Harvesting Your Own Deer Meat
Harvesting Your Own Deer Meat Save Email Print
Posted: 4:33 PM Nov 21, 2008
Last Updated: 4:46 PM Nov 21, 2008
Reporter: Bill Murray
Email Address: bill.murray@wsaz.com

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HAMLIN, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- Think lean protein and you have to look no further than out the window.

That's because in many parts of our region, deer season is coming up. Extension offices around the region are hearing a lot more buzz about people keeping it in their own freezers rather than donating their harvest.

At a family nutrition class put on by the county extension office in Hamlin in Lincoln County, the talk is of deer as a cheap protein for a lot of people.

"One deer will last us three or four weeks if we eat it constantly," Mary Page of Lincoln County said.

The goal here is to help people eat well and save money. Hunting season is nearly here. Last year, enough were harvested to feed almost one out of every ten families in West Virginia. And with times tight, the expectation is more of what you see here will end up on someone's plate.

"Out of all the food dollars spent 12% of all food is thrown away. That's a devestating amount of food that's wasted every year," Rita Searls, a nutrition outreach instructor, said.

If you're going to can it, remember deer meat has to be in a pressure canner.

The most common reason to can deer is for chili. But the extension office says grinding it would be a mistake.

Nutritionists say buying an equivalent of hamburger meat in a store could cost you $150 compared to harvesting your own deer.

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Posted by: missy on Nov 23, 2008 at 11:12 PM
all I want to know is how do you can it ?? how do you find out the right ways to cut it up yourself? is all of it good to eat? liver, and all ? I have a family of five, a working family...& we love deer meat, we only freeze it grounded or by the roast...don't know more than that to use or for what...got any info, on this to share..anyone ? It saves a bundle of money, just don't kil and leave it, eat it !! Just looking for more good info on ways to can it and such....

Posted by: billy on Nov 22, 2008 at 11:59 PM
rob i would like to know how to get in touch with you i would give you some venison burger

Posted by: to cs on Nov 22, 2008 at 10:33 PM
all i can say is why did you go to bed hungry when obviously you had enough money to pay for a computer and internet sevrvice to write that comment.

Posted by: Rob on Nov 22, 2008 at 03:42 PM
I for one love ground deer meat, but I am not able to hunt so I very very rarely get to enjoy it. There is nothing wrong with killing game to eat, it's the senseless shoot 'em and leave 'em I hate.

Posted by: Winthrop on Nov 22, 2008 at 02:50 PM
I wouldn't want to be around Jason if his diet consists soley of beans. Talk about stinky meat!

Posted by: ilene on Nov 22, 2008 at 01:11 PM
what in the world are u guys going on about? my husband wore his old work clothes .got off from work had his gun with him looked up in the hill and saw a deer pulled off and shot it .what was so exspensive about that ?oh u can go to great measures my brothers do but its all bull how much did that meat cost? the price of a bullet. and we can feed are family about a month on that .how much meat can u buy in a store for that price?

Posted by: red on Nov 21, 2008 at 09:34 PM
Jason if you spend that much money on a hunting trip your stupid. I have not spent that much in 15 years. 300 dollar rifle and 20 dollars for ammo. one box will last several seasons. Transportation is by foot travel, if your not lazy. What gear are you talking about? Clothing, I killed my deer in a pair of blue jeans and a 5 dollar blaze orange vest, but a camo suit is about 60 dollars. What are you thinking? That all hunters are on the outdoor channel. Come on. 385.00 dollars is what I have spent for the last several years, go to the grocery store and see how much meat you can buy for that. I eat meat my family eats meat. Do not tell someone to change their lifestyle just because you do not agree on shooting bambi. I would never try to get you to eat meat if you do not eat it..

Posted by: Jason on Nov 21, 2008 at 09:13 PM
Hey! Don't use my name in vain! Deer meat is awesome and should only be killed for the meat in my opinion. I would say that it is also probably one of the stinkiest meats as well. I don't know why WV even buys beef. After they hit it with their car leave it on the engine and serve it to your kids when you get home from work.

