Why I Hunt

As a hunter, particularly as someone who started late in life, it’s common to get the question: “Why do you hunt when you can just buy meat?” or to hear “People no longer need to hunt, it’s barbaric in the modern world.” Of course, I have a sequence of somewhat canned responses. “It’s important for me to know where my food comes from” or “It keeps me connected to the ecology of the place where I live.” or even “It’s the most free-ranging, organic meat a person can get, and this animal’s life was wild and free”. Now, however, with meat shortages beginning to be seen and felt around the country, hunting has suddenly acquired some renewed relevancy in the eyes of the public.

Consider it. These two turkeys — just average 20 lb toms — when butchered with care, yielded over 15 meals for my wife and I, plus several for our dog too.

Photo from Instagram @DanielVitalis

Four packages of breasts, plus two packages of breast-flanks, each more than enough protein for two. Two packages are the “tenders”, just like the chicken tenders — only bigger and better. The large bowl is 7 pounds of ground dark meat from the legs, wings, back, and neck. It takes some time to trim it all out but I’m a meticulous butcher and it brings me a lot of joy and satisfaction to do it. The smaller bowl — 5 lbs — is for my dog, it’s the ground bits of connective tissue and meat that I’ve pulled off the carcass and bones. Then there’s the feet, which I’ll blanch to remove the skin, then use for a rich stock.

What you don’t see here are the hearts, livers, and gizzards — which we’ve already eaten, and the bones which we’ll use for more stock.

In other words, just two turkeys supply us with over half a month’s worth of the most conscientious meat a person could have.

That’s why I Hunt.