Austin harvested his first deer of the season last week. He and Chatter asked The Deer Hunter to show them how to can the meat.
I loved hearing him share his knowledge with the newlyweds.
Chatter has learned much this year about putting up food.
Chatter and Chitter both helped us with the garden and preserving food when they were growing up. The Deer Hunter and I always felt it was important that they learn where food comes from and the work it takes to get it onto your plate.
They weren’t always exactly happy to help, but today they have great memories from those days.
From the time Chitter cut the tendon in her finger while shucking corn with the knife her daddy told her not to touch to fighting with deer hooves at hunting camp many of their memories are tied to those days of working for the good of the family.
I was the same way when I was a girl. I helped, but I often drug my feet while doing so.
Once I was married I wanted to do all the things Pap and Granny did when it came to gardening and preserving food. Even though I’d helped them my whole life its different when you’re doing it all on your own. I’d call them ten times a day to ask about something when I first started out. Today Chatter does the same thing to me. It makes my heart sing to see her excitement about gardening and preserving food for her and Austin.
Last night’s movie: How to Roast Green Beans and Why We Grow Rattlesnake Beans.
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We love to pass on these types of skills to anyone who is interested. We have taught people how to make summer sausage, can, garden, make vinegar, soap, yogurt, raise animals, sew/quilt, process animals, etc… This weekend we had our annual cider making bash. We order a pallet load of apples and jugs. Its like an old corn husking. People bring a dish to pass and a jug. They help chop, grind, press & bottle cider. We have a fire & weinie roast, hay rides & music. Anyone who wants to, can take a jug of fresh pressed cider home. Its a lot of work, but people are amazed to learn how to do it & willingly join the work. Kids tend to be the most enthusiastic apple choppers. We even had a good friend who suffered a stroke (& is somewhat debilitated) offer to run the grinder & he did a great job. You learn a lot more than just how to ‘process deer’ or ‘can meat’ or ‘make cider’ when you offer these lessons. And you make other people feel important when you ask them to teach you. If we don’t keep passing these things on, they die.
Congratulations to Austin for getting his first deer of the season! It’s wonderful that Austin and Corie are wanting to learn how to can their deer meat. Corie has learned a lot this summer growing her own garden and preserving what she’s grown while helping in your garden too, Tipper.. These are life skills that all children, young, old, and in between should learn. Austin and Corie will be thankful they took the time to learn these life skill.
Would you happen to have recipe on dill pickles baby corn? If you do would you please contact me?
Sincerely Tammy Sue Thomas
Thank you so much. I just learned of your page and I’m excited to learn more.
Thank you,
Tammy Sue Thomas
Tammy Sue-I’m sorry I don’t have a recipe. Glad you found my blog and hope you enjoy it!!
Great video yesterday, Tipper! Thank You!
I grew up eating green beans cooked slowly in a pot with potatoes, new potatoes if they were available. I don’t think I’ve eaten the roasted, but that will change after learning how it’s done from your video.
On the subject of canning venison, I have no experience of it or canning any meat. I have canned vegetables and fruit and jellies, jams and preserves. At 80, I’m too old to hunt deer because I wouldn’t be able to get it out of the field, which leads to my question. Does Matt field dress deer he harvests? Does he process the carcass or us a processing house? Here in Texas, a lot of deer are harvested each year. In our area there are several places that will process and package the meat for you.
Blessings to all . . .
Robert-thank you! Matt processes his own deer. He’s way to picky to let a processor do it 🙂
That is exactly how we are. The first year we lived back on my homestead, we let a friend hunt. My husband had never hunted before that & hadn’t gained it as a hobby, yet. The friend gave us some venison in exchange for the use of our property. He has his ‘professionally’ done. It was horrible – gamey! But I had eaten good venison at my uncle’s house. When my hubby started hunting, my uncle showed him how to do it all himself. Our venison is AMAZING! Most people think it is beef. Its all in the trimming! You must get all that silver skin & tallow out of there. We are soooo picky. Even when we have had sausage or canned venison from others, we don’t like the taste. I will say, though, that the first year my husband learned to hunt we were so poor that we ate ALOT of venison. I was pregnant at the time & the smell/flavor didn’t sit right with me & it got where I would have to pick it out of what I was eating. I was so overdone on it. Luckily, that wasn’t permanent.
Interesting, as we are butchering a nice 11 point, that my husband harvested this past Monday, on this Saturday. This is a time honored tradition in our family. Our eldest son and grandson are coming to help. At 81 years old, we appreciate a few extra hands. There was a time the two of us did 3 in one day. We bone out everything, and freeze our hamburger and sausage meat in ice cream pails and then do our grinding at a later date when we have butchered several deer/or the season is over. Our son likes to make several different kinds of sausage.
Bow hunting started a week ago and our water ponds are dry. We really need water and so do the deer. We put in a cooler many years ago, for these early season harvests. Aging is very important, so usually butcher 5-7 days post kill.
It’s wonderful to see Austin and Corie listening to good, sound advice. That will go with them the rest of their lives. We always want our children to be able to make it on their own when we are long gone from this world. Austin and Corie will also pass their knowledge on to their children and so it continues. That’s what we did here at home, and we see the results and it makes us so proud just like I know you and Matt are!! Have a blessed day everyone!!