Posted by: Jason on Nov 21, 2008 at 08:37 PM
My grandfather tells me that during the Great Depression you could not find any wild deer. - People were eating them ! They were all gone !

Posted by: billy on Nov 21, 2008 at 07:50 PM
cant wait till monday good luck hunters get over it tree huggers

Posted by: billy on Nov 21, 2008 at 07:48 PM
cant wait till monday to kill a deer (tree huggers beware of banging pots and pans around my tree stand,i might shoot more than a deer)best of luck to all hunters

Posted by: CS on Nov 21, 2008 at 06:12 PM
some people wasn't born with a silver spoon in their mouths, they depend on this food to feed their families, what you need to think upon is the ones who like to kill for the fun of it, or who has got the biggest trophy, think of the ones who does not have enough food to feed their families, have you gone to bed hungry? some use what they had from last year or maby the year before, conservitive people use what they got.

Posted by: Jason on Nov 21, 2008 at 04:49 PM
Stop eating meat if you want to save money. Cut out the middle man and buy fat-free beans and vegetables. Not even hunting breaks even on calories per dollar. After you pay for the gun(s), ammo, transportation, gear, clothing, etc., you've blown about $2k. $2k worth of food lasts a long, long time.

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The Yell: Comments for the Week of 7/5
  • Posted By: to food for thoughti think you have solved the mystery on m.t.r.obama pay back of the unions.lets see if the so called news investigates this theory.but aren,t news media union too.wont hear any thing from them.left up to the peons and peasants to bring up truth ful news.
  • Posted By: KeithAnon. it would seem Big Earl is sick of you too. And Food for Thought, great comment, Cecil Roberts is a joke and a sorry excuse for a labor leader he seems to as big a dunce as his buddy Obama. Look at the union under him and figure it out. So hows the hope and change working for everyone? Another half million jobs lost in June. Trace it back folks, the economy went belly up when it bacame apparent the democrat party was going to nominate a radical, ignorant, inexperienced marxist to their ticket. Economists tell us that full employment is considered at an unemployment rate of 4.7%, a year ago unemployment was at 5%. But you all know, Bush was soooo stupid. Look at how the war in Iraq turned out...ooops can't use that one, look at how great the economy is now...oops, can't use that one...well everybody hated us when Bush was in office and now everybody just loooves us and helps us out in the world, well, oops, look at N. Korea, Iran, can't use that one. Some of you really got fooled.
  • Posted By: Bob & MegWhat I want to know is how many times does the water company have to be notified that water is coming up from the street on East Gardner Ave. in Belle? Bugs are getting bad and sometimes it has a sewer smell to it. Get on the ball WVAWC!
  • Posted By: politically correct againdo video on left wing coal protesters,tea party ,a grudgeing few sentences.i wrote a longer anynallyse,but i dont see it,it must have been too much truth for liberal left wing so called reporting.but we do have some truth seeker else where,they,re catching on.....
  • Posted By: jescoWhat a disappointment the Ashland Summer Motion was for our children. No focus on the children whatsoever...........The hospitals were the main focus along with the motorcycle show..... very little for the children to enjoy. HUGE DISAPPOINTMENT!!!!
  • Posted By: Ben ChambersYOUR DECISION TO SHOW MJ FUNERAL IN PLACE OF DAYS IS VERY POOR AND NOT WELL THOUGHT OUT. YOU SHOULD BE ASHAME. MAYBE A NEW PROGRAM DIRECTOR IS IN ORDER.
  • Posted By: RE: Worm in Water If you will Google "hair worm", you will be given millions of pages of information concerning the hair worm. There used to be a myth that a horse hair put in water would turn into a worm. From experience, it doesn't work.
