Well. I am sure you have all been on pins and needles . . . just dying to know if I did, in fact, grind up an elk this weekend.
Yes, folks. Yes, I did. And it wasn’t as glamorous as one might think.
Now, I put on Facebook that I was going to do said grinding, and people were mentioning that I should be thankful for all the fresh meat for my family . . .
Oh. I’m thankful! But, does that mean I can’t be grossed out? It is a blessing to know you won’t starve. We could live off of elk and applesauce out here for months. MONTHS, I tell ya!
But I still maintain that it is nasty . . . what with all the blood and hair and general carnage.
Yet, this is the way people are in these here parts. Allow me to explain by telling you a story . . . a little illustration, if you will.
On Friday night, we went to the local Walmart. Our local Walmart is almost an hour away from Ruralville. Because Ruralville is THAT cool. At Walmart, David purchased freezer paper to wrap the meat that we would soon be grinding.
So, without further ado, I shall present to you:
A Closer Look Into The People that Live in My Region
Helpful Walmart Associate Lady: What did you kill?
David: An elk.
Helpful Walmart Associate Lady: Good for you! Huntins’ been terrible this year. I don’t hardly know no one who got nothing.
David: Yeah.
Helpful Walmart Associate Lady: Get a bull, did ya?
David: No, just a cow.
Helpful Walmart Associate Lady: Still good eatin’ . . . still good eatin’.
David: Yup.
Helpful Walmart Associate Lady: I got nothin’ this year. Under shot a bull on opening day. Darn semi-blahblahblah froze up on me blahblahblah. I tell ya what a blahblahblahblahblah. Huntins’ been terrible. Can’t believe it. My brother got a nice 4×4. Real nice.
Lest any of you are confused, the blahblahblah parts refer to the words that I either a) did not understand or b) was not interested in.
David: Yeah.
Helpful Walmart Associate Lady: Well, have fun!
And fun we did have. The next day, David’s hunting friend came. We’ll call him Earl, because that sounds about right. Earl did not bring his wife, so I stayed in the house at first and caught the girls up on some school. About three hours later, I went out to see if I could offer them coffee.
Next thing I knew, I was changing into a flannel shirt and getting ready to load elk flesh into a meat grinder.
I will have you all know that I kept my uber cute earrings in. A girl has to be fashionable, no matter what the occasion. Holla!
So, I stuffed meat into that grinder and removed the occasional elk hair that would come my way. Then I helped wrap and freeze the meat, counted my blessings to have a freezer full of FRESH meat, and vowed to become a vegetarian.
I told Earl that I was contemplating switching to the vegetarian team. He informed that his wife was a vegetarian when he first met her.
“Yeah. But I set her right. One day I came home and she had caught and killed two squirrels and cooked them up for my lunch. Been eatin’ meat ever since.”
And THAT, dear readers, is just a little glimpse of where I come from. If you were curious. And you know you were.
Don’t be jealous.
Switch out elk for deer, and you just described the next couple of months around here. My people don’t grind their own meat, thank goodness. It just comes back in tasty summer sausages and jerky. You, my dear friend, are an amazing brave wife.
You are so making up that squirrel story!!!
Aren’t you?
Please say yes.
No, I spoke the truth. I pinky swear.
A vegetarian turned squirrel cooker. I’ve heard it all.
Only where you come from. 😉
Tell me Earl was joking.
Oh, and have you considered a lock on the freezer door so all your effort doesn’t go to waste?
I was thinking the same thing!!! You don’t want little hands looking for popsicles to leave the freezer open.
Squirrel??? Really? oy
send that man and his woman over to my house asap!!! i have so many squirrels around (and on) my house…they are driving me NUTS! (pun intended =o)
Oh, you poor thing. My Daddy was known to butcher his own “kill” and it.is.so.disgusting!!! Can I also just say that it is a tad bit annoying when people try to suggest you be grateful when you weren’t really complaining in the first place? Maybe it’s just me, but that kinda gets on my nerves. It’s like, yes, I know I’m blessed to not starve, but really — have YOU ever smelled raw bloody animal flesh for hours on end?
Why yes, you have. So maybe you know what I mean. Ahem. *steps off soapbox*
Now, my Daddy was also known to pick up ROAD KILL and feed it to his family (that would be me). Oh yes, oh yes he did. Fresh road kill, mind you. We would drive to church down this one particular back country road and I kid you not, he picked up three or four huge dear that had “just been” hit by vehiculars. Most times, the car that hit it was still there and he started carrying a TARP around in the back seat because there was no way no how that he was letting that critter go to waste.
I’m happy to say I’m still alive and we never contracted Road Kill’itis. I’m also happy to say I married a man who refuses to eat venison, or anything other than beef, pork and chicken because quite frankly, I was foundered on venison. Absolutely foundered.
The end, brave woman, the end.
Oh, wow!
Does elk taste like caribou, or more like moose?…ask around. If it tastes like caribou, I am with you. Tofu tacos for me. I didn’t even like the smell of the one caribou roast I had to cut up.
