Thread: Getting back to living off the land.....

Your hunting mate is a lot tidier than any of mine. A lot less facial hair. You are doing good work.

Originally Posted by Flyblown

Everything on these plates was produced off our wee Waikato block, with the exception of the cheese which was made by our very cheese-iferous expert neighbour.

Beef, salad & veg, spuds. Nowt more required.

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We had a pig that kept getting into the garden. It was a bugger of a thing and would even push under an electric wire. So in the end I killed it for pork instead of growing it out for bacon.
My wife took great pride in her garden and the abundant veggies. One evening when we were having a pork dinner wife said to the kids "everything on your plate is out of the garden!".
"Yes" 4 year old replied "even the pig".

@CheekiBreeki Yup; east Taranaki

The best thing about being able to go hunting on a regular basis again is that I've been able to give so much meat away to the people that have helped me out over the last few years; very satisfying ��

Venison Scotch fillet seasoned with pepper, rosemary and thyme searing in the frying pan.

Good on you. Sharing the catch is great public relations for all hunters in general. Thank you.

Originally Posted by Coote

Good on you. Sharing the catch is great public relations for all hunters in general. Thank you.

It is. I gave 2 back legs and 10kgs of mince away from those 2 deer we got a couple of weeks ago. And from the little goat I shot 3 weeks ago gave away the back legs and made up a big curry to take to friends with everything else bar the loins and fillets. Goat gone; but replaced yesterday..... ;-)

I give away meat too. Some folks give feedback, but I don't hear anything back from others. I get the occasional deer, but mostly it has been pigs, possums and goats. I often cut up the 2nd grade meat and boil up these chunks for people's pets.

The goat above today.... All the goats are in beautiful condition at the moment. Mind you, they tend to be in good nick in the valley I hunt. The shoulders will be used for curry tomorrow night

Nice tidy skinning job.

punched more than knived by the looks of it...very tidy job indeed.
if you put a small slit/cut up by rib cage and poke end of forelegs through it it does two things...helps to spread cavity open and makes your forequarter roast compact enough to fit in Mums meat dish,also makes it slide into bag easier to keep flies off,without forelegs sticking out.

Yup; punched. It's in the fridge now. I tightly wrap it in sheets and held in place with clothes pegs and hung the night in a tree (skin on). It's like my meat safe. One of the joys of being a qualified butcher is that it's easier to do it all yourself

If you punch it off from the back through to the front and incision you leave all the belly skin (aka bark) on the carcass. The trick is to get behind the bark from the legs down the back and punch towards the belly

One shoulder is now in the crockpot for curry....

That looks like a nice proper homemade spice paste, way better than the jars of tasteless bland premade sauce crap at the supermarket.

@JessicaChen The homemade spice mix makes it completely different. When my mum was ill in Middlemore Hospital we had a goat curry at a local Fiji Indian takeaway; it was absolutely delicious! I've tried to replicate it, and gotta say; it's pretty close now. The major difference is probably that they used meat on the bone. So I now cut through a few legbones and throw them in too. Also; using mutton masala mix from the local Indian greengrocer/spice shop makes a difference too. The little boxes og supermarket garam masala are crap.

I only do a curry once a week or 10-days and take it to friends for a regular curry night. I always get fed up when you mention goat meat to hunters and they always say "It makes a good curry"..... When there is so much else that can be done with it. It's so limiting to think that it's only good for a curry