Meat: past, present and future

As you can imagine from the last update, meat has certainly been on my mind this week. Charles Dickens may have written about the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future, but I am living the story of meat past, present and future.

The meat past is gone. Loaded up for the garbage man to take yesterday morning. Hopefully the 12 pack of beer I left for him softened the blow of how truly disgusting all that rotting meat was. I think the maggots bothered Mike more than me though, probably because every summer I have to treat a maggot infested dog or two or three. I think my response to the disgusted look on his face was "welcome to my world". Veterinary medicine can be pretty gross sometimes. Final count was around 100 pounds of venison and about the same or a little more in chicken. *sigh*

Meat present is just very very odd for me. I have not had to go the grocery store with the intent to purchase a package of meat in probably 5 or 6 years maybe more. Now, I do buy bacon for our Sunday breakfast and once in awhile I buy some pork on sale and I usually buy some steaks to grill to celebrate Mike's birthday every year, but meat is never on my shopping list. It is just truly a weird feeling to have beef or chicken on my grocery list. I feel truly blessed to be able to eat meat that I know exactly where it comes from. The chickens we raise on our farm are out on grass eating bugs and foraging like chickens do. We butcher them ourselves and so I know how these birds are treated from one day old all the way to the dinner table. The next biggest portion of our meat is from deer that live on our farm. I know some don't agree with hunting, but this is a working farm. Deer live here and deer eat our crops which is the money that pays our bills. We don't mind sharing some with the deer, but their population has to be kept in check. As a meat eater, I can think of nothing more pleasing to know I am eating meat from an animal that has lived its life wild and free. If you have never eaten venison, you should really try it. It is so lean and has such a good flavor. When I brown ground venison for tacos or something similar, there is no grease to drain off. When I cook a vension steak on the grill, there are no grease flare ups. And with just a little bit of care and knowhow, they are just as tender and yummy as beef. Living on a farm has truly made me appreciate fresh healthy food.

Meat future is out in the grass as I type. They are looking pretty tasty I think. We will be butchering in about 10 days so at least I won't have to get chicken at the grocery store. Mike has been complaining about the deer eating the vegetables in the garden. This is actually something unusual and I'm wondering if our deer population is still high. Deer sightings were at an all time high last year. 4 deer were taken off the farm last year, 3 of which were mature does. I was reallly hoping that would have put a dent into the population, but perhaps there is more work to be done in that respect. Anyway you look at it, we have to wait until hunting season in the fall to add venison back to our freezer.

We ended up with 1.8 inches of rain this past week and Mike said the plants are really looking good. Tomorrow or Saturday I'll try to get some updated pictures. I cannot wait for produce to be flowing from the garden. My taste buds are so ready.