Thread: Hunting Giving A Lock Down Neighborhood Hand Up

I have been lucky to have been taken under the wing of some God Fathers of Salami & Sausage making ,being retired Italian & German Chefs who l became mates with after taking them on a Tahr & Chammy hunt for ones 50th Birthday around 20 yrs ago. Every year after the freezers are full from the Roar hunts we do a couple of week end Salami & Sausage making sessions, which with the big mates/family get together & feast in the best Italian tradition.

I have come to enjoy & cherish the time as much as l used to love Xmas when the kids were growing up & being the youngest & with our Chiller & Freezer facilities on our farm l have taken on the job of setting up & running around .I enjoy it & the endless learning involved that much, rather than extending the existing farm sheds/garage we are now going to build what my missus calls the Bushy Bastards Tora Bora , on a hill at the back of the farm where we often go to watch the sun set with a cold one .

Spot for the Bushy Bastards Tora Bora


https://www.nzhuntingandshooting.co....ow-mjy0pzn.jpg

This will give me a dedicated Kitchen,Smoke house,BBQ,Pizza Oven & Chillers.I already have a second hand house kitchen from a clear out & my Kids & Lil Bro brought me a complete stainless steel BBQ,Pizza Oven,sink & bench set up for it for my 60th at the end of the year , so l can leave my old built in BBQ & pizza oven back on the farm house pool deck.



Just before this lock down , l could see way things were travelling so made the God Fathers a offer they could not refuse, of coming out & staying at the farm & doing a early Salami making session ,going for a Fallow hunt on a local property where l could do most of the transportation in my SxS to save the 70-82 yr olds having to worry about getting up & down the hills. All in a great week end,lots of laughs & great feeds,hunts & successful Salami stock up for the summer,with the boys taking home a load of fresh venison as well .



I ended up hunting down a White Fallow stag the property owner wanted removed, after unsuccessfully hunting it for a couple of years & a drone now being used by poachers in the area ,he decided he wanted it gone before it brought unwanted attention to his property. All its meat was used in the cook up mixes apart from the back straps one of the God Fathers claimed .



A month or so after l had packed up all the gear ready for our usual summer Sausage making session, the dreaded Lock Down 2.0 came into play,we are lucky to have very good neighbors on the surrounding farms & have our own little system going for years now where me & the missus have been supplying fresh Venison & cooked meals for some of the elderly neighbors & helping out a few others ,in particular a large young family whose house was damaged in the floods a few months back . We are lucky enough to be surprised ourselves , when good seasons permit to receive Honey & Seafood from a couple of those families in return .

So with Lock down dragging on & the never ending Odd Job list of any farm getting whittled down ,combined with some really shitty weather with Antarctic blasts , my missus made the suggestion to get me out of the weather we empty some of our freezers now chock full off Game after a successful Roar period extended hunt ,where we hunted basically every thing available to us lucky Buggers in Gods Country .

One of our home killers l had done & butchered just prior to age it properly for Summer/Xmas BBQ season,that trimmings ended up in the mix .




Couple of Tahr & Chammy from this trip went in as well ,Tahr at the back is just folding as the 300 Wby Mag hits in this pic .












I have found the local Venison this year has been some of the best quality l have ever had , the only thing l can put it down to is we were in nearly drought conditions down here in Gods Own & then had the "Get The Bloody Ark " flash floods & wet conditions since ,so they had fasting then clover to their bellies conditions.








Nut Job giving me the evil eye for wasting trimmings in them stupid hooman mystery bags, instead of it getting its cut.




The normal venison Casseroles we cook & freeze for our elderly neighbors for years now , they get 6 good hearty meals out of each batch .



