How much meat do you have left???

[FFKEVIN]

It's a good thing that deer season is less than a month away.  I was looking in my freezer, and I noticed that I only have 1 roast and 8 lbs. of ground meat left from the 2 deer I took last year.
 
How's everyone else's freezers looking???

[shaman]

I am still pretty heavy on some of it.  I took large deer in 2005,06, and 07.  At the same time, a lot of my friends that used to take venison moved away. A 70 lb doe is easy to finish off.  A 270lb buck takes some serious eating, and there is only 3 of us in the house during the week.  We've been known to fix venison 3 meals a day, 3 days in a row in the winter.  It still piles up.

I make dog food from whatever passes the point of no return.  I get a big pot and put in enough water to cover what I'm going to make, and then go about cutting up everything into small chunks as the water heats.  Every pound or so gets tossed in the pot.  When I'm all done adding meat, I wait until the water boils and then let it simmer for an hour.  I also boil all the bones to get whatever good is left on them, and then put them aside.

After cooking for an hour or so, I let things cool off slowly  and set about cleaning off the bones. Bones go in the fireplace, meat goes in the pot.  When it's cool enough to handle, I remove all the meat and drain it.  The broth that's left gets measured.  Based on the amount of broth, I cook measure of rice.  After the rice is cooked, I mix meat and rice, measure into sandwich bags and freeze.  The dogs get about 5-6 ounces apiece to go with their kibble every night.

My beagle loved it so much that the first night she got it, she ate her dinner and then came and jumped on the bed, woke me up and gave me an outpouring of love such as I've never seen.  Someone else had fed the dogs that night, but she remembered my labors from the previous morning; she knew who had done the cooking.

I cook a big batch of dog food in the dead of winter when we're snowed in, a big batch in the summer when it's too hot to go out, and a batch now and again when bad weather keeps us indoors.

[JPH]

Very full. In fact too full. I shot 5 deer last season and we are a small family. But even worse than that, we are very busy. It's hard to thaw and prepare a good meal when you are always rushing.
 
Luckally, I have a good system that keeps me from wasting meet. Our Missouri neighbors are Amish. They have a big family on a small budget. They do a good job of looking after our place and have helped with many projects. So, as a new season begins, I take them a cooler or two of last year's deer. They go through it fast and are always thankfull.

[shaman]

Gee, How do I get a good herd of Amish growing in my neighborhood? 

Do you use food plots?  Mineral Licks? 

[JPH]

ORIGINAL: shaman

Gee, How do I get a good herd of Amish growing in my neighborhood? 

Do you use food plots?  Mineral Licks? 

 
Either that or take them bowling.
Have you ever seen "Kingpin"?

[howhill1]

im right there with kevin a roast 1 pack of chops and a few pounds of burger. ive also got two turkey breasts from this spring, as well as alot of beef as we raise our own.

[shaman]

Loved Kingpin-- especially the part about milking the bull.

[howhill1]

personally i found the de shoeing of the horse a " i cant breathe" moment LOL!

[howhill1]

we have an ahmish family near the farm where we hunt late season. we'll hear them come across the radios from time to time speaking dutch(or at least a form of it) freaked me out first time i heard it LOL.

[EatDeer]

I have a few roasts and about 8 pounds of steak left. My cat would rather eat deer steak then cat food. So he has put a heavy dent in the deer meat from last season. This year I plan to harvest the cat his own deer to eat.[:@]