Tipper, do you have a video showing how to can deer?
My Mom didn’t do much canning, and certainly no meat. I’m learning, 58 and just now learning, never to old right?
my husband and I hunt, always look forward to that first deer of the season! good stuff!
sure do appreciate your posts and videos! thank you!
Lisa-I do 🙂 Here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfrvcACZGpo
It’s so wonderful that your daughter and son-in-law want to learn how to preserve their food. In today’s world its so important to know how to preserve your food, know where it comes from and how to take care of it. We are so far removed from our food sources and that is not a good thing. I didn’t grow up with real gardens, just tomato plants and flowers for the most part, but that did plant the seed so when I got out on my own I had the desire to learn. My former mother-in-law got me started and she taught me the basics of canning. From there I’ve learned from books and other important people in my life. Now we have 2 out of our 5 that are gardening and learning to preserve their food. It makes my heart warm knowing they will know how to take care of themselves if times do truly get hard in the future.
I come from a military family, so we couldn’t take jars of food when we moved, which was often. But my grandparents and aunts/ uncles hunted and canned. I guess I learned from watching them, because as soon as I was married I started putting up food with help from the Joy of Cooking and Ball Canning books. My grandma always canned venison because it made it tender.
Congratulations to Austin!! Your girls are very special! Take care and God bless ❣️
No better way to fall asleep than by thinking how good the bed feels after a hard day working in the garden. I go to sleep tired not anxious, thankful not wishing, happy with accomplishments not sad with should-have-dones. Joy in gardening is a blessed gift from God (Ecclesiastes 3.12-13) that comes with age and wisdom gained – what a gift to learn from parents/grand parents that garden. It makes my heart happy to read the comments on your blog as they are a group of wise, good people that care and find joy in real things. Congratulations for creating this community for the benefit of all your readers!
That know-how will stand them in good stead in their lives. They will always know how to grow and store their own food and that will keep them from being at the mercy of circumstances. And that is a source of peace of mind.
I love to hunt and I look forward to deer season every year. It’s great to see other folks hunting and harvesting deer and learning yo preserve the meat for future use.
The words – they were not always happy to help- brings back memories to me and I suspect for a lot of others of my generation. Me and others have mentioned many times on the blog about growing and preserving almost all of the food we ate when growing up, very little was bought in a grocery store. Others mentioned not long ago about hoeing big fields of corn. Speaking for myself and probably a lot of other children too, I was not always happy to help either but after a dose of hickory tea, (no it was not anything to drink, but it would make you dance) I changed my attitude real quick. My parents and the parents of the other children were not mean, it was just important for everyone to help. I thank God for parents that loved me enough to teach me to work. I also think it is great for Chitter, Chatter and Austin to want to learn to preserve their food and not take the easy way out of running to the grocery store or fast food restaurant for everything like so many do today. The older people not only worked physical demanding jobs but would come home and work in large gardens to raise their food because a lot of the jobs didn’t pay very much. Tipper, my wife would often ask either her mother or my mother how to cook or preserve things when we first married.
Gloria, I left a reply to your reply for me on yesterday’s blog. It was late last night.
Tipper … that’s how you KNOW you and Matt did a mighty fine job of raising your daughters. 🙂
I love to see the relationship you all have with each other. I LOVE that the girls want to hang out with and get advice from you and Matt. I think that is a very rare thing these days. You have a VERY special family – God has been so good to you all and I know you are most thankful to Him.
Mint2Bee-thank you for the kind words!!
Mint2Bee, I never thought much about how much we liked to spend time together with either my family or my wife’s larger family In my wife’s family there was 5 girls, 5 son in laws and 8 grandchildren. Very few Sunday’s went by when by bedtime on Sunday night, all of us had not been by either on Sunday afternoon or after church on Sunday night to see them. Some of the best times of my life was spent being with my father in law. I think the future holds many happy times for Austin and the Deer Hunter. I like to joke about this, read 5 girls, a wife and one bathroom, even though Paw has been gone now for 10 years, small trees and bushes still will not grow around the edge of his backyard! 3 of the grandchildren were also girls. To me , no amount of money or success is worth more than being able to spend time with family.
It has been such a joy to see Chatter so happily married to Austin and then this summer she has jumped in with both feet learning all about canning and otherwise preserving food. These are long time family skills and ways, and the girl has just jumped in with both feet.
I love the photo of Chatter and Austin listening to the Deer Hunter teach them how to process the meat from the deer he killed. This is certainly one generation passing the torch to the next generation. It is a beautiful thing to behold!
I just LOVE the photo of the Newlyweds looking at intently and hanging on every word of Daddy! It shows me they are taking in all dear daddy has to share with them. I hope the canned deer is tender and tasty and Austin and Chatter are able to enjoy wonderful meals talking and dreaming of their future. I hated being in the garden myself as a teen because I thought I was special. What a rude awakening awaited me, right? (I am special but only in Jesus.) I know the newlyweds are going to be just fine because they care and are working hard together to make a family home. Tipper and Deer Hunter take a bow and savor pride for a moment. You’ve done a fine job and continue to be fine parents! It looks like Deer Hunter 2 has arrived!