Trying to make room in my 3 freezers full of fish and venison. Believe a good season is coming. Had backstrap from an 8 pointer killed last season.
Made more room clearing out my coon meat supply. Have a friend that loves it in exchange to hunt on his land. A dozen or so coon for hunting rights. I'll do that all day long. He'll place a big order for super bowl. Plus I get paid for trapping them.
Might call a church and see if any members need some meat. As long as it's ate. I'm good.
Sarge

Nice problem to have.

Here they have the Hunters Helping The Hungry program but the hungry are so spoiled with grocery store meat that they won't eat deer meat so it's free to anybody that will take it. Lots of jerky eaten around here.

Jerky , both flat and stick sounds good. Lots of it.

Sadly that happens all over. It turns out that people that are to lazy to work, are also to lazy to cook anything but the easiest prepared meals.

Keith

I was in the Lions Club and we would raise money and give groceries to the needy at Christmas. I was also the garbage man that saw that food in the trash if it required preparation. Sad deal. You just can't help some people.

Those people should not be helped or encouraged to make more people like them. They are parasites and obviously not starving.

Keith

Usually don't have too much leftover meat. I've figured out the wife, kid and I eat about 2 deer a year on top of the beef and pork I get. If I do, I've had hickory sticks/summer sausage/snack stick made. Always a hit to break out at a cookout, party, whatever. Easier to give away than frozen meat too.


I've worked with a few hunter helping the hungry food donation deals. If your freezer is full of 7 yr old O-ring steaks that are freezer burnt, no one wants them and they will taste horrible even if ground into sausage sticks.

Yep, freezer burnt meat goes to the dogs. Venison sticks are looking very doable this year. Lots of grinds.
I usually shoot 6-7 deer on average every year. Sometimes more. Nothing goes to waste. Plus about 100-150 pounds of blue cat filets.

You'd be surprised at some people that come to our food shelf. One person sent back some Mac & Cheese because it wasn't Kraft. Bring back soups that weren't Campbells. There are other stories similar to that.
I agree in saying how bad do they really need food? Problem is you can't turn anyone away. Years ago, we could verify their income. Not anymore, that's a no-no. If they come for food we must serve them.
On the other hand, most of the people are needy and very grateful for what they get.

We have several pantries in our area and many are supported by area chuches and businesses. Since COVID we have noticed a change and more pantries are seeing more shortages of sanitary items then in the past. Sure food is a big item and yes one may as well accept that most families don't have experience with raising or home grown or fresh food. This is even in a very rural area where I live. In the last 6 years there are about 10 new owners in the area I walk past. There used to be 9 gardens and today there are none.
In WI we can donate venison and a decade or so ago a lot was donated. Today very little is as the hunter needs to pay for the processing. It is cheaper to send the place a $50 check then to donate the venison.

Bryce

A lot of our processors take deer in if they aren’t wanted by the hunter. I know we probably donate 40-50 a year and spread it out through different processors in our area. Most processors have a list of folks that don’t hunt but want venison. The processor closest to us called my son and I towards the end of season saying he still had folks that wanted deer and if we hadn’t met our numbers he’d take whatever we could bring him.

Public service announcement...you make room in your freezers by eating the game you've killed, not by pawning it off on somebody else cause " you feel a good season coming"....

And if you've got 3 freezers full and can't consume it or pawn it off genius, maybe you shouldnt shoot 6-7 deer a year. Kill what you can consume and no more.

To each their own. Have a nice holiday. Stay safe, not angry.
Sarge