Had a great year on the pigs that were taking full advantage of the rain soaked ground




New Custom 284W l blooded on most of this Roars hunting expeditions





So in the end we ended up making 45lbs of Venison,Pork,Thar & home killed beef Sausages,14 lbs of hamburgers & 35lbs of Mince.In typical Kiwi fashion what evolved was a Lock Down delivery system where the farm dogs & cats were put in their own Lock Down & parcels of meat were left in the back of their Farm Utes parked out the front & they would then do the same with their neighbors in need so no close contacts were needed,while many good old back of the ute catch ups were had at the ruled 6ft distancing .

In the end hunting provided 14 families with much needed supplies during another shit Lock Down & change from the same old, same old dinner choices & people got to know neighbors & for new friendships to form & they also learnt that properly prepared Game is not the tough, tasteless crap their Latte sipping, Idiot Book mates have been telling them .

good on you.......top effort.....

Awesome post. Don't even know what to say;

Awesome is all I've got.

Originally Posted by PadLo

Awesome post. Don't even know what to say;

Awesome is all I've got.

Thanks @PadLo it was a lot easier having all the proper gear sitting in the shed & freezers bursting at the seams with game . I had wanted to try out making some sausages our selves with out the God Fathers being able to point out mistakes any way,so l could confidently take on big sessions on my own .

The missus was the real trooper she had only ever helped out for a short time during our Salami & Sausage making days as the woman normally make up batches of sauces while ,we are in the Man Cave full SS kitchen Louie has set up just for it & here she was up to her elbows in it ,the only down side was she has a sick sense of humor & would nearly wet herself laughing & hold up the chain every time the sausages would blow out of the casing or she made a humongous one . She was a master on the grinder though & picked up judging the grind/mix up very quickly which is one of the secrets to getting good Sausages.Although being a retired ICU Nurse she did spend her time regaling me on gory accidents & injuries she had dealt with from similar bits of kit big & small

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

good on you.......top effort.....

Thanks @Micky Duck gotta say now our own kids have grown up ,it hard seeing young families suffering over these Lock Down cluster fucks & how it isolates the older ones as well.So when we started to hear of locals going short due to no work etc ,we were lucky to have freezers full after a great Roar period hunting season so it was a great practical way to help,the young lass with the house full of kids from the farm down the road left a beautiful letter & scarf she knitted the missus thanking us,as they really struggled .

It is funny as l would never have thought Salami & Sausage making would interest me as much as it does & l really enjoy it now , so we were already talking about a "practice" run before our usual summer session,we just never thought it would be 10 times as big as planned

I really enjoy the fact making the Salami & Sausage makes us practically self sufficient & like to night can make things like these pizza's with the majority coming from our own farm & Game ,with our own fresh vegetables & Ham,Prosciutto,Salami & Chorizo etc .

Getting use to the new SS Pizza Oven for the new Man Cave build , after having used our old built in brick one for over a decade.



Home made Venison,Tahr,Chammy & Wild Pork Salami & Chorizo Pizza

my older bro has built himself a pizza oven...he cooking ALLSORTS in it when he has days off....keeps it heat so sounds like just about anything is possible.
straight mince is always a good easy thing to give away...pretty hard to cock up the cooking of it.

@Micky Duck Yeh we have still got our brick pizza oven on the patio we have used a lot for all things over the years ,the missus makes lovely rolls & bread in it after the main cook .
If l am working up the back of the Farm doing a bit of clearing & burning ,l often do up a Old School Camp oven stew etc & do it in the coals of the burn piles & then finish it off in the Pizza oven with the lid off to reduce & make gravy ,when l get back & it is all done while l have a shower & grab a beer ,like these Fallow Shanks l did a while ago.



These Stainless ones are just a bit different how they heat up & cool ,that's why l have been practicing in it as it will be going into the new Man Cave build up the back & we just keep the old inbuilt brick Pizza oven & BBQ for me & the missus during the week .

The missus is going to have a crack at a Pavlova in the new SS one this week end, as she has it down pat making them in the old one, cant wait as it is one of my favorite deserts .

Bloody fantastic.
Legendary stuff well done.