  • Posted By: food for thoughtWSAZ I ask of you please do a a follow up story of the 6 weeks of rain that we had so some of these people who have forgotten will have some miniscule sense of thereselves to know that ALL THAT RAIN would cause flooding anywhere. Here is another story. Find UMWA president MR. Roberts and ask him why he hasn't come out and had his brothers and sisters to be involved in keeping there MTR jobs.All these people that say Massey is a Union breaking company should be worried in salvaging the jobs they do have. It's not rocket science, UMWA supports Obama, in return Obama may reward them. This may be from left field but believe I am on to something. Isn't it strange the protesters only target Massey. Most of them are led to believe there are NO union jobs in WV. HOW STRANGE!? Here is the hunch I have WV politicians don't like Don B and the Union supports Obama. So sounds like a money trail to me for the hippies. Just a thought, but makes for good reporting. Big Earl lets make the idea reality!
  • Posted By: To Fat EarlYou're losing! Ha,Ha!
  • Posted By: DianeBuck, I agree. When it comes to kids playing sports (not just in the summer), the parents are CRAZY! They just need to "cut the cord" and allow their children, the refs, and coaches worry about the games. Now if you have a parent who is a coach just watch out...that is a double wammy!
  • Posted By: jbugi saw on the news this morning obama is in russia and he took the family,people are upset about gov of south carolinia takeing a trip on taxpayers money,witch he agreed to payback, is obama going to pay for his familys plane tickets,hotel bill,food and entertainment or will it us taxpayers.....
  • Posted By: I for one am sick and tired of reading the same bs that big earl keeps spewing out. All you ever hear is peta, tree huggers, hippies. People who made a difference in this world and who are smart enough to care, should be honored instead of being bashed by some people who have the mentality of the monkeys who they believed they evolved from. also big earl keep on believing that your idol, who you worship and adore so much is smarter than a nasa scientist, apparently you haven't been around any smart people.
  • Posted By: bias obiousif anyone has had a dought about left wing liberal news bias,heres a glaring clue.anti coal party,news,with video.tea party,productive people concerned with socialism,taxed into poverty,a czar run government,etc,no video ,a disintrested report,yawn,yawn,yawn.thankfully we now have an alternative to this liberal bias with conservative talk radio,internet news ,alternate t.v. etc.there is a good article on world net daily about the vietnam war.hollywood was running the war then too.
  • Posted By: buckwhy is it w/ summer sports it seems the parents make it all about them instead of the kids. am i wrong or do alot of these parents seem to want to relive life again through the kids. or even worse make a claim to being so good at whatever the sport the parent did that they push the kid all because of what they did 'or never did'. These parents also seem to be the really high ego type person. funny thing is if the parent was so good then why arent they pro or at least a great college player. what i have noticed is the the kids w/ the parent who did play college or was on the verge of being pro does not press the issue. they allow the kids to play ball. just my opinion
  • Posted By: Big EarlWell hello again good working coal people of WV this is Big Earl and I hope everyone had a nice holiday wouldn’t it be nice if we could have a holiday or one of them permenant vacations from all the tree hugger types and hippies that are barging into our communities uninvited tying to run all our jobs off. Well good people I am calling on those who have the means to do so and you know who you are so lets pony up some cash and have our own protest here in the coal fields to support our coal miners. I seen on this very TV station where the tree huggers held a rally and a cookout with a bunch of Grateful Dead hippie wanttobees singing about the trees and polar bears but we can do one better. We can have it down at the coal festival in Madison people I say invite some real singers who aint got above there raisin like WV adopted son Mr. Charlie Daniels and how about Alabama since they have coal down there to. Invite Gov. Joe and them people from Washington DC that is a good way to find out who is pretending to be a friend of coal and who is really on our side. We could even make Mother Jones bobblehead dolls to give away I for one would like to see her set loose on these tree huggers that have invaded Cabin Creek trying to run off her beloved coal miners. You could pull a string and she would say #** !!##**!! Tree huggers.
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