If it tastes like moose, the go for it. A little worchestershire sauce, and moose tastes like cow to me!
thankfully my husband does not bring home road kill, but we have butchered many a deer on our dining room table!! and we have ground our fair share of venison in the grinder attachment for my kitchen-aid mixure! i didn’t think i’d ever get used to eating venison, but i did, and it didn’t take long, surprisingly… i actually really like it now…and it is very healthy compared to beef! 🙂
You know what? I got nothing.
I can’t come close to being half as interesting as the people at your Walmart or the people in your comments section.
But I can assure you, that the butchering/cleaning/grinding part… is slightly more nauseating than being woken up at Dark 0’Thirty by the overwhelming odor of elk urine perfume that your husband douses himself in just prior to kissing you goodbye.
GAH.
The worst I’ve had to do is butcher a cow (I lived for a while in a remote village in Africa – the nearest store was 2 days drive). Believe me, when you’ve had fresh beef smell in your nose and blood and bits all over you for a whole day even best steak smells and tastes awful. The next day is good though!
Love the squirrel story!
Pretty much just grossed out…I helped my dad with a deer once and threw up. It was the smell….OH. THE. SMELL.
Yeah, we do the deer thing here. It hasn’t ever bothered me before, but for some reason this year I have not been able to handle the blood. Just opening up a package of ground venison has me ready to hit the ground. Totally have to mentally take myself somewhere else! And, of course, hubs has NEVER been as focused on filling the freezer as he is this year. We have some elk and some bear in the freezer that was given to us but I can’t even make myself touch the stuff, let alone think about cooking it.
And our WalMart usually only offers the guys dressed in skirts, so I guess we have that going for us!
Yesterday morning a squirrel was making such a racket in our backyard. Screeching and making sounds I’ve never heard a squirrel make. I don’t think I could ever eat one. They are so rodent-y. ewwwww.
Congrats for joining in the grinding and kudos for looking cute while doing so : )
Oh. My. Goodness. I think I would be glad that Earl didn’t bring his wife along, although maybe she could have made short work of some of your rabbit population! I grew up with a hunter father, I remember plucking geese with my mother, but I don’t remember anything about the deer so perhaps my father took care of that himself. My husband recently asked my mom if she still had my dads hunting rifles because he might like them… ????!!!!! Luckily she gave them to my uncle many years ago. Whew! We continue to get our meat from Costco. 🙂
Rats! And by rats I mean ‘I don’t have a butchering story’ not ‘I butchered a rat.’ : )
We only talked about how to properly select and kill a deer so that it has a less “game-y” taste at our house. Something about not letting them run too much and getting a good clean kill shot, I guess.
Maybe you could tell David you will only eat/help butcher the elk if he can prove he took it down in the appropriate manner to make it taste less ‘game-y.’
why? why would you go out there!!!?!! geesh.
And as for people telling you to be grateful…I’m mad at all of them UNLESS they too have butchered their own meat. Then they have room to talk. Otherwise, they’re just being high and mighty with their grocery store proteins.
Wow, I can think of nothing to say other than WOW!
peepee shivers~
You must really be in love. I just can’t picture you with raw elk meat in a garage with a dead beast. So I’m proud and disgusted equally. Aaaaand you made a ukulele out of cardboard. What a woman!
My husband is a hunter. Not so much now that we’re in TX and not in WY anymore, but I’ve been there, done that! I use to avoid my in-laws house during hunting season. “No, I do not want to see all the dead animals hanging in the garage!” and I usually was able to miss out on the butchering/grinding up of meat. I do have to say that I didn’t mind eating it, elk or deer. Ground up it all tastes (mostly) the same. I do miss it now when I’m cringing at paying over $2 per pound for hamburger. 🙁 Now my husband has taken to hunting hogs and I have more than enough hog sausage. Anyone want some? Oh, and a lovely hog head on my wall! I’d take a deer head or two over that ugly thing.
My brother and his family moved from Florida to Tennessee four years ago. The girls never knew rural life till then. And they moved to their own little Ruralville, there is literally nothing else there but a few scattered people. The girls have to go to school in the next town. My brother and sister in law love it, they hunt, fish, blah blah blah. Freaked the girls out the first time they had to eat deer. Both decided to become vegetarians lol. Wasn’t gonna happen, my brother says eat it or starve. Now they both are little country gals. My mom goes to visit them, first thing she wants is them to hunt her up a couple of squirrels for dinner, ugh, yuck, ewww and every other disgusting sound I can think of.
OM GOSH!!! Run, don’t walk, get out while you can! Stay in TN/ATL. No one should have to grind/much less eat elk meat! PHEW!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I sure hope Santa Claus is good to you for having to do that kind of thing! I’ll pray for you (and your dad!). LOL!
Oh my. I agree. ATL is where I am from and now I relate to the whole story that was just told. I still can’t believe that I know what you’re referring to in ruralville. I used to be a real city girl who only would eat meat out of packages. I never ever knew you could even buy a cow (all nicely packaged of course) from someone. And, I even know the cow you were talking about is not a moo cow. Oh my. I think I need a trip to ATL stat!!! Have fun in TN!!!
Thank you for not posting pictures of this adventure.
That is all.