciates meat, and I don't mind so we do eat meat that we harvest and process ourselves. This includes deer of course.

We are blessed that my father in law shares our passion for good food and he has a "shop" that is fully equipped with a kitche, stove, wash area, walk in cooler and meat processing equipment. We stored the deer in his cooler until we could process it and this weekend we ground it.

We got:
- 6 lbs of chili meat ( which is just a little larger ground peices)
-6 lbs of ground burger meat ( which I use in spaghetti, meatloaf, really anyway you would use beef)
-30 lbs of summer sausage ( which is so delicious, as I use fresh peppers from the garden, and local hand crafted cheese)

My brother in law was also there and he gave us 5 additional pounds of ground burger, as there " is just one of him, but 5 of us". We are so blessed.

The summer sausage is a treat and most of the time we just do ground meat, but the summer sausage is great around the holidays to snack on, take to parties and use as gifts.

We expect to get at least one more deer this year which will fill or freezer up and will be good eating for the rest of the year.

Until Next time
Happy Homesteading


Linked up with Artful Homemaking, Monday Homesteading Barn Hop, TALU Tuesdays

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??

Linked up to Monday Homestead Barn Hop. The Morris Tribe The Funny Farm TALU Adorned From Above

Survival Kit- Sale at Eversave

I have bought a few things from Eversave, which is similiar to Groupon. Anyways, todays deal is a $50 Survival preparedness kit for half price. Although most of us probably have a more comprehensive survival kit than this , this would be great for a college student, friends, families etc. I normally don't post "good deals" but this is a good one I think, that might be helpful to some of my readers.

So to get started go to Eversave and sign up. You should get a $5 credit to use, and you can use it for this deal. No shipping either!

I'm going to get one for my little brother's car. He is 16 and invincible and would never put one of these together himself, but I think he needs one.

PS: When you sign up you can use whatever city is closest to you. This particular deal is found in Memphis though, and anyone can use it, not just those in Memphis. ( I'm not in Memphis and mine when through fine).