Filling the Freezer

 

Remember the buck Warren shot on Saturday?  We spent a small part of our Monday morning grinding and packaging the meat for the freezer.  Venison, America's original organic meat is the staple of our meat laden diet.  I could live on many meals in a row devoid of meat, however my family does not share that desire.  So I cook with meat, lots of it.  We typically eat around 6 deer a year.  Most of which we process ourselves.  This entire deer, except for the choice tenderloin was ground into hamburger.  Many people have trouble using straight venison burger.  Ground venison often breaks up during cooking or grilling when using it for hamburgers.  Our grinder must grind it a tad finer therefore making it the perfect texture for making hamburgers, cheeseburgers and pizza burgers out of straight venison burger.  Our kids really get into this.  Everyone has a part.  Warren always holds the drill, too much torque for the rest of us.  Nick and Amber feed the hopper with hunks of venison.  Sam and I fill and weigh the freezer bags, 1.5 pounds.  Emily and Amber take turns flattening and zipping the bags.  This bow-killed deer yielded 47.5 pounds of burger plus the tenderloin.  Harvesting and processing our own wild meat is satisfying, especially knowing that I'm giving my family the best quality red meat around.  Venison is much lower in saturated fats and higher in B vitamins than beef.