Deer Meat in the Freezer

7:11 AM I've mentioned several times that this is deer hunting season in Mississippi. In the last few days we've learned that the season has several parts. First it was bow-hunting season, then rifle season. Right now this is "primitive weapons" season, which means you can hunt deer, but only with muzzle-loading guns. The practical impact tends to favor the deer because muzzle-loading guns take so long to load that if you don't kill the deer with the first shot, they will be long gone before you can reload. A few days ago Dave Riley, one of Alan's friends, killed a deer on the other side of the lake. He field-dressed it and took it to a processing plant up the road. Over the weekend he came by to say that he had left some deer meat for us to pick up. Yesterday Marlene had the unique experience of visiting her first processing plant. She drove along the country road until she found the right place. When she arrived, she saw a sign posted that said, "Not open until 10 AM. This year we really mean it. Don't honk. Don't knock on the door. Don't bring your animals before 10 AM." Since it was 9:15 AM, she decided to drive into Tupelo to do some shopping. A couple of hours later she returned to the processing plant where she was met by a big country fellow who runs the place. He said sure, Dave had left a lot of deer meat for us. When Marlene asked how to cook it, he launched into a long discussion of how deer meat contains very little fat but they add bacon and beef fat so that their deer meat will "patty up" when you cook it. We ended up with a big supply of deer tenderloin plus deer hamburger with jalapeno plus deer hamburger with bacon fat. 

If I add up all the deer meat (venison) I've eaten, it would to amount to, well, almost none at all. Now we've got enough deer meat so that if an ice storm makes the roads impassable, we won't miss a meal until April. To be truthful, I had hardly given deer a thought one way or the other until we moved to Mississippi two months ago. Over the weekend we had deer sausage that I liked very much. Little by little we're getting acclimated to life in the South. Now that we've got deer meat in the freezer, we've almost arrived.

You can reach the author at  ray@keepbelieving.com. Click here to sign up for the free weekly email sermon.