Penn and Cord's Garden
  • Home
  • Penn's Blog
  • Classes/Consultations
  • Greenhouses
    • Order Greenhouse Plans!
    • Latest Greenhouses
    • Student Greenhouse Projects
    • Colorado College Greenhouse
  • Miss Penn's Mountain Seeds
    • More Wild Mountain Seed
    • Seed Saving
  • Contact Us
    • Newsletter
    • The Cool List >
      • The Book List
      • Penn's Tomato Critique
    • About Us
  • Store
  • Letter of Agreement

Deer Meat Schmeer Meat

11/9/2011

7 Comments

 
Picture
I've been held captive by the deer meat.  We process our own meat and we were blessed with 5 deer this year - the most we've ever gotten.  My brother was here from Alaska, Beau was fierce on the hunt and the bucks were on our land again.  Max, Cord, Beau, me and Michael all filled our tags - all off of our land.  I couldn't believe our good fortune.
But then the fun begins.  Everybody is willing to hunt, shoot, dress out, skin, even part out - but the butchering - the real, all the way down to perfect meat butchering - nobody wants to do - especially me.  
But we do - I do, they do, my friend does, the boys' friends do - until I am begging for relief.  I am only writing now because Cord and Beau are going to finish the very last bits tonight.  They are preparing as we speak.  The picture above is how a pile of meat arrives in the kitchen.  This happens to be neck meat - what I call 'less desirable' - or "grinder" - that's what would be on the package.  This buck was big and in the rut so his neck was enlarged.  It's riddled with tendon and sinew which does not make for yummy steaks.

Picture
Here's what it looks like taken off the carcass - covered in fasciae - another undesirable part of the meat.  So I clean it off - it's very handy to have a blacksmith for a husband - he forged these knives for us, they are the sharpest you've ever seen and they fit our hands just so.  It makes for swift work - when you can get us to our stations!
Picture
Although this is grinder (hamburger) meat - I have still cleaned as much 'white' off as possible.  Cord and I believe trimming as much away as possible makes for milder, sweeter meat.  The 'gamey' taste people talk about with venison comes from leaving bone on or sinew, tendon and fasciae - which taints the meat.  This is why we do this chore ourselves and don't send it to a processor.
Picture
To prep for packaging, I cut this huge neck piece into pieces.  This will be frozen as is, then brought out for hamburger or sausage and ground on the spot.
Picture
Packaging begins with freezer paper, tape and a Sharpie.  We always use great descriptions on our packages because sometimes when a piece of meat is perfectly lean, red and, well, just perfect, I describe it on the package - I want to know what's in there.  
We label the packages with "V" for venison, the year, 2011 and a brief description - like -  1 Large Hunk - Beautiful!, or, 3 Sm. Perfect Hunks - Lovely, or even, 1 perfect hunk, one not - stuff like that.
This happens to be my brother Michael's buck so I labeled that too.
 

Picture
Ready for the freezer!  Three large neck pieces - I see sausage in it's future - yum!  All that's left is taking it outside to the bear-proofed deep freeze.
We await the test results for CWD - Chronic Wasting Disease - something we do every year.  If it comes back positive, it's doubtful we'll eat the meat but if not - we will feast - recipes to follow.  Right now - I need a break - we had pork chops tonight.
I just made plans to eat venison with my mother for Thanksgiving - a perfect menu.  I will prepare my mother's famous Venison Stroganoff with all the trimmings.

Picture
Full freezer - not organized - just dumped in - but ready to feed the masses.
 Great news!  While I was writing the guys finished the VERY LAST OF THE MEAT!!!!  We are done!  Yippee - "We made meat Ma!"  Thank you Mother Earth for the glorious bounty from our land.
7 Comments
alica streamate link
10/17/2013 11:46:59 pm

Such a nice blog, I created an account here too.

Reply
Matt Dybedahl link
11/17/2015 07:49:42 am

Hi Penn,

I work for an outdoor blog called Guide Outdoors and I'm wondering if I can get permission to use your image of the freezer full of meat? I'm creating a few images on "why we hunt" and your image would work perfectly for it. Of course, we would give you credit for the image and link back to your blog. Thanks for your time!

Reply
Penn link
11/17/2015 07:59:15 am

Hi Matt,
Thanks for asking - yes you can. I hope this reaches you - and good luck with your article,
Penn

Reply
Matt Dybedahl
11/17/2015 08:01:19 am

Penn,

Thanks for such a quick reply and I appreciate you letting me use your image. I'll be sure to send the post over when I'm finished writing it. Thanks again.

this website link
8/16/2018 04:59:30 am

It is hard to get the finest quality deer meat from the place where I have been living from a while. We should be having more ideas about the things that are willing to get us over getting the finest quality deer meat.

Reply
meat grinder reviews link
3/23/2020 02:39:07 am

If you do not have enough knowledge about meat grinders to buy one, here we will help you to get all those precise details of the best meat grinder

Reply
Gary Mosher link
9/16/2020 04:00:18 am

Lovely!
Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often. This is a very beautiful strategy. Thank you for the great food.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Penn Parmenter is a high altitude gardener, seedswoman and student of the earth.  She is married to Cord Parmenter - an awesome gardener, gorgeous man and a master blacksmith. Together they own and run a sustainable greenhouse design company, Smart Greenhouses LLC and Penn grows seed for her seed business, Miss Penn's Mountain Seeds.  She is a mother of three sons and an outdoorswoman.  Penn forages wild food, hunts big game, fishes, preserves, maintains a huge organic forest garden and occasionally makes dinner.  At home you can find her in her greenhouses as well as in the wilderness - nose to the ground, butt in the air, trying to identify Colorado natives.    

    Archives

    November 2020
    January 2020
    October 2019
    August 2019
    June 2018
    January 2018
    March 2017
    January 2017
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    March 2014
    October 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    September 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly