Big Black Dog
Platinum Member
- May 20, 2009
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There is no shortage of deer on our farm here in northwestern Illinois. They do alot of damage to our corn every year - in excess of $2,000.00 easy. Because I am a landowner, and pay the taxes on the farm, I get four deer tags from the state every year for free. The wife also gets four deer tags from the state for free too. So, we harvest 8 deer a year from the farm. I love venison and will usually put a whole deer in the freezer and then we give the other seven away to various friends who like it but don't hunt. I've got my eye on a couple of nice bucks that I've been seeing a lot of here of late. You can get a deer here on our farm in about 20 minutes or less on most days. About those racks... While it is nice to get one with a big rack, so far I haven't found a really good recipe for cooking these racks up so it makes no real difference to me if it is a buck or a doe. Whichever deer happens along has the bad day. Sometimes it's a buck, sometimes it a doe.
I'm right above you in southwestern Wisconsin in the Wisconsin River Valley. There's so many damn deer around here it's pathetic. You can drive darn near any one of the hundreds of old back roads around here and see HERDS of deer, in the middle of the day even. On friend I have up on the ridge, hell I have to be careful driving down the farm driveway so I don't hit a deer. I can just imagine what it would be like if there was no deer season... my God... they'd over run the state.
I usually have my venison made up 50/50 with beef and beer fat to make burger, and then the rest made into deer salami, and I can eat the hell otta that stuff.
There's a really good place nearby that I take mine to and have about half of the deer made into sausage and the rest ground up to use in making chili, burgers, etc. I like the typical deer roast with potatos, carrots and onions too. Actually, there is very few ways that it can be fixed that I don't like. I like the taste and it's really good lean meat. The only thing is the antlers. Still haven't figured out a way to cook them up so they can be eaten. Just kidding. I have a friend that uses the antlers to make ink pens and they are really nice to have.