Hunting for protein

I am a carnivore. Though I don’t need to eat meat with every meal and actually am a regular consumer of salads and brown rice and veggies.
Until I met Curt I was a little weirded out by the idea of venison. But now I love it. I love it as burger, tenderloin, jerky, pepperoni sticks …
And venison is a protein. You know how I love my protein. And it is a very lean meat with very little fat.
According to Livestrong, wild venison can have 35 g protein per 4-ounce serving and contains about 120 calories.
Before I met Curt I (in my ignorance) I assumed anyone with a gun was a crazy nut job. Yes, I am from Arizona. But I never grew up around guns and am not comfortable around them.
For at least the past five years in a row (and a few other times tricked in) Curt and I have traveled to Missouri for the opening of deer season.
I have had many conversations with people who can’t believe we hunt Bambi. My response usually is, well, you eat meat, right? And it is safer and healthier than anything you buy at the grocery. And if you want organic, how much more organic can you get? (And for the record, I don’t hunt. I stay in the warm house and knit with my mother-in-law.)
And the goal is to maintain deer numbers at levels that serve the best interest of the Missouri (or whatever state you are in) public, according to the Missouri Department of Conservation.
Last year both Curt and his brother each got a doe. So this year the family didn’t need a lot of meat. Curt did get a doe and that is all the meat we need this year.
So as a family we decided if either of them got a second deer this season we would donate it to Share the Harvest, which is a program where hunters can donate venison to those who need it. The hunter is still responsible for the cost of processing the deer. If the whole deer is donated the processing cost is reduced.
We didn’t donate this year. But I love that we have that option. You can’t say that is a bad thing now